Artist: Steve Hackett
Title: Beyond The Shrouded Horizon
Genre: Progressive Rock/Hard Rock
Release Date: 26th September 2011
Label: Insideout
Album Review
STEVE HACKETT can be said to be a veteran on the music scene, his career spans four decades. HACKETT started out in GENESIS and stayed with them till 1977after which he pursued a solo career; he also co-founded GTR (a super-group). The catalogue of his work is impressive, a testimony that his career is not only long but also incredibly creative, the fact that he’s been able to delve in other genres (classical, world music not to mention influences of jazz, blues etc.), adds versatility to his catalogue too. He’s here now with the album entitled ‘Beyond The Shrouded Horizon’ which he created together with some guest performances (Simon Phillips, Chris Squire) and in conjunction with “the regular electric band of King, O’Toole, Beggs, Townsend and Amanda Lehmann” as the details of the CD tell us.
Hackett introduces this album as a journey to be taken with him from “Loch Lomond right to The Rings of Saturn”. The music indeed shows this from many aspects, Hackett’s roots and his evolution as a musician and of the genre itself. It’s also infused with world music. It sways from livelier dreams / journeys to passages superbly peaceful. Where also Hackett delivered on the promise of his introduction is the fact that as the album starts in earthy notes and ends up in quite a mysterious last track ‘Turn This Island Earth’, weird and mesmerising song all at once with classical influences with very interesting arrangements. ‘Walking To Life’ and ‘Two Faces Of Cairo’ were my other favourites here for the oriental tinge they have, their dreaminess held me more in focus and kept my attention the most, I found more of the unusual-ness / unexpectedness within these three songs. ‘Catwalk’ brings you back to great Rock traditions that could fit the exclamation of “classic”.
The songs all speak of perfection - be it production, composition and the musicianship, there can be nothing faulted with that but at the same time the perfection may be too much... If this were a journey in a physical dimension and not the imaginary one, and you were travelling with Hackett by some terrestrial and then extra-terrestrial vehicle, you wouldn’t even want to wear the seat belt or some other safety device... not because of being too adventurous and too confident, but because it’s very, very safe. On the other hand you can really trust that guy - all Dr Jekyll and no Mr Hyde. And from another angle, you may even argue that perfection of musical skills belongs to the genre, but sometimes this technical virtuosity can be a tad overwhelming and not very organic. Nevertheless, it’s all very pleasant if all you want is to unwind to some reflective music like that to get your mind travelling from your worldly woes, and if you want to hear real honed musical skills this will be perfecto indeed.
Tracklist
Loch Lomond – 6.49
The Phoenix Flown – 2.08
Wanderlust – 0.44
Til These Eyes – 2.40
Prairie Angel – 2.58
A Place Called Freedom – 5.56
Between The Sunset And The Coconut Palms – 3.17
Waking To Life – 4.49
Two Faces Of Cairo – 5.13
Looking For Fantasy – 4.32
Summer's Breath – 1.12
Catwalk – 5.44
Turn This Island Earth – 11.50
Line-up
Steve Hackett - Guitars, Vocals, Harmonica
Nick Beggs - bass, chapman stick, pink ukele
Dick Driver - double bass
John Hackett – flute, vocals
Roger King - keyboards, programming
Amanda Lehmann – vocals, guitar
Gary O'Toole – drums, vocals
Simon Phillips - drums
Chris Squire - bass
Richard Stewart - cello
Christine Townsend - violin, viola
Rob Townsend - sax, whistle, bass clarinet
Websites
http://www.hackettsongs.com/ / https://www.facebook.com/pages/Steve-Hackett/123101228589 / www.myspace.com/hackettsongs
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 7.5
Sound: 9
Total: 8.25 / 10
