John Kelman of AllAboutJazz.com has written an excellent piece about the trajectory of Steven Wilson’s career, intertwining details about Wilson’s music, career choices, and closest collaborators:

He is undeniably one of the hardest working men in music. In addition to ongoing work as surround sound and new stereo remixer for bands including King Crimson, Yes, Jethro Tull, XTC, Hawkwind, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Tears for Fears, Simple Minds, Roxy Music and Caravan, with more groups being added on a regular basis, Steven Wilson has, since 2009—when he placed his flagship group Porcupine Tree on indefinite hiatus—built a solo career that has grown at a remarkable rate with each passing year.

While he released his first solo record, the acclaimed Insurgentes (Kscope), in 2009, it wasn’t until the release of the even better-received double-disc follow-up, 2011’s Grace for Drowning (Kscope), that, with sufficient repertoire and the formation of a touring band—which, despite occasional shifts due to scheduling issues and instrumental requirements, has remained relatively stable ever since—the singer/guitarist/keyboardist began hitting the road with a live show that may have run on a smaller budget (and initially played in smaller venues) than Porcupine Tree, but looked every bit a big-budget show, with spectacular rear projections, lighting and other visual and sonic effects.

But one of the most important things that Wilson learned from his years fronting Porcupine Tree has been the importance of momentum. In order to build a career and not just retain but continually grow his audience, Wilson understands that he needs to be a constant presence. Wilson has continued to release studio albums like clockwork every two years, with Grace for Drowning followed, first, by 2013’s even more progressive-leaning The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories) (Kscope)—an album which had become, according to Wilson at the time of his February, 2015 All About Jazzinterview (coinciding with the release of his fourth studio album), …”the most successful album of my whole career…the best-selling record I’ve ever done”; and, most recently, 2015’s even more ambitious concept album, Hand. Cannot. Erase. (Kscope).

While still sufficiently entrenched in progressive rock to retain his growing legion of fans of that genre, Hand. Cannot. Erase. also reflects his broader interests more so than any album since Insurgentes—interests that have always been a part of his identity in side projects like Bass Communion, Incredible Expanding Mindfuck, and his decade-plus duo project with singer Tim Bowess, No-Man, amongst many others. Topping numerous charts and continuing to grow his audience beyond the conventional “grey hairs and no hairs” who largely populate the progressive rock community, Wilson’s penchant for a good pop song, while easily identifiable in Porcupine Tree songs like “Lazarus,” and “The Sound of Muzak,” has never been so seamlessly blended with his progressive leanings, his predilection for electronics/electronica/noise music, and a multiplicity of other concerns as it is on Hand. Cannot. Erase. His world tour in support of that album—which began at its release and has continued into 2016—been so successful that, as just one example, he sold out two nights at the 2015 Festival International de Jazz De Montréal, playing a venue that was considerably larger than Club Soda, where he’d brought The Raven tour two years earlier…and for just one night.

But beyond keeping his website and Facebook pages regularly active with news, video clips and more, Wilson has also continued to maintain momentum with additional releases since 2011. Catalogue | Preserve | Amass was self-released in February, 2012; a single-disc live album issued in a limited-run that quickly sold out and now commands well over $100 on sites like Amazon and Discogs. Get All You Deserve (Kscope, 2012) came just seven months later, documenting an entire show and released on DVD, Blu Ray, and a Deluxe Edition that included both Blu Ray and DVD, as well as two CDs housed in a hardcover book with tour photos that also placed emphasis on Lasse Hoile’s stunning imagery.

Just eight months after the release of The Raven That Refused to Sing came Drive Home(Kscope, 2013), a DVD/CD or Blu Ray/CD combo that, in addition to the videos for The Raven‘s evocative title track and “Drive Home,” one of the album’s more accessible tracks, included four concert videos of material from The Raven and one live song fromInsurgentes.

See the entire piece, which is a “must read”, I think, for progarchists.