STEVE HOWE

'Hail Storm' with a binary electro-pop synth and an Oldfieldian flight, the Gibson that spleen, saturated, almost disconcerting. 'Spring Board' still on a haunting atmosphere, closer to a Knopfler; repetitive like an aperitif that goes on. 'Distillations' acoustic on an Evangelical synth for a divine or solemn piece, a whiff of Chet Atkins. 'Up Stream' for the soaring, atmospheric variation, guitar that takes me back to the last distorted ambient track by Queen, at the death of Freddie; pure, beautiful, contemplative. 'Secret Mission' track where the synth is very basic, sweeping away the guitar ballad. 'Passing Thoughts' delicate acoustic, crystalline on a velvety synth passing in waves. 'Touch The Surface' atmosphere of 60s sci-fi movies, monolithic.

'Spring Rhyme' soundtrack theme with the guitar that plays metronomic notes. 'Equinox' again a distorted sound on a touching, cloying pop base, the synth on the early hours of Vangelis. 'Seesaw' for the Bontempi variation that would make you forget the guitar's speech behind it. 'Gone West' orientalized journey, a twirling sound, a slow dreamlike ballad where you can finally settle down. 'Suma' launches in 90 seconds a piece worthy of a TV interlude. 'Spring Tide' return to the basic synth, on John Carpenter for the purists, the guitar starting to look at Yessian sounds, we can't change. 'Steel Breeze' as a soundtrack for the end of a film; a steel guitar reminding me of the little interlude train of my youth, a whole world.

A hybrid, innovative, prog, ambient opus; a fresco where the refined psychedelia of the 60s confronts the delicate cinematic melodies of today, with this look towards the Z series films of the 80s. Originally on progcensor (2.5).

'Love is' feels like a direct sequel to the first two albums, the same vibe is here, the same magic, that magic he brought to the Yes albums. In all of Steve Howe's other albums there's a lot of positive stuff, for sure, but in none of them did I feel the strength of an album, but more like a collection disconnected songs, experiments, virtuosity, or filling in the discography, nothing very memorable, especially in the subject of good compositions.

But in 'Love is' everything is there. For this album he had the happy idea of recruiting his current bandmate, vocalist Jon Davison, to help them with vocals, also to play bass (Davison played bass in his former band 'Sky Cries Mary'). By the way, Howe probably has his best vocals on this album. Davison makes an important and excellent collaboration with his vocal harmonies too. To complete the trio, the good Dylan Howe, Steve's son, takes over the drums (on this album he is perhaps in his best form). The album is basically an interspersed mix of instrumental and sung songs and I love them all. But I like the sung ones even more (that's why in my playlist I made a tracklist putting the sung songs first, something like side A with the sung songs and side B with the instrumental ones). Howe is superb on guitars, with all those colors, textures and magical layers of string instruments that he is a master of. The production, mixing, album art and concept are also highlights. With Howe taking over production on the last two Yes albums ('The Quest' and 'Mirror to the Sky', it's encouraging to hope that this experience will also determine great productions on his next solo works.

On this album it seems that finally Steve has something to say and show an album that had a reason to exist, not a "I have to do a solo album". It is a work that was born naturally. Also a more prog work than its predecessors (with the exception of the first two, as already mentioned). Also 'Love is' is an album close to the last Yes albums (with Jon Davison) and many songs could perfectly be on them.

'Love is' is a very pleasant surprise in Howe's inconstant discography, and I hope his next solo works are like this one, who knows this trio doesn't record some more?

I cannot imagine how hard it must be for a parent to lose a child, and undertaking this album must have been both emotionally exhausting and fulfilling for Steve as he attempted to ensure the world knew a little but more about his son. However, there is no way of moving past the fact that these snippets were originally not good enough for the album they worked on together, and the biggest issue here is not the musicianship from either of them but the quality of the material itself. I love Steve and was even fortunate enough to interview him more than 20 years ago, but there is no doubt in my mind he works best in the company of others as opposed to his solo albums which tend to be a little hit and miss. The result is an instrumental album which is nice and pleasant but contains little which is inspirational or driving and it meanders through its course with no real direction and when it is finished there is little which is memorable and not much which would make me want to play it again.

"Lunar Mist" to discover Steve's work developing his son's notes, translating them to make us dance beyond death. "More Than You Know" ethereal theme over echoing Spanish guitars. "Plexus" prog latent 70's with piano-guitar chord for digestive atmosphere. "Mariah's Theme" cinematic sound full of sensitivity, emotional feeling; meditative atmosphere. "A Month in the Sun" with enterprising bluesy guitar over driving jazz-rock piano. "As If Between" lullaby where Steve's plucked strings keep alert. "Never Less" slow ballad piano crystalline aided by waves of guitar water notes.

"Lothian's Way" cascading tune. "Free Spirit" raw piano, night bar, saloon on plaintive electric guitar. "Eternal" piano melody on a redundant mandolin variation. "Dirama" for a free jazz guitar-synth battle. "Pinnacle" bar piano return, archaic raw sound associated with Steve's Andalusian guitar, the one we can listen to in Queen-plasticine (Innuendo); solemn look. "Pagoda" repeat to a tune that Elton John could have composed, the more upbeat you'll understand. "Martian Mood" BOF from 'Flash' or 'Mars Attack' it's up to you.

Vigil offered hushed moods, ballads that could be incorporated into soundtracks; Steve's finalized symbiotic musical ode to staying together a bit when life decided otherwise, tunes where the piano drives Steve's guitars; airy, padded airs, short compositions to pass from one cloud of Heaven to another where tranquility reigns; often repetitive tunes to be sure to go; separate album.

In fact, at least half of the pieces sound 'rocky' rather than jazzy. But it's a delightful collection all the same. Steve and his two fellow musicians never seem less than inspired. Dylan Howe is a drummer very much in the Bill Bruford tradition, and organist Ross Stanley is given a lot of space (but not TOO much) for soloing - something rare in Steve's solo career, which tends to be egocentric. If you love the full-blown instrumental treatment Yes (and Steve H in particular) once gave to Paul Simon's 'America', I think you'll also love NEW FRONTIER. By the way, I just discovered there is also an earlier album by the 'Steve Howe Trio'! Can't wait to go and check it out...

'Lily's in the Field' was written by Howe and Haslam. David Biglin seems to handle all the other instruments besides Howe's guitar. For the first ten seconds there's only an acoustic guitar, and a promise of a delicate, elegant piece of classical orientation, but right away when the clinical pop production sets in, I feel somewhat disillusioned. Especially the programmed drums sound flat and boring, and IMHO should have been left out at least for the most part. The ethereal synths are mainly filling the background. I'm sure if this song had been arranged as a simple duet between Haslam's angelic voice and Howe's acoustic guitar mastery, the result would have been much, much more enjoyable.

The peaceful minor key song itself is quite beautiful but not deeply impressive or emotionally powerful. Slightly lacklustre perhaps, sad to say. Biglin did so much better work with the above mentioned Genesis cover 'Ripples'. Can't rate this song higher than three stars.

Best tracks are Half way, a a version of "While Rome's Burning" from Turbulence but with lyrics, which would have benefited from the energy and solos of the original, A lady she is and Cold winds, the best piece here.

The journey leads us through ten different bands! Let it be said right away that the best-loved era with YES, ie. the whole 70's, is represented with only three tracks ('Roundabout', the instrumental beauty 'Montreux's Theme' and 'Tempus Fugit' from Drama, 1980), "due to the high number of re-releases" as Howe says in his track-by-track liner notes. I think that's a wise decision, without which just two discs would have been painfully inadequate. I confess I spent very little time with the first half of CD 1, the sixties stuff. The Syndicats (the other track here also being a cover) was followed by r&b oriented The In Crowd featuring Keith West on vocals. "As if through metamorposis, we transformed into a psychedelic band": TOMORROW is represented with four songs. CANTO was a short-lived trio which evolved into BODAST when vocalist Clive Skinner joined in.

After the mentioned YES section comes four ASIA songs from the super group's early 80's era, one of them (Howe's composition 'Masquerade') being a previously unreleased instrumental. Disc 1 is finished with two songs from GTR, the equally commercial act led by Howe and his namesake Hackett.

For an acquainted listener of Yes, Asia and related, disc 2 in general is perhaps the least eye-opening or interesting part of this release. The albums represented are e.g. ABWH, Keys to Ascension 2, Open Your Eyes (the Anderson-Howe duet 'From the Balcony'), The Ladder and Magnification. Then comes two pieces of traditional guitar/organ/drums jazz of STEVE HOWE TRIO. The original ASIA quartet returned with Phoenix (2008) and continued with albums Omega and XXX. The Yes albums Fly From Here and Heaven & Earth are represented with one song each.

The third disc contains various collaborations and is IMHO the most rewarding part of this release. Here the majority of pieces were new to my ears, although there are legitimately 'Time and a Word' with FISH and 'Turn of the Century' with ANNIE HASLAM. Other collaborators include e.g. PAUL SUTIN, OLIVER WAKEMAN, KEITH WEST and MAX BACON (the vocalist in GTR). The music is mostly not very proggy but fairly pleasant pop/rock anyway. Three strong stars are well deserved due to the easy-to-follow and verbally commented representation.