Clive Nolan & Oliver Wakeman’s “Dark Fables” was released on November 5, 2021. This standalone release was originally the third CD from Clive Nolan and Oliver Wakeman’s “Tales By Gaslight” box set released earlier this year.
“Dark Fables” contains over 30 minutes of music conceived for the abandoned “Frankenstein” album which would have joined the duo’s “Jabberwocky” and “Hound Of The Baskervilles” collaborations. As with the previous albums, “Dark Fables” features the duo’s virtuosic keyboard playing with sublime performances from Gordon Giltrap, Paul Manzi (The Sweet, Arena, Oliver Wakeman Band). Andy Sears (Twelfth Night), Karl Groom (Threshold), David Mark Pearce (Oliver Wakeman Band, Munroe’s Thunder) and Charlotte Dickerson.
The set also includes unused pieces from their “The Hound Of The Baskervilles” album; “The Man Called Sherlock”, which was the original version of the “Overture”, and “221B”, inspired by Sherlock Holmes’ famous address in Baker Street. In addition, the release also features Rick Wakeman narrating the “Jabberwocky Poem” in full, a perfect way to round off the twists and turns of another Nolan/Wakeman project! Clive Nolan (Pendragon, Arena) and Oliver Wakeman (YES, Strawbs) first combined their considerable keyboard and compositional talents to create the two aforementioned rock opera/concept albums in 1999 and 2002. Peter Pracownik was the creative behind the original “The Hound Of The Baskervilles” artwork 20 years ago and has employed his talents again for the sleeve of “Dark Fables”.
You can listen to the single release, “Why Do You Hate Me” on Oliver’s YouTube channel:https://youtu.be/hHgejgg5Wy4
The record is now available on all streaming platforms and is also available to purchase either directly from Cherry Red or from Oliver’s store at Burning Shed
Clive Nolan & Oliver Wakeman’s “Dark Fables” will be released on November 5, 2021. This standalone release was originally the third CD from Clive Nolan and Oliver Wakeman’s “Tales By Gaslight” box set released earlier this year.
“Dark Fables” contains over 30 minutes of music conceived for the abandoned “Frankenstein” album which would have joined the duo’s “Jabberwocky” and “Hound Of The Baskervilles” collaborations. As with the previous albums, “Dark Fables” features the duo’s virtuosic keyboard playing with sublime performances from Gordon Giltrap, Paul Manzi (The Sweet, Arena, Oliver Wakeman Band). Andy Sears (Twelfth Night), Karl Groom (Threshold), David Mark Pearce (Oliver Wakeman Band, Munroe’s Thunder) and Charlotte Dickerson.
The set also includes unused pieces from their “The Hound Of The Baskervilles” album; “The Man Called Sherlock”, which was the original version of the “Overture”, and “221B”, inspired by Sherlock Holmes’ famous address in Baker Street. In addition, the release also features Rick Wakeman narrating the “Jabberwocky Poem” in full, a perfect way to round off the twists and turns of another Nolan/Wakeman project!
Clive Nolan (Pendragon, Arena) and Oliver Wakeman (YES, Strawbs) first combined their considerable keyboard and compositional talents to create the two aforementioned rock opera/concept albums in 1999 and 2002. Peter Pracownik was the creative behind the original “The Hound Of The Baskervilles” artwork 20 years ago and has employed his talents again for the sleeve of “Dark Fables”.
You can listen to the single release, “Why Do You Hate Me” on Oliver’s YouTube channel:https://youtu.be/hHgejgg5Wy4
Track Listing:
1 The Overture 2 I’d Give You Anything 3 The Mirror 4 Elizabeth 5 Why Do You Hate Me? 6 The Wedding Approaches 7 Time Passe 8 A Descent Into Madness 9 221B 10 The Man Called Sherlock 11 The Baker Street Irregulars 12 The Jabberwocky
Legendary Prog Rock band YES reveals four previously unreleased 2010 recordings, on the new ‘From A Page’ five piece mini-box set, personally overseen by ex-member Oliver Wakeman. OUT NOW!
25th October 2019: YES has returned to the recordings made in late 2010 to mix the four completed tracks as new content for a miniature five piece box set of recordings from that era.
The box features two booklets and three discs containing the four studio tracks and Live From Lyon 2009, all of which were recorded by the line-up of Chris Squire, Steve Howe, Alan White, Benoit David and Oliver Wakeman:
To The Moment (6:09)
Words on a Page (6:18)
From the Turn of a Card (3:24)
The Gift of Love (9:52)
Oliver Wakeman has personally overseen the preparation of the previously unreleased recordings which were mixed by Karl Groom and mastered by Mike Pietrini.
The box and one of the booklets features new artwork by Roger Dean, and the graphic design was undertaken by Oliver Wakeman, plus the set also includes his newly written liner notes about his time in the band.
The double CD album Live From Lyon was first released in 2010 and this edition restores “Second Initial” which was previously a Japanese only bonus track. The booklet for Live From Lyon has been re-designed and expanded.
Steve Howe described the project as “Good music never goes away or lays down to the commercial pressures that exist. Oliver’s compositions, “To the Moment”, “Words on a Page” and “From the Turn of a Card” demonstrate his musicality and talents, while “The Gift of Love” explores the collaborative essence of Yes, pooling ideas and then working together on its arrangement, whilst utilising all of its many themes and variations. Karl Groom and Roger Dean both contributed their skills towards making this a worthy further ‘page’ in Yes’ long and diverse musical adventures.”
Oliver Wakeman says: “Following Chris Squire’s passing, I felt that the new music we’d created, but not released, should be heard and not sit unfinished on a shelf. And with Steve, Alan and Benoit’s enthusiasm for the project, I am proud to know that this music will get to see the light of day and, hopefully, be enjoyed by YES fans as a piece of previously hidden Yes history.”
Alan White added: “I’m pleased to see a gem of YES history coming to fruition in the form of this mini box set. New songs from the past and I’m hoping we can find even more music in the archives for future releases.”
The set is IN STOCK NOW and exclusively available from the band’s own Burning Shed store and it cannot be bought in the shops or on Amazon.
The mini-box set and a vinyl release of the new songs are exclusively available here: burningshed.com/store/yes
VANCOUVER BC – John Vehadija has reunited with his cast of high class musicians for ‘Truthonomy’, the new album by Light Freedom Revival, which is released on July 3rd, 2018.
Along the bright sounds of Jamie Glaser’s acoustic guitar and Vehadija’s ethereal vocals, Billy Sherwood returns for the rhythm section (Drums and Bass), as well as Oliver Wakeman (piano and keyboards) and Marisa Frantz (Harmony Vocals). Eric Gillette also joins in the project by providing additional electric guitar as well as mixing and mastering.
This talented team was called up by Vehadija once again to help him express his ideas in the form of a new concept album that offers new insights in his own spiritual journey and the science of Truthonomy.
John Vehadija believes in the existence of an absolute truth and he relied on his spiritual knowledge to create a story of soul awakening, for the seeker to rediscover Creation as a living being self aware of itself. Truthonomy is defined to represent a light truth economy in an open universe system which develops society with divine tunnel visions of how to consciously manifest one’s destiny.
“It’s hard to explain how this album came to be because it was totally unplanned, but it’s partially based on my travels to major capitals on different continents, and so I tried to create a unified world perception beyond the countries we live in to reach a standard of a new kind of planetary civilization. As I was writing the songs,” said Vehadija, “I realized it is a concept album of someone moving through many parallel negative timelines, constantly searching for the truth, trying to find the original one that had once been his real home, a place from where it’s safe to project into the future and reality will not anti respond to soul impulse calculations. I’m proud of the way it came out, it represents almost a new style of music, you can love it or hate it, but you cannot dismiss it. I felt it was my soul mission to express this for humanity. I didn’t want to create dogma, I wanted to create freedom and awareness. I wanted it to be like a self reflective mirror for the soul. In my opinion we should all deal with the truth as we understand it, and not just put it aside it and ignore it forever.”
Jamie Glaser had this to say about the record: “‘Truthonomy’ is one of the most interesting projects I have gotten a chance to work on in recent memory. John is great to make music with; he’s a super talented man and I appreciated his positivity; he always makes sure to write stories in both words and music that keep the listener spiritually uplifted and sonically on an adventure. He gave me a lot of freedom to create my parts and it was always a great and fun challenge.”
“As I finished all bases and drums I realized it all sounded very cool!” said Billy Sherwood “I like the general feel for all the music, it’s a bit more simplified and earthy than the last CD! It was a fun record to make and I’m happy with the way it came out.”
Oliver Wakeman tells us: “I’m glad John was happy with the keyboard performances I recorded for his new album… there were a couple of tracks, like ‘Emma’ and ‘Lies No More’, which in particular I really enjoyed playing on. Working on John’s album also gave me the opportunity to use some new keyboard sounds courtesy of IK Multimedia as well as recording using my Dexibell piano. It’s always fun to play on a project with talented musicians and John has gathered a bunch of great artists to bring his vision to life. I’m pleased he asked me to be a part of it.”
Marisa Frantz who did the harmonies for the whole album, shares her thoughts about the song “Truthonomy” which clocks at just over sixteen minutes: “It’s a truly epic song, captivating from beginning to end! It has so many beautiful melodies which were fun to put together. I had to do a variety of backgrounds including lyrical harmonies as well as other vocal textures and dynamics. I also wanted to give it space to breathe in spots. It was a pleasure working on this project for John.”
“I have never seen a more beautiful thought provoking cover” Vehadija tells us about the CD artwork provided again by the international visual artist Ed Unitsky. “I’m very happy about this new album and that John contacted me again to create the cover!” said Unitsky.
Intended to be a true work of art, something that both prog audiences and music lovers in general will be very satisfied with, ‘Truthonomy’ is available in CD Digipack and MP3 Format starting July 3rd on lightfreedomrevival.com as well as Amazon, iTunes, Spotify and other major distributors.
For a limited time, ‘Truthonomy’ is also available in a ‘High Definition Audio’ Crystal USB format with bonus tracks on lightfreedomrevival.com
Progressive rock band Mars Hollow has announced that they will be recording a new album after a nearly 5-year hiatus. The announcement was made during a semi-reunion show and subsequent radio interview in June, and came on the heels of a show billed as “John Baker and Steve Mauk Perform the Music of Mars Hollow” in Chicago. The show was the first time Mars Hollow has performed live since May, 2012. The most recent studio effort from the group was the track “So Far Away,” which also had a video release and was included on the Mars Hollow Live album. The album, also available on DVD, documented the band’s ‘Church of Prog’ spot at RosFest, 2011 and was released in Fall of 2012.
However, guitarist and lead vocalist John Baker says that the new band will update both its name and line-up to fit the spirit and music of the new incarnation, and will be called “Life After Mars.” The band’s debut album release is tentatively scheduled for Summer, 2018.
Says John, “As Life After Mars is the newly reformed incarnation of Mars Hollow, the best way to explain it is ‘Mars Hollow…the Next Generation.”
Mars Hollow landed on the progressive rock scene in 2010 with their self-titled debut album, produced by Ronan Chris Murphy, and followed up in 2011 with “World In Front of Me,” co-produced by Mars Hollow’s John Baker and Billy Sherwood, now of Yes. Playing festivals and numerous gigs in the USA, Mexico and Canada, the band also played and toured with Billy Sherwood’s Circa, and received accolades and positive reviews for several years. In the spirit of progressive rock, “Life After Mars” seems a natural progression.
Says John, “I think of this as good timing. A perfect time to rethink your mindset, and have a new jumping off point. At one time, walking on the moon, or landing on Mars was the future. Everyone wondered if there was life on mars, and now they are talking about colonization of Mars. Truly, the FUTURE is life AFTER mars.”
Life After Mars features:
John Baker – lead vocals and guitars
Don Schiff – NS stick, various basses and string instruments
Lisa LaRue – keyboards
Emily Dolan Davies – drums
Bios:
JOHN BAKER
Throughout the years, John Baker has held stints as guitarist and backing vocalist for various original bands and musicians, including Christian Love of “The Beach Boys” and bassist for The Little Girls. Since 1995, John has been operating a successful studio business, comprised of music projects, audio drama, and dialogue work. In the music field, John has worked with many musicians and producers, including Mick Taylor (Rolling Stones) and Richie Zito (Elton John, Tina Turner, Heart). In the dialogue field, John has directed, engineered, and edited hundreds of audio books including works by authors such as Robert Ludlum, Danielle Steele and Deepak Chopra. John Baker, an original member of Mars Hollow, is also the lead vocalist for the LA-based progressive rock band, Forever Twelve, who has just completed their 4th studio album, Home, on Melodic Revolution Records.
DON SCHIFF
Don Schiff has worked with some of the best – including Elvis Presley, Tina Turner, Pat Benatar, Sheryl Crow, Sammy Davis, Arjen Lucassen among many others. Don is also a member of Rocket Scientists. Having scored soundtracks as well as acted in TV shows and films such as “Live From Death Row” and “84 Charlie Mopic,” he has also received gold records for co-writing for Pat Benatar’s “Wide Awake in Dreamland” and Winfield/Schiff’s “Cerebral Man.” Don is internationally known for his expertise with the NS/Chapman stick. He was also a member of Lisa LaRue’s former band 2KX.
LISA LaRUE
Keyboardist Lisa LaRue has worked with many musicians including: John Payne (Asia), Don Schiff (Rocket Scientists, Tina Turner, Elvis, and more), Ryo Okumoto (Spock’s Beard), Michael Sadler (Saga), Oliver Wakeman (Yes). Esquire (Nikki Squire) and others. Lisa has been awarded Oklahoma Native American Artist of the Year and nominated for other awards including the Hollywood Music Awards, Los Angeles Music Awards, and the Native American Music Awards. She collaborated with Gilli Smyth of Gong on a self-released album titled “Dreamscapes,” and has released 5 solo albums, 1 album with Lisa LaRue Project 2K9, 2 albums with Lisa LaRue 2KX, and 1 album with Federico Fantacone (Fantacone/LaRue – Sonic Landscapes).
EMILY DOLAN DAVIES
Emily Dolan Davies is a British drummer who has been playing since age 11, with full time gigging beginning at age 18. She has extensive experience in many genres as a session and live drummer, in addition to playing with artists such as Bryan Ferry, The Thompson Twins, The Darkness, and many more. She is currently touring with Howard Jones.
Here’s what the press have said about Mars Hollow:
“It’s quite clear that Mars Hollow is a band to be reckoned with. This is no garage band, but a very serious group of players with some serious chops.” – Rok Podgrajšek – The Rocktologist
“If you take a little bit of Yes – mostly in John Baker’s vocals – and a little bit of Rush (also there in the vocals), that’s a bit what Mars Hollow sound like.” – Stephanie Sollow – ProgressiveWorld.net
“Each member of the quartet is a star player in his own right. Their sound is a rocking and melodic mix of the best of Yes & Genesis with a bit of latter-day King Crimson.” – Mike Flavin – USA Prog Music
“I would consider Mars Hollow to be a band that will withstand the test of time for the advancement of the progressive genre.” – Grant Hill – Music Street Journal
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