OLIAS OF SUNHILLOW

After "Relayer", the members of Yes at that time took a break to develop personal projects parallel to the band's universe. It is in this context that "Olias of Sunhillow", the solo debut of Jon Anderson, the most visible image and voice of the British band, was one of those that generated the most repercussions. The fantastical adventure that Anderson's imagination recreated, taking the singer's experimentation through one of its most recognisable aspects to paroxysm: the heroic "Olias" accompanied by the pilot "Ranyart" and the influential "Qoquaq", must save the four tribes of their village "Sunhillow" from volcanic destruction, using for this purpose the peculiar ship "Moorglade Mover", a flying device of undisguised resemblance to the one on the cover of "Fragile".

Anderson uses a great variety of string and wind instruments (harp, mandolin, flute, etc.) and synthesizers, showing his enormous capacity to accompany the story with a suspenseful and dramatic sonority, generating a mystical and epic atmosphere, as in the opening "Ocean Song", or in the tribal and orientalised "Qoquaq en Transic / Naon / Transic To" and its reminiscent airs of "Tales From Topographic Oceans", complemented by luminous sections of peaceful beauty, with magnificent acoustic and choral developments, as in the second section of "Meeting (Garden of Geda) / Sound Out the Galleon", or in the rhythmic "Flight of the Moorglade", which features choruses similar to those of the massive "Horizons" from Jon & Vangelis' later album "Private Collection", or in the brief arpeggiated guitar interlude towards the beginning of the last third of the extensive "Moon Ra / Chords / Song of Search", all of them moments of very successful execution, and that have their final point with the melancholic "To the Runner".

The conceptual "Olias of Sunhillow" is one of Anderson's best expressions as a solo artist, and while some of the collaborative works with the Greek Vangelis have moments of brilliance, or his stellar contribution to Kitaro's "Dream" album is one of his pearls among many, the stature of the Briton's first album remains at the top of his discography, and even without intending it, could be considered as one of the precursor elements of the later "New Age" current.

4 stars