Hundredfold is a four-piece keyboard-driven progressive rock band from Madison, Wisconsin. The band formed in 1998 as the brainchild of keyboardist and songwriter Jim Ford. He enlisted vocalist Matthew Kallonas, bass guitarist Jeff Maas and percussionist Dunes to explore a variety of lyrical and musical themes.

The band is currently developing material that runs from ballads to anthems to extended conceptual pieces. The music, despite its occasional dip into subjects such as the futility of war or the tragedy of sudden death, has an energetic and optimistic feel. Their songs examine serious topics and complex ideas with a wide-angle lens.

Ford comes to Madison from Los Angeles where he trained as a classical pianist at the California Institute of the Arts. He also studied history in central Europe, which has provided him with material for his lyrics. In addition to his L.A. project Grand Frontiers, he spent time in Augsburg, Germany working with the band Morora.

Singer/songwriter Kallonas hails from Cyprus by way of Manchester, England. He is a classically trained baritone soloist and has degrees in both music and theology from the University of Liverpool. Since touring England in classical choirs, he fronted the rock band Strangebrew in Cyprus.

The band’s bass guitarist, Maas, is from the small northwestern Wisconsin town of Solon Springs. A cartographer by trade, he co-authored a historical atlas of Wisconsin in 1998. Tony Levin, Les Claypool and guitarist Andy Summers influence his approach to the bass guitar and Chapman stick.

Dunes has performed with the Madison bands Cognitive Dissonance, Fluid Drive, and the Nazarenes. He also played the part of Dave Grohl in the Broom Street Theatre production "Unplugged: The Kurt Cobain Story." His unconventional ideas about drumming and his custom-built drums bring a distinctive sound to the band.

The fit between these four musicians, whose influences include U.K., Rush, King Crimson and Sting, is nearly seamless. Their driving rhythms, crystalline keyboards and passionate vocals give the music of Hundredfold a generous landscape of sound. Together they create music that has a cinematic quality and integrates orchestral elements into rock.

Hundredfold is unanimous in its desire to produce thought provoking rock music touching on weighty, even melancholy themes. "We want to lift people beyond their daily routine and weekly paycheck," says Ford. Above all, the band makes the music they do for the sheer love of it and the enjoyment of working together.

Epilogue: In search of other musical opportunities, the members of Hundredfold officially unfolded in August of 1999. Out of the ashes comes Tree Without Leaves which mutatis mutandis offers the same music and more...