OLIAS OF SUNHILLOW

This is a wonderful effort by Jon Anderson. Danceable? Nope, but that was not the forte of Yes in the 70s either. Captivating, entrancing, exhilarating? Yes indeed. As a prog fan, you will be humming/whistling/remembering/singing these melodies for a long time to come, and the arrangements are no less progressive that those recorded by Yes back then, though not in the precise direction of Yes.

Shortly after Olias was released in the mid-70s, I was riding with my parents on a longish weekend drive through Virginia. In those days, the network affiliated urban radio stations essentially gave the lower-rated weekend hours to the network, airing feed from the network HQs in Manhattan to avoid paying weekend DJs. We listened to a Richmond VA network affiliate for much of our drives. The normal network weekend fare of talk and light reportage was pretty boring, honestly, for a 23 year old prog fan.

So I was rather stunned when the network aired an interview with John Anderson, discussing his solo album Olias of Sunhillow. One thing Anderson said at the time has stuck in my head through the decades: he was inspired to write Olias by watching bees, especially their communal behavior. I suspect he meant honeybees.

What an elaborate world Anderson conjured from that simple everyday experience.

Olias is a concept album, realized thoroughly. The basic story told in the music of Olias is the effort of the characters, led by Olias, to build a ship and use it to transplant their clan to a more suitable locale. Will you understand every word? No, this is Jon Anderson we are discussing, clarity is not his style on Olias.

I bought the Olias LP around the time that radio interview was broadcast. In June1976, Yes played a concert in RFK Stadium in DC. This was the day-long concert with Gary Wright, Peter Frampton and other performers as support for Yes as headliners. I attended that show and shot a lot of Ektachrome photos of all the performers. initially I was surprised that the Olias cover symbol was displayed prominently onstage. One of the songs performed during the Yes set was from Olias, the charming instrumental song which I believe is titled Qoquaq En Transic. Aha! That's why the symbol was so prominent, and I have photos of it. In addition to Anderson, Patrick Moraz played keyboards and Alan White played percussion, giving Howe and Squire a few minutes of break. Alas, the song was not introduced, so the audience had no idea what it was unless they already were familiar with Olias.

The song is not documented on the Wikipedia list of songs performed by Yes during that tour. However, the Wikipedia list includes a harp solo, and the Qoquaq En Transic song begins with a harp solo. Anderson used his harp skills a few years later on the epic Yes song Awaken.

Anderson sang brilliantly on Olias, of course, but also played many of the myriad instruments involved in this production. In many cases he was able to play only a few notes at a time, so the recording effort must have been lengthy. The LP booklet names and depicts a few other instrumentalists who contributed to Olias. Anderson aimed for and hit the spot of a great variety of moods; the grandest parts are walls of sound featuring soaring vocals rather than blistering guitar or keyboard solos in the style of Yes.

If you want a very analogous example of the Olias sound from the Yes canon, try We Have Heaven from Fragile. You won't find an intricate guitar-bass rondo in Heart of the Sunrise, or the driving rock pulse in Roundabout. But Olias has plenty to grab your attention.

On my phone, which is my primary music playback device these days, I have stored the entire album except the material up front prior to the Meeting track.

One thing I suspect Anderson remembers from this recording experience is the sheer time required to produce Olias. Studio time is money in this business, either paid to the studio owner and producer or paid to construct a studio for oneself and learn how to use it. I am not sure that any of Anderson's subsequent solo releases used a similar time-consuming self-performed approach for so much of the instrumental material.

I mention this because in the past year or two Anderson has announced he will record a follow-up to Olias. inspired by bees again, perhaps? We can hope the results this time around will prove no less progressive, fascinating and enjoyable, regardless of his recording approach and his use or not-use of talented colleagues.