Jon Anderson 1000 HANDS: Chapter One. Blue Elan Records

The album’s title, 1,000 Hands is a reference to the fact that numerous guest musicians perform on the album, including Ian Anderson, Billy Cobham, Jean-Luc Ponty, Steve Morse, Chick Corea, Zap Mama, Chris Squire, Alan White, Steve Howe and many more. This album, produced by his friend Michael Franklin, reveals a musical life still in the throes of new artistic endeavor, always wanting to surprise the listener.

“That’s where the title 1,000 HANDS comes from, all of the brilliant musicians who played a part in making the record. Michael acted like something of a casting director, bringing so many great players. It was really exciting to hear the record up up and become what I had always envisioned.”

Review

A gradual building instrumental opening introduces  ‘Now’ with its gentle message of love and peace. The melody’s strong, the instrumental arrangement is stripped down and well-judged. The distinctive vocal so familiar to me in Vangelis masterpieces comes alive in the seamless arrival of second track, ‘Ramalama’, with a rpeated message of peace and love. The melody is powerful and more than radio-friendly. Sonically, so far so interesting.

‘First Born Leader’ is firmly down the gospel route with opening choral salvoes before it regresses into the most ordinary pop sound with an injection of reggae just to make sure…’Activate’ opens with the gentlest acoustic guitar chord before a wandering flute enters. The pace then quickens together with Anderson’s darker and more contemplative voice. The song’s jazzy interludes with its more serious/adult sound and its more subtle esoteric message (”In accordance with the facts of life/we resolve to show the truth/How we accept the lives of all the world/that’s coming through/Know you know that all the center of all/your godliness creation//it’s an automatic system.”)make this one of my favourite tracks on the record. The song’s orchestral outro is magical.

‘Makes Me Happy’ is pure, mediocre pop with its happy message and bouncing vibe. It’s Radio 1, however, it does possess interesting changes of pace, wonderful drumming passages and a foot-tapping ambience. ‘Now Variations’ is one of the most beautiful songs here with its superb string intro the only criticism is that it’s too short! ‘I Found Myself’ with its subtle and very beautiful string introduction resembles past Beach Boys marvels. The lyrics are all about self-realisation and (of course) love: “When I’m with you/You bring me close to heaven/I never thought that we/Could give another so touched/You show me such love/You build a world/So true so in love/That everything is possible/High above the world/You understand me/You undertsand how I love you.”

‘Twice In A Lifetime’opens with a superb Fiddler On The Roof/Jewish style string intro followed closely by brilliant harmonica moments. A brilliantly catchy melody, one of the best and most expressive vocals on the record, good lyrics and a magical instrumental arrangement/production results in the record’s best song and my absolute favourite. For me, one of the songs of the year.

Anderson, his musicians and producer have created one of the sonically attractive records of the year. There’s diversity of pace and sound, and much adventure without sacrificing accessibility. The overall message of love and peace can be a bit overbearing but in total this is a wonderful record that deserbes to be heard, and its timing couldn’t be more appropriate…

4/5

https://www.jonanderson.com/

Biography

Jon Anderson is undoubtedly one of the most recognizable voices in progressive rock as the lead vocalist and creative force behind Yes. Anderson was the author and a major creative influence behind the ground-breaking album Fragile as well as the series of epic, complex pieces such as “Awaken”, “Gates of Delirium” and especially “Close to the Edge” which were central to the band’s success. Additionally, Anderson co-authored the group’s biggest hits, including “I’ve Seen All Good People”, “Roundabout”, and “Owner Of A Lonely Heart”.

Never to stand still musically, he is getting ready to release an album he started 28 years ago through Blue Élan Records. The album’s title, 1,000 Hands is a reference to the fact that numerous guest musicians perform on the album, including Ian Anderson, Billy Cobham, Jean-Luc Ponty, Steve Morse, Chick Corea, Zap Mama, Chris Squire, Alan White, Steve Howe and many more. This album, produced by his friend Michael Franklin, really speaks to the power of a musical life still in the throes of a fervent artistic endeavor, always wanting new experiences in music, always wanting to surprise the listener. The album comes out on July 31, 2020 and will be offered on deluxe double gatefold vinyl, CD, and through all digital platforms.

If you asked Jon, he would say that he loves the adventure in making music, as evidenced in 50 years of success in the music business, working not only with many variations of Yes, but also with very successful collaborations with Vangelis and Kitaro, and more recently with Roine Stolt and Jean-Luc Ponty. His collaboration with Vangelis produced a number of hit records, including Friends of Mr Cairo which was groundbreaking in its use of narrative voiceover, creating a phenomenon that was copied by many artists and producers, most notably Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones with “Thriller”. As Jon would say, “We all copy each-others musical dreams, it’s the cross-pollenization of music that keeps the world spinning around”.

In the mid 70’s he created a pure solo album, in every sense of the word: performing all the music, playing every instrument, writing a storyline, and of course singing all the vocals in the critically acclaimed Olias of Sunhillow… a milestone in recording and adventurous creativity. You only need to look at his output of solo albums over the years to see how inventive his life in music has been, from Animation to Song of Seven, Three Ships to Toltec, City of Angels to The More You Know, to name just a few. All of these albums marked his own progression and adventure through music…leading up to 2009 following his near death, the release of the life affirming album Survival and Other Stories.

In 2015, Jon partnered with his dear friend, world renowned jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, creating a wonderful fusion of jazz and progressive rock in the album Better Late than Never. In 2016, Jon joined forces with well-known prog rock guitarist and producer Roine Stolt, to create Invention of Knowledge, an album that garnered great acclaim with critics and fans alike. In 2017 Jon reformed YES with former band members Trevor Rabin and Rick Wakeman … YES Featuring ARW has toured the world to rave reviews and released the Live At The Apollo CD/DVD in September 2018.

Finally, in Jon’s words: “Music is our spiritual connection to the soul, that’s why people all over the world connect to Music and to each other through Music.”

Live Performance Image By By Clausgroi