@Fulcrum is the nom d’arte for Southern Connecticut progressive rock composer/keyboardist Rick Mealey (b. 1962, Bridgeport CT) and a collective of musically sympathetic collaborators.
The band had its origins in the mid-1990s as Radiant City, comprising Mealey, guitarist Peter Crane, bassist Joshua Walsh, and drummer Paula Naveda. As the other members left in the late 90s to pursue other interests, Mealey took a hiatus from music himself to pursue Information Technology; he returned to the music the band had written in the early part of the 2000s and emerged in 2009 with the first @Fulcrum album, Luminous City.
The songs were an amalgamation of influences ranging by turns from Genesis, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Pat Metheny Group, Toy Matinee, Dire Straits, Jeff Beck, Dave Matthews Band, The Neville Brothers and Steely Dan, with atmospheric sound ambiences reminiscent of mid-period Pink Floyd. Other than the album’s best-known track, Gaining On Me, the album was performed and engineered by Mealey based on the band’s arrangements from a decade before. Gaining On Me, however, featured performances from Memphis slide guitarist Roy Howell, string arrangements and rhythm guitar from Norwegian guitarist Trazan, Swedish drummer Peter Damin, Ohio keyboardist/vocalist John Riedel, and bassman134 from Staten Island, and was achieved by sending files back and forth over the Internet. The mix was performed by Swedish engineer Ola Sonmark.
Mealey is currently working from his home base of Trumbull CT in his home studio, the Sanctum Sanctorum, on the next @Fulcrum recording, the two-album set Describing An Arc. The album promises to feature influences ranging from those apparent on Luminous City to Yes, Gentle Giant, King Crimson, The Chemical Brothers, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Benjamin Britten, Rush, Phish, Bad Company, George Michael, Journey, and Smokey Robinson.