Astrid Van Der Veen

Astrid van der Veen (February 26, 1986, The Netherlands) was still very young when she started writing her first poems, created her own melodies and songs, sung and played her own music and the piano. When she was about 10 years old, she started with her singing lessons. The first two years those lessons where mostly in classical singing, after that followed three years of light music. She also liked playing in musicals and participating in songfestivals. She got the opportunity to record her first cd when she was 14 years old, and recorded Beautiful Red in 2000.

Arjen Anthony Lucassen heard this Beautiful Red album and called Astrid to ask her to sing 2 songs on his new instrumental project called Ambeon. Finally the album contained only 2 instrumental songs. The rest of the songs all featured Astrid's vocals. The album Fate of a Dreamer (2001) has sold worldwide.
?Temple of the Cat? is the third single by Ayreon, released on 2000, from their album Universal Migrator Part 1: The Dream Sequencer. It was released again in 2000, as an acoustic version on the ?Ayreonauts Only? album, with the voice of Astrid on it.

Astrid also plays a bit of other instrument like guitar and violin. She teached herself just like the way she taught herself the piano's. But it's good enough to guide her own vocal expressions. It's mostly used for the background-instruments on her recordings.

Astrid has been part of theEndorphins. The other bandmembers were Arjan Hoekstra (Sidius/Mirna's Fling) and Dennis Edelenbosch (Stone in Egypt). They've known each other for years, played together already for a long time and finally formed the band in november 2005. They've played some live-shows and made a promo and other recordings, but unfortunately the band split up.

In 2005 Astrid recorded her second solo album called Seamless Borderline, which was a very personal and melodramatic album. In 2006 the Special Edition of "Beautiful Red", the album from 2000, was rereleased with some extra's on it.

Astrid is also a guest-singer on the latest album of Stone in Egypt, which was released in 2007.

Right now, Astrid is not performing live and there is no official website online containing information about Astrid.