OLIAS OF SUNHILLOW

"Olias of Sunhillow" is the debut full-length studio album by UK progressive rock artists Jon Anderson. The album was released through Atlantic Records in July 1976. After touring in support of their seventh full-length studio album "Relayer" (1974), the members of Yes agreed that it was time for a break, which gave the individual members of the band the time and energy to record solo albums. Lead vocalist Jon Anderson retreated to his English country home in Seer Green, Buckinghamshire with a mobile studio and Yes engineer Mike Dunne to help with the technical aspects of the recording process. Other than Dunne, no one else was involved in the recording of "Olias of Sunhillow", and Anderson therefore performs all instruments and vocals on the album.

Anderson is not a natural instrumentalist but he practiced real hard and became relatively proficient before the recording process began (he plays no less than 30 instruments on the album). But he wisely kept things simple, although some parts can sound pretty complex, but that´s mostly due to the multi-layering of instruments and vocals. In other words Anderson realised that his greatest strength was his voice and "Olias of Sunhillow" is of course an album featuring many sections focused on said voice. Often layered with backing vocals and choirs. The instrumental part of the music is a quirky ambient and atmospheric type of folky semi-progressive rock, featuring very few sections with "rock drumming", and instead featuring subtle use of percussion.

Anderson knew from the start that he would make a concept album, and "Olias of Sunhillow" is indeed a concept album featuring a sci-fi themed story about four different races who are forced to leave their planet and are helped by some super beings/gods? to relocate to another planet and start a new life there. It´s a new age concept which go hand in hand with the sometimes ambient new age atmosphere of the music. Anderson´s use of eastern/asian/caribbean instruments further enhances the new age feeling. So it´s an album combining elements from progressive rock, folk rock, psychedelic rock, world music, and ambient/atmospheric new age music. Think the most aimlessly noodly and atmospheric sections from "Tales from Topographic Oceans" (1973) and you´re halfway there.

The element that Anderson always gets right is his optimistic, uplifting, and fantasy based spirit. I haven´t met the man, but I imagine that he is one of the most well-balanced and friendly guys on the planet. You can´t produce lyrics like these and perform them with such an honest optimism if you don´t mean it. I have great respect for that although "Olias of Sunhillow" to my ears does become a little too "light" and sometimes shallow listening experience. It´s an incredible pleasant listen and it´s well produced too, but the new age atmosphere reduces the album to background listening more than once during the playing time. A little more variation in atmosphere and maybe just a few hard rocking parts for dynamics would have been nice.

When that is said we´re still dealing with one of the top vocalists in the world and of course there are many great ideas spread across the album. Anderson´s performance is top notch when it comes to his vocals and he manages to get a lot out of his relatively limited instrumental skills. Upon conclusion "Olias of Sunhillow" is not necessarily for fans of Yes...at least not for fans of the bombastic and dynamic part of the band´s repetoire and in that respect Anderson have truly made a solo release, which stands out and which is different from the work of his (then) main project. It´s for example not like listening to Chris Squire´s "Fish Out Of Water" (1975), which is basically a Yes album with only one member of Yes performing. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.