Magnification (album)
Occupation
- Jon Anderson - vocals, MIDI guitar, acoustic guitar
- Steve Howe - guitar, steel guitar, mandolin, vocals
- Chris Squire - bass, vocals
- Alan White - drums, percussion, piano, vocals
- San Diego Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Larry Groupé
Magnification is the twentieth studio album by the progressive rock band Yes, released in 2001. According to Time and a Word (1970 ) it is the second album, the recordings Yes with an orchestra.
Formation
After the departure of keyboardist Igor Khoroshev the four remaining members of Yes, Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squire and Alan White decided on a proposal from Howes to exploit the situation and replace it on their next album the keyboards by an orchestra. The band then contacted the film music composer Larry Groupé as co- arranger and conductor for their next album. Groupé was previously primarily for his work in character assassination - has become known beyond morality. As a producer, dedicated to Tim Weidner, who had ten years earlier worked on Steve Howe's solo album Turbulence.
In February 2001, the band went into the studio ( Sound Design Studios, Santa Barbara, California ) to work together on the songs for the new album. First four demos were recorded, which Groupé wrote his first orchestral parts. This liked the band so much that Groupé was increasingly involved in the course of working in the creative process.
In the absence of a keyboardist, keyboard instruments of Alan White, Chris Squire and Steve Howe were served.
Groupé the band had regularly visited the studio and by and written to the orchestral parts. Yes had there, where else about keyboard solos would have been allowed to hear, larger space for the orchestra. Groupé played the music now with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra one, with whom he had worked previously. In May, the work was largely completed. The album was at least partially mixed at Studio of former Yes singer and producer Trevor Horn in Los Angeles. This work was completed in August.
Although the pieces are compositionally clearly demarcated from each other, Groupé composed orchestral transitions in some places. This prompted Jon Anderson to the utterance, one would work on a 60 -minute piece. However, this was not the case.
Track list
Notes:
- All pieces were written by Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Steve Howe and Alan White. The orchestral music comes as the arrangements of Larry Groupé, who also conducted the orchestra.
- Can You Imagine is from the year 1981 by the XYZ Sessions with Chris Squire, Alan White and Jimmy Page, as it was before And (Do) You Believe It? and Can You See or Unknown Song # 1 become known. The version on Magnification is the first Yes song with Squire as lead singer, who is also the main author of the song.
- In The Presence of based on a song idea Whites to the Anderson contributed the melody and the lyrics.
- Time Is Time was mainly written by Anderson.
- In the U.S., three different versions of the album from three different dealers were sold. Each of these versions included a bonus CD. In all there was an orchestral version of Long Distance Runaround by Yes album Fragile, the first song was each other: a live version of ritual from the album Tales from Topographic Oceans ( 28:05, at Best Buy ), a live version of The Gates of Delirium from Relayer album ( 22:43, at FYE / Transworld ), a live version of Close to the Edge from the album Close to the Edge ( 20:26, at Borders ). All recordings were from a concert of the Masterworks tour, on 19 July 2000 in Holmdel, New Jersey.
Cover
The cover was designed by Bob Cesca based on a story by Jon Anderson called The Machine, which Anderson has published online.
Chart success
Magnification (Eagle 189EAG ) reached # 71 in the UK and place 186 in the U.S. charts. The album was released on September 11, 2001, the day of the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington.
Reissues
2002
In 2002, the album was re-released in a limited edition with different packaging and a bonus CD. The second disc contains three live recordings and a CD -ROM track with an interview, a video for Do not Go and a live video of The Gates of Delirium by Yes album Relayer.
2004
Two years later, the album was re-released again, this time with a different bonus CD. It contained more live recordings:
The concert footage on two bonus CDs came from the Magnification Tour (22 July 2001 - 13 December 2001 69 concerts), are heard next to Anderson, Howe, Squire and White tour keyboardist Tom Brislin and the European Festival Orchestra under the direction of Wilhelm Keitel. All recordings can be found on the DVD Symphonic Live.
Review
In an interview from October 2003, guitarist Steve Howe expressed in hindsight very critical of magnification. His guitar had been urged by the orchestra too far to the edge, and he had less input than the other three musicians. Good ideas like the system to merge some pieces without orchestra or without vocals, were rejected in hindsight. On the whole, the album was too little brave.
Jon Anderson lamented in a 2005 interview with the magazine Billboard that the attempt with a more pop-rock oriented album - Magnification - to open up new Audited classes, had failed.
Live
- Some pieces of magnification can be heard on Songs from Tsongas, Live at Montreux 2003 and Symphonic Live.