Italian musician Stefano Panunzi0, creates an atmospheric Art Rock sound pitched somewhere between the elegance of David Sylvian, Talk Talk and No-Man and the rock sensibility of Pink Floyd and Porcupine Tree. Now he has moved on with a new band: Fjieri.

Ten years in the making, Fjieri’s debut album Endless represents the satisfying conclusion to a meticulously executed labour of love.

The band, led by Stefano Panunzi and Nicola Lori, are joined by an impressive cast of guest musicians, including Mick Karn, Tim Bowness, Peter Chilvers and Porcupine Tree members, Gavin Harrison and Richard Barbieri.

Co-produced by Barbieri, the album artfully combines Ambient and Progressive Rock influences to create a sophisticated sound that incorporates delicate atmospherics, rich melodies and hard-hitting riffs.

Track listing

• 1. A Reality Apart
• 2. A Big Hope
• 3. Ad Occhi Chiusi (Vocals by Andrea Chimenti)
• 4. Marcinelle
• 5. Breathing The Thin Air (Vocals by Tim Bowness)
• 6. Endless (Vocals by Tim Bowness)
• 7. Soul Eaters (Vocals by Haco)
• 8. The Breath Of The Earth
• 9. Lotus Flower

For audio samples go to http://www.myspace.com/fjieri

Stefano Panunzi

"No opportunity necessary" from "Time and a Word" Nov 69

“The Lost Broadcasts”, a DVD now available from Voiceprint, contains early television appearances of the Yes band between 1969 and 1971 with the band showcasing tracks from their first three albums. Among the rarities here are unseen takes as well as footage that has not been seen or properly presented since they were filmed around 40 years ago. The DVD consists primarily of live performances in both black & white and color, and provides a fascinating view of the band from their formative stages through their breakthrough with “The Yes Album”.

2008 was an important year for Yes. It was the year in which the band celebrated its fortieth anniversary. The band, still led by founder Chris Squire, toured America with the latest line up to bear the name of this rather special band of musicians. 2008 was also important for another reason, as towards the end of the year, whilst looking for footage for an entirely different project, a researcher unearthed the footage that is now included on this DVD

Yes first came together under the name Mabel Greer’s Toyshop, a name rather in keeping with the previous year’s “Summer of Love” ethos. However, by 1968, the name was beginning to lose its shine. The final line up of Mabel Greer’s Toyshop included Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Peter Banks, Tony Kaye and Bill Bruford. The name change from Mabel Greer’s Toyshop to Yes came in August 1968 when, following a couple of days rehearsing at the Lucky Horseshoe cafe in Shaftsbury Avenue, the band played their first gig as Yes at the Mersea Youth Club in Essex, although the first recorded actual billing of Yes at a gig was a two-show stand at the famous Marquee club some two days later on the 5th of August.

The reason for the name Yes, I hear you ask? Well according to Peter Banks it was instantly recognisable, extremely positive and more importantly looked big on posters advertising the band’s gigs. Between August and the end of December 1968 the band played fifty-five gigs throughout the length and breadth of the country. One special gig, however, on the 26th of November gave Yes a taste of what lay just around the corner for the band, when they were added to the bill of Cream’s farewell performance at London’s Royal Albert Hall. The band were bottom of the bill under Rory Gallagher’s Taste, John Hiseman’s Colosseum and, of course, Cream. Despite being incredibly nervous, the band acquitted itself well and from here on things moved quickly. The band were invited to record a session for John Peel’s Top Gear show in January 1969, the first of many recorded for the BBC, and shortly after secured a recording contract with the giant Atlantic Records label.

Over the coming months the band recorded their debut album – the epnymously titled “Yes” (not to be confused with ‘The Yes Album’ from two years later). The album featured a mix of covers and original material which was fairly representative of the bands live set at this time and was released in July of 1969. The band by now had started performing gigs overseas and from the fifty five concerts performed by Yes in 1968 the band performed a hectic two hundred and three concerts in 1969 and also managed to fit in a number of TV appearances both in the UK and Europe, including the first appearance featured on this DVD filmed for the German television programme ‘Beat Club’ in November 1969.

The tracks performed here are No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed, Looking Around and Survival. Of the three tracks Looking Around and Survival were from the first Yes album and No Opportunity was a Richie Havens song the band had worked up for live performance and would feature as the opening track on the bands second album Time and A Word which would be released in July 1970. Only No Opportunity would be featured in the actual broadcast from this mini live set and was duly broadcast on the 29th of November 1969. In fact an interesting aside is that this particular edition of ‘Beat Club’ was the penultimate edition to be filmed in black and white. The show would change to colour after the final show of the year on the thirty first of December.

The set performed by Yes on this occasion would have been a cut down version of the bands live set, and Jon Anderson introduced the numbers, although he forgets which camera he is on whilst introducing Looking Around, much to the amusement of the rest of the band. The performance is a tight concise and well disciplined one proving that the live work undertaken by Yes in 1969 had sharpened up their musical skills no end. More importantly in terms of footage available from this period very little has survived making this small but historically important piece of film of the original line up of Yes all the more important.

The next clip featured here is a colour clip of the band performing Time And A Word. The performance is a lip synched performance as was the norm for many television programmes of the time and the band seem to be enjoying themselves performing the title track of their second album. Despite the good natured performance however there was an underlying tension which had arisen during the recording of Time And A Word. Peter Banks is featured here in possibly one of his last TV appearances with the band he helped to form. Just over seven weeks after this performance Peter Banks was sacked from Yes following a gig in Luton on the 18th of April 1970. Time And A Word the final album to feature Peter as a member of Yes was released in July 1970 by which time Peter’s successor Steve Howe was installed as the guitarist in Yes where despite a few periods where he has chosen to play with other bands such as Asia and GTR he has remained ever since

The next section of footage comes from another ‘Beat Club’ appearance filmed on the 19th of April 1971. The two tracks featured on the programme which was aired on the 24th of April were I’ve Seen All Good People and Yours Is No Disgrace however researchers recently found a second take of Yours Is No Disgrace which is slightly faster than the original take. This second take has remained in the vault until now as it was decided to use the first take rather than the slightly faster retake.

Following on from these TV performances Yes would finally break through with their third album, The Yes album and, following more changes in lineup, which saw Rick Wakeman replacing Tony Kaye, the band would go onto even greater success with albums such as Fragile, Close To The Edge & Tales From Topographic Oceans in the seventies through the eighties with albums like 90125 and Big Generator, and then to the bands most recent studio album, Magnification, which was recorded with a full orchestra in 2001

The band, despite short periods of inactivity and a great many changes in personnel (which has seen Chris Squire as the only constant throughout the bands history), have weathered the storms of fashion and commercial whims and released almost twenty studio albums and a number of live albums in the period 1968-2008. Yes have also remained hugely popular in the live arena and are still able to fill some of the largest arenas worldwide to audiences both young and old.

The performances featured on this DVD however are from the very early days of the band. You could say from a time “Before and Beyond” their massive success; but the spark of what made them the massively successful band they became is visible here for all to see and hear.

Dulcima the new album from Rhys Marsh and the Autumn Ghost

Following on the success of the critically-acclaimed debut album, ‘The Fragile State Of Inbetween’, Rhys Marsh returns with ‘Dulcima’, his second Autumn Ghost album in the space of a year.

From the provocative saunter of ‘In The Afterglow’, via the requiem-esque ‘Divide In Silence’, the snake-charmer’s swagger of ‘Nine Times Beautiful’, and the deceptively-innocent lilt of ‘You’ll Never Fall’, to the full-on prog assault of ‘In Dark, In Light’, this is a dark affair through-and-through, which, while still retaining much of its predecessor’s melancholy, barely surfaces from its intense and often dense soundscape.

‘Dulcima’ was written and recorded simultaneously, over the course of seven months, in Trondheim, London and New York. The city atmosphere was an important influence in these songs, as they helped to harness the urgency that Marsh wanted to capture. Another important facet of this album is that, like his debut, many of the songs feature elements from the initial demo recordings. It’s this spontaneity and energy that further sets ‘Dulcima’ away from its peers.

Alongside his long-standing rhythm section of Jo Fougner Skaansar (double bass) and Takashi Mori (drums), this album also features the heavy-handed help of Mattias Olsson (Änglagård), Ketil Einarsen (Jaga Jazzist), Trude Eidtang (White Willow) and Lars Fredrik Frøislie (Wobbler).

‘Dulcima’ comes in a beautiful six-panel digipak, complete with lyrics.

• 1. In The Afterglow (5:12)
• 2. The Frightened Souls (5:03)
• 3. Divide In Silence (4:35)
• 4. Nine Times Beautiful (8:10)
• 5. The Safety Of All You Know (10:04)
• 6. You’ll Never Fall (4:22)
• 7. Surrendered (5:57)
• 8. In Dark, In Light (9:36)

credits

• Rhys Marsh — voice, guitars, piano, mellotron, rebab, orchestrations (1-8)
• Trude Eidtang — voice (1, 2, 4, 8 )
• Jo Fougner Skaansar — double & electric basses (1-8)
• Mattias Olsson — drums, celeste, orchestron, mellotron (1, 4, 6)
• Anna Giddey — violin (2, 7)
• Natalie Rozario — cello (2, 7), orchestration (2)
• Takashi Mori — drums (2, 5, 6, 8 )
• Ketil Vestrum Einarsen — flute, spektrals (4)
• Gaute Storsve — electric guitar solo (5)
• Timbre Cierpke — harp (7)
• Lars Fredrik Frøislie — hammond, moog, autoharp, celeste (8)

Recorded from October ‘08 to April ‘09 by Rhys Marsh at Autumnsongs, Trondheim, Norway; Takashi Mori at Studio Bosco, Shiga, Japan; Mattias Olsson at Roth Händle, Stockholm, Sweden; Lars Fredrik Frøislie at The Pig Farm, Hønefoss, Norway; Christian Paulsen at Battlefront Studio, Asker, Norway; Gaute Storsve at Ignored Studio, Oslo, Norway; Konrad Snyder at Castle Recording Studio, Nashville, USA; Ketil Vestrum Einarsen at Vibe Studios, Oslo, Norway

Produced & mastered by Rhys Marsh at Autumnsongs

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