Third and deadly? The restless guitarist of Porcupine Tree, and beside involved in a million and one projects and collaborations, plus full time mixer, remixer and producer, it’s back with his third solo album which will be released on 25th February 2013. Alan Parsons (best known for his work on Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon”) engineering the album and we’ve got a quite colorful and dynamic mixture of King Crimson, Rush and Jethro Tull. Probably not accidentally, currently Wilson is remixing the back catalogue of King Crimson from 1969–84 into MLP (Meridian Lossless Packaging) 5.1 and new stereo mixes, as well as remixing the back catalogue of Jethro Tull.
So, the presence of Theo Travis (flute and saxophone) it’s not really surprising. Travis has made ten albums as leader, composing and arranging most of the material; and he has also worked with Robert Fripp, Gong, The Tangent, Bill Nelson, Bass Communion, No-Man, David Sylvian, Harold Budd, John Foxx, Burnt Friedman and Dave, Richard Sinclair, and Porcupine Tree. But this is a full all star release featuring exclusively well respected and acclaimed musicians.
On lead guitar are Guthrie Govan, known for his work with the bands The Aristocrats, Asia (2001–2006), GPS, The Young Punx and The Fellowship, and his own project Erotic Cakes. On bass guitar and Chapman Stick Nick Beggs of the famous in 80’s pop band Kajagoogoo. On drums Marco Minnemann, he played and performed with several artists such as UKZ (featuring Eddie Jobson ex-Zappa, and Trey Gunn ex-King Crimson), Necrophagist, KMB, Kreator, The Aristocrats, etc. And on keyboards Adam Holzman (son of Elektra Records’ founder, Jac Holzman) – but probably most known because in 1985, he was hired by Miles Davis to play keyboards on the trumpeter’s “Tutu” album.
Tracklist:
01 – Luminol
02 – Drive Home
03 – The Holy Drinker
04 – The Pin Drop
05 – The Watchmaker
06 – The Raven That Refused To Sing
The album was written between January-July and recorded in Los Angeles in September 2012.
Six track, a true journey on the wings of music, a trip back to the 70’s and 80’s with the advantages of modern audio engineering and technology. This is almost like a tribute to the “best of progressive rock” without being actually a tribute, but a refreshing, delightful ride into the generous spaces of the inheritance of progressive rock with some additional jazz rock flavors. The opening “Luminol”s first sequence it’s an amazing mixture of King Crimson, Jethro Tull and Rush and these pregnant flavors are pulsing throughout the whole album, although the taste, the aroma it’s changing from passage to passage, from song to song. By the way, “Luminol” it’s an over 12 minutes opus with several changes of moods and vibes, breakdowns and escapes in different sonar spaces. And the whole album it’s an adventure, an exploration of musical dimensions. The closing title track, “The Raven That Refused To Sing” sounds like a beautiful late Marillion trip. And in between are shining inter-stellar space rock adventures, florescent jazz rock hurricanes, chilled and spacious jazzy breakdowns, alive and kicking music. Music with mandatory capital M. So, Music.
Both, relaxing and fascinating, this is a quite enjoyable experience.
There will be a deluxe 4 disc edition of the album, which will be “a 128 page hardback book containing lyrics and ghost stories, illustrated by Hajo Mueller”. In addition to this, the album will also be available in stand alone double-vinyl, CD and blu-ray editions.
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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3MpGBwGdVk&w=545&h=307]
