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"...One Clear Hand..."
Encouraged by the brilliance of "Relayer" in 1974 (with Patrick Moraz at the keyboards instead of Rick Wakeman) - like most YES fans at the time - I awaited the inevitable Solo albums in the mid Seventies with a sense of excitement. And while Bassist Chris Squire and Guitarist Steve Howe had their moments of glory with November 1975's "Fish Out Of Water" and October 1975's "Beginnings" respectively - most of us somehow knew that Lead Singer and Leading Light in the Yes Multiverse JON ANDERSON and his debut vinyl LP of 1976 would be the Proggy Humdinger to get. And - "...one clear hand..." (lyrics from "Flight of The Moorglade") - it was and still is.
Released in July 1976 on Atlantic K 50261 in the UK and Atlantic SD 18180 in the USA - "Olias Of Sunhillow" even peaked at Number 8 in good old Blighty (No. 47 in the USA) and has been a treasured work by Prog Rock fans ever since. But its odyssey onto digital has been one of expensive hits and cheap-assed misses - mostly misses.
First came the German/Europe version from February 1996 with an unreadable four-page inlay badly repro'ing the stunning original artwork and sporting un-remastered dull sound (Atlantic 7567-80273-2 - Barcode 075678027321). Two followed that improved things - the October 2011 Japan-Only edition Warner Brothers/Atlantic/Arcangelo ARC-8061 (Barcode 4988044390614) - a SHM-CD in Repro Artwork and America's Audio Fidelity issue from January 2014 - a 24-Carat Gold CD Remastered by noted engineer KEVIN GRAY (Audio Fidelity AFZ 156 - Barcode 0780014215620). But both of those have been deleted years and subsequently acquired very nasty price tags on auction sites. In January 2020 Music On CD out of The Netherlands simply reissued the 1996 version in a Super Jewel Case (Music On CD MOCCD13846 - Barcode 8718627230459) but without any mastering details and some were suckered into buying that. Which brings us to pandemic year plus one - 2021...
UK released Friday, 9 April 2021 (delayed from Friday, 29 March 2021) - "Olias Of Sunhillow" by JON ANDERSON [of YES] on Esoteric Recordings QECLEC22748 (Barcode 5013929474888) is a CD + DVD-A Reissue and New Remaster (by Ben Wiseman) that plays out as follows (the CD and DVD-A have the same tracks as listed below - 44:22 minutes):
1. Ocean Song [Side 1]
2. Meeting (Garden Of Geda)/Sound Out The Galleon
3. Dance Of Ranyart/Olias (To Build The Moorglade)
4. Qoquaq En Transic/Naon/Transic To
5. Flight Of The Moorglade
6. Solid Space [Side 2]
7. Moon Ra/Chords/Song Of Search
8. To The Runner
Those who bought the original record will of course remember not just the fabulous dense music contained within but also the full-on glory of the sleeve designed and painted by DAVID FAIRBROTHER ROE. A gatefold cover with an extra leaf inside and a same-design inner lyrics sleeve - it was dazzling as a package. Although Roger Dean ad been approached first and proved too busy to help, Roe had done Nazareth's "Hair Of The Dog" album in late 1973 and prior to that designed striking posters for three Isle of Wight Festivals in 1968, 1969 and 1970. Anderson saw the returned artwork and was duly taken aback.
His space-tale of Magician Olias who lives on the doomed planet of Sunhillow features four tribes and two other characters in his journey to the safe world of Asgaurd - a second magician Ranyart who becomes the navigator of the spaceship 'Moorglade Mover' and a trance-singer Qoquaq who lulls sceptical tribes onto the ship with melodies of peace and love before their world explodes into millions of tears. As you imagine and see from the photos I've provided - the staggeringly elaborate artwork and equally beautiful inner sleeve and its writing font seemed more like a Tolkien book art-plate than an LP record. Esoteric are clearly aware of this and have tried to reproduce that impact and (largely) succeeded.
A clever move has been to put the lyrics that were originally on both sides of the inner sleeve into a separate booklet (in the right inner flap) and print them to such a degree that you can actually read them. Unfortunately, they have not done the same to the 'story' of Olias that is spread across four inner flaps - most of which is barely legible. Clearly, they should have done the same for the story part of this.
There is a separate 20-page booklet in the left flap that fills out the album's making - a new in-depth interview with JA by MALCOLM DOME (dated Oct 2020). Rumours of Vangelis playing keyboards on the album (which have persisted for years) and RCA doing their nut at the same are quickly quashed as untrue - though Vangelis was one of the first to hear the finished product and mightily approved (Anderson saw him as a mentor as well as musician friend).
We also learn that "Olias Of Sunhillow" was a truly 'solo' project, Anderson playing 'everything' - as much as 30 instruments with a recording time of a gruelling three to eight-months (project gestation had been almost five years since the "Fragile" LP in 1971). Amidst the text and illuminations of how maddening the recording actually was - there are pictures of memorabilia supplied by fan David Watkinson - but I have to admit they are strangely muted and badly rendered to a point where you can see what they are but not read them.
Presentation-wise - this Esoteric Recordings reissue is a damn good fist at it - the rare American Promo 7" single with Titled Picture Sleeve for "Flight Of The Moorglade" b/w "To The Runner" is pictured as are Trade Adverts, Reviews, Times articles etc. And the sepia-feel paper even mimics the texture of the original release. But I would have to be honest and say that that mistake with the story being unreadable is kind of dumb. I should also add that the new remaster from BEN WISEMAN says all the right things on the printed tin (first gen tapes, stereo masters etc) - but the result has left me slightly underwhelmed.
For sure when you hear those Harp Scales in "Dance Of Ranyart" and that massive crescendo of voices and instruments during Track 4 on Side 1 - the effect is powerful. But I would say that this is a Remaster that needs a bit of welly on your Volume Dial to lift that veil. I also demo'd the 5.1 Surround Mix and the High Definition Stereo Mix on a mate's system (I don't have 5.1 myself) and the Audio was magnificent - the clarity is there that I feel is still a tad muffled on the CD version.
I've waited decades for this album to be properly remastered and available as such at a reasonable price - so I will congratulate Esoteric Recordings for that. But the lack of anything new (demos, outtake passages etc) is a bit of a disappointment if I'm brutally honest and that packaging faux pas irritates. But then I played the gorgeous Acoustic/Synth intro to "Flight Of The Moorglade" and I shed a wee Proggy tear of joy (I bought that single in Dublin back in the day). So someone is doing something right here.
"Olias Of Sunhillow" has quite rightly built up a bit of a rep as a genuine Prog Rock, Art Rock, Symphonic Rock masterpiece. And while I still don’t quite know what your four tribes of Sunhillow are actually about (can’t tell my Oractaniom from my Nordranious man) – I love this record. Dense, layered, articulate without being too fay – it is a beautiful thing. And at last a good reissue label has done it a solid space retain.
"Cha! Cha!" Anderson chants as he finishes the wicked album closer "To The Runner". Couldn't agree more my Topographic son...
1 comment:
I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment of this re-issue. Esoteric have done the best within the confines of the digipak packaging but I feel the stature of the album and the importance of the artwork deserves the treatment they afforded to Chris Squire's "Fish Out Of Water". There they delivered a deluxe box set which included the remastered CD, surround and stereo mixes on DVD and the vinyl edition. Olias can only really be experienced in the 12 inch format! My feeling is when they could not locate the multitrack tapes, where I believe Steven Wilson would have been involved (he has long voiced his admiration for Olias) and they could only produce an upmix, I think the project lost some of it's impetus and Esoteric went for a less ambitious release. Shame.
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