OLIAS OF SUNHILLOW

On Olias of Sunhillow, Jon Anderson's contribution to the treasure trove of Yes-related solo albums produced during the band's mid-1970s hiatus, Anderson layers both conventional instruments and his own voice to produce a lush, symphonic underpinning for a saga inspired by Roger Dean album covers. The sort of voice-as-instrument multitracked experiment heard on here had a prequel in the form of We Have Heaven on Fragile, but whereas that was a brief, quirky experiment, here Anderson expands them form into sustained, sedate, and blissful space journeys, and proves himself an adept multi-instrumentalist at that.

If you're coming to this straight from listening to Yes you may find it a bit jarring, because whilst you can here echoes of the Yes sound here and there for the most part it's in a sonic universe of its own, but for my part I think this one is a real grower. It took a while before it grew on me, in fact, but now the mysteries of Moorglade are opening up to me I think it's a fine piece of work.