Tag: Pyramids and Stars

Backstory to The Tangent’s PYRAMIDS AND STARS (2005)

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rockLeave a comment
2005. Very rare.
2005.  The Tangent’s first live album.

Ian Oakley posted this fascinating backstory on Facebook and very kindly gave me permission to repost here.  Thank you, Ian!

 Ok I may be totally biased as I tour managed the week and financed the CD – but this really is a remarkable live album – There was just something magic that night, it just seemed that for one reason or another that night everything came together at once and the band were firing on all cylinders. Then we had the enormous good fortune to have a venue sound engineer who was sympathetic to the music; because what you are hearing on that CD is basically a direct feed from the desk into a portable 4 track machine – which only really worked once on the whole tour – this night. No overdubs – just a raw live band doing only the 5th date of their entire career! Atmosphere wise there is only one other live ‘Prog’ album that I think captures a time and a place so well – Twelfth Night’s ‘Live and let Live’. So I totally agree with you Bradley, this is a real 3rd wave classic and I would go as so far to say it contains a far better performance of the material from ‘The World That We Drive Through’ than the studio album itself. . . .  I would add that this was also recorded just a week after some members of the band had actually physically met for the very first time – let alone played together! (I remember having to introduce Andy to Jonas at a TFK gig after TMTDA was recorded: “Hi Jonas” – “Hi you are?” – “Ahh I’m Andy we just recorded an album together”…

The Tangent’s PYRAMIDS AND STARS, 10 Years On

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rockLeave a comment

There are few bands that perform as well live as they do in the studio.  And, of course, there are some for which the opposite is true.

One band that only gets that much more interesting live is Andy Tillison’s ever-evolving The Tangent.  This year, amazingly enough, is the tenth anniversary of the first live The Tangent release, PYRAMIDS AND STARS.  Looking at the line up for that tour, one has to wonder if one is caught in some kind of heavenly time-loop or fantasy prog game.  Andy Tillison, Roine Stolt, Jonas Reingold, Sam Baines, and Zoltan Csorsz.  The lineup could be for a Flower Kings album or, perhaps, a Steven Wilson album.

2005. Very rare.
2005. Very rare.

The ever, endlessly talented Ed Unitsky painted the cover, and, of course, it’s gorgeous.

Only six songs make up this 77-minute feast: The World That We Drive Through; The Canterbury Sequence; The Winning Game; The Music That Died Alone; In Darkest Dreams; and the only song under six minutes in length, a cover version of (ELP) Lucky Man.

The songs—all of which come from the first two The Tangent albums—sound as gorgeous as Unitsky’s cover art would suggest.  This is The Tangent, but it’s The Tangent fully alive.  What happened in the studio is merely prologue.  That the embryo, this the fine young man come of age.

Andy and Roine are especially playful and open to the spirit of the muses.  Their love of this music is palatable.

Sadly, this live album is extremely hard to find, and I made it a point several years ago to dig deeply across and through the internet to find a copy.  It was well worth the hunt, for I treasure this album like no other.  It’s a precious thing to behold.