In 1975, which was a momentous year for music, The late JohnMiles wrote, “Music was my first love and it will be my last, music of the future and music of the past”. Later on John lamented that in this world of troubles my music pulls me through. These are sentiments that I guess many heartily agree with, I certainly do, and I would imagine that Nick Fletcher would too, especially based on conversations that I’ve had with him. Whilst he might not live for music, being the family man that he is, there is little doubt that music through creating, producing and performing, plays a major part in his own life.
Of course, if we’re were talking about him in the 1970’s, Nick would be heralded as a major guitar hero and would invariably be highly rated amongst his peers. Sadly those days for guitarists are possibly over now. The irony is that, in Nick, you have a consummate talent who really deserves a bigger platform and reach that an independent release fails to offer him. Certainly, talent like Nick’s is rare and should be valued and recognised far more.
His new album, ‘A Longing For Home’, is a prime case of this. His last album, ‘Quadrivium’, was spectacular enough but this one takes the bar and lifts it up even higher, making this an album that will be the envy of many guitarists around the world. With its staggering displays of virtuosity, speed runs and flights of finger work, Nick most definitely makes that fretboard scorch and burn, as he does here amongst this albums ten tracks.
The album is the last part of a trilogy of albums made up of ‘The Cloud Of Unknowing’, ‘Quadrivium’ and now ‘A Longing For Home’, which concludes the trilogy through the genre of progressive jazz/rock fusion. On this release Nick explores the connections between science, religion and spirituality and how that relates to each of us as individuals.
The album begins with the excellent Satori which has a busy rhythm section plowing a mighty furrow and giving Nick a platform on which to solo furiously, an opportunity he makes the most of! The backing is spot on and you can sense that this is a field in which Nick excels and feels very comfortable indeed. The subtle keyboard work of Caroline Bonnett underpins everything with grace and aplomb and the groove reminds me of Spyrogyra at times, except Nick’s take on fusion is more fiery and less jazz-lite than Spyrogya’s ever was. The Secret Of The Ascent introduces Norwegian Jan Gunnar Hoff to proceedings and he is phenomenal here, helping create a background wash of keyboards that helps move the track along briskly and yet retaining its musical charm and integrity. Joy Turning Into Sorrow is a delicate classical guitar piece (Nick also has a fine pedigree in this realm having written and performed many solo classical guitar performances over the past 25 years or so). The Final keyboard notes of this piece lead us into the wonderfully evocative track Sitting In The Sunboat, which is a longer track in which Nick solos extensively and with style. Whilst his soloing is fiery, it is never at the expense of either melody of emotion, being both stylish and warm. The piano solo in the middle of the song also impresses greatly,
Even more impressive (if that’s possible) is the simply gorgeous Her Eyes Of AzureBlue, which Nick says called for a different approach from him. It has a very lyrical style and a features a fretless bass solo from Jonathon Ihlenfeld Cuniado which fits extremely well with the overall sound that the track conveys. Nick is most definitely a team player here, graciously sharing the platform with his fellow musicians and this helps and actually enhances the music that he makes. This shows that music is a collaborative effort and has a very symbiotic quality in which every one’s effort are rewarding to the listener. This track and its predecessor are the highlights of the album for me as together they convey the skill and vision employed here by all the participants. Whilst Nick’s name adorns the cover, it would not have the same depth of emotion without the help of Anika Nilles, Jonathan, Caroline and Jan’s presence and significant musical input. Anika’s drumming shows why Jeff Beck wanted her in his last band, her performances here are thundering, powerful but ultimately tasteful.
The next piece, A Pathway To The Hermitage, has a light, almost joyful, tone and title track A Longing For Home follows with a suitably cosmic and atmospheric sound which evokes the vastness of space, just how small and alone we are as a planet and how we are almost insignificant in the greater cosmos and universe. Nick’s guitar is laden with reverb and echo to help convey this vastness. With shades of David Gilmour on display here, this track is another winner! As is The Sage, The Monk and The Scholar, which is, to be truthful, a storming rocker of a track with a powerful riff and afiery guitar throughout. An epic guitar solo and a superb organ section help maintain the intensity of the track, one which rocks ferociously and is, unsurprisingly, another winner.
The penultimate piece is Crossing The Sacred Threshold which sees the return of the melody from The Secret Of The Ascent. This is a lovely touch and brings a sense of unity to proceedings in that we are reaching towards a conclusion of sorts. The album closes with the only vocalised track on the album, To Hear The Angels Sing. It has beautiful wordless vocalisations from Olga Karpova (Dikajee) whose presence brings a classy end to proceedings. Olga is a classically trained Opera singer and it shows here as she vocalises over a shimmering wash of sounds and textures from Nick’s elegant guitar. There are no keyboards or other instruments on show here and this is a peaceful final conclusion to the album and is very ethereal sounding indeed.
This album is without a doubt one of the first instrumental albums of the year with hints of some of the jazz fusion greats, Al Di Moela, Alan Holdsworth, Pat Metheny, John Mclaughlin and many others. Please don’t let this wonderful and terrific album slip by you otherwise you will definitely regret it!
John Wenlock-Smith: This latest album. ‘A Longing For Home’, completes a trilogy of albums, explain the themes behind these for me again please, if you will.
Nick Fletcher: The three albums are kind of all linked together thematically, all to do with the connection I can see between Science,Religion & Spirituality. I just think all these things, rather than being in opposition to each other, are in fact closely interwoven and the albums explore that connection and how they relate to that in our own lives and experiences. The albums explore that theme and how that relates to us each as an individual.
JWS: this album is fully instrumental, apart from the last track, why is that?
NF: I came to a point whilst making the last album where I realised that my strengths do not lie in songwriting, they lie in composing music. I’m not good at writing lyrics to express what I am feeling. The songwriting format is not one I’m comfortable with and the melodies I write are quite difficult for a singer to get to grips with and for them to do the songs justice.
On this latest recording, the last track has what appears to be a simple melody but it isn’t really, it has a big range and called for a specific type of singer, so it needed a specific voice who could bring the melody alive.
So, to that end, I sought assistance from a good friend of mine; Dikajee (her real name is Olga Karpova) who, as well a being a great prog singer, also is a trained opera singer. I think it felt that she was able to bring to life fully what I had envisaged.
JWS: Tell me about you writing process please Nick?
NF: It’s interesting that you say that! I guess that, compared to how many folks write these days, my way of writing could be deemed ‘Old School’, in that I hear the music in my head, develop it on my guitar (unplugged) and then I score it out. However, I don’t make any demo’s at all. So, when it comes to making the album, it means it can be difficult to convey what I hear to the musicians who I am working with.
Often Caroline Bonnet (my co- producer) looks at me oddly when i’m trying to explain things to her. It calls for an element of trust as she is used to hearing a demo version and working upwards from that. Whereas I hear it all in my head, so she has to trust my vision really. It’s one that requires zero technology, I never plug the guitar in a, if it works unplugged, I know it will work when it’s recorded. I try to avoid searching for the sound, I see sounds as colours and I don’t want that interrupted or overshadowed by sound.
I’m also a classical musician and that approach is tied in with that as well.
JWS: The artwork for the album is also very interesting!
NF: Yes, if you look at the cover and the inside CD tray, you will find there is a message hidden within and that connects the whole album together. It’s possibly a little cryptic but it is there if you look for it.
JWS: I’ve heard the album but the download I received wasn’t in the correct sequence so, whilst listening the other day, I had to keep flipping back to the track listing and then play the next track which meant the album didn’t flow continuously and in sequence meaning it was hard to fully grasp. When I get the album for myself then I can listen fully and without interruption and thus get the full picture clearly.
JWS: Do you hope to be able to play the album live at all?
NF: I would love to, it’s a dream that I’d love to be able to bring to reality. However, it’s not easily achievable due to finance and also logistical issues,plus most of the band on this album are based in Europe, which further complicates matters. So do schedules and timing, if it becomes feasible or possible then I’ll try to make the dream come true for certain.
One of the reasons for using a different band for this album was to reinforce the concept of music as being universal and a force to bring us closer together. There is more that unites us as opposed to separates us and I see music as a critical part of that path. It’s an important statement really.
JWS: So what’s happening with regard to the John Hackett Band?
NF: Well, next year marks the 50th anniversary of Steve Hackett’s ‘Voyage Of The Acolyte’, an album which John played a major part in both the writing and the recording of. So, next year, we are doing a number of songs from that album along with new songs from the forthcoming John Hackett Band album, which is nearly completed and will be entitled ‘Red Institution’. Although no release date has been set as yet but hopefully it’s not to far off now.
I’m also going to continue with some classical guitar shows again, along with continuing to write music for another album which will be a standalone album. However it will be another one with a conceptual narrative as I like having a concept to work with.
JWS: Do you have a favourite track from the three albums ?
NF: That’s a question I’ve never been asked before! Obviously I like them all but, possibly, the track Her Eyes Of Azure Blue from the new album ‘A Longing For Home’, as it calls for me to play in a different style, whereas normally I’m flying around the fretboard, doing pyrotechnics. Here it’s needs me to play in a more structured manner, which is different for me, I guess how I feel will change from day to day but today it’s that one.
I hope that helps!
JWS: Yes it certainly does. Well, Nick, that’s my questions, thank you for your time and the informative answers, I really appreciate it. I look forward to seeing you in November in Reading.
‘A Longing For Home’ is out now, order direct from Nick here:
In 2021 multi-instrumentalist Rik Loveridge‘s Parkinson’s diagnosis led to him leaving The Kentish Spires. The only proper responses were a little cry and a new album. The album was released in 2023 under the pseudonym of Single Helix and called ‘Prog Gnosis’. I had the pleasure of reviewing it, coming to the following conclusion, “With his Single Helix project and this Prog Gnosis album, Rik Loveridge is baring his soul, both musically and personally and, not only is it a superb release, it is very brave of him to do so. I can highly recommend this completely uplifting album, you won’t regret it.”
Rik has returned in 2024 and released a new album, this time under his own name, called ‘Generations’ and and with a title track inspired by a poem by Hamish MacNeil (AKA Macaque);
As men forget and are forgotten The stones remember And wood remembers, keeps Records in rings, and history Sings through other things buried In the earth.
We rub our lives against them In ignorance, unpick the fabric Of the past one kicked stone, one Dug ditch at a time. The broken Threads of lives fray like nerves, unravel, Reach out to touch and teach us, Our ancestors, generation upon generation.
The mighty works of the Celts and Brittons, The Romans, Saxons, Normans, all their Oxymandian constructions still speak from Open graves, murmur beneath the weight Of new vitality, wait to be heard again, while
My sons’ bones and their grandsons’ bones Will join my bones and my grandfather’s father’s. The dust will be richer, but The memories will be gone.
Rik was assisted by various musicians including Nick Fletcher (John Hackett Band), Sam Loveridge-Miller and his 1 yr old granddaughter Willow Loveridge.
‘Generations’ is a relatively short album by today’s standards at thirty eight minutes long and consists of nine short tracks (plus an instrumental of the title track) that sit perfectly well together. There’s a delightful flow to the album with a perfectly judged melting pot of musical genres being exposed by a quite wonderful musician. Obviously, with Rik’s roots from being a member of The Kentish Spires, there is a more than a touch of folk to things but it is blended perfectly to create something a bit more eclectic and that appeals to a wider audience. A totally relaxing musical experience is delivered on tracks such as the elegant opener Awaken and the almost radio friendly pop feel of Didn’t mean it, a song that has a real feel of the legendary Joe Jackson to my ears with the gorgeous swirling Hammond organ and perfectly judged vocals. Rik has a penchant for delivering tightly constructed tracks with superlative musicianship on show and that is completely evident here, the delightful guitar at the end, with its fluid jazz tones, is an added delight. Exposure II with its world music vibe and fiery psychedelic guitar fills is another insightful piece of music that has more of an edge than the opening two tracks and its coruscating, harsher tone really appeals to these ears!
Forever Young has a psychedelic, funky and totally 70’s atmosphere right from the get go and is another fantastic track that hits the sweet spot, just check out the guitar playing and tell me it doesn’t put a smile on your face. Title track Generations takes electronica as its core theme and strides confidently onto the scene with the refined voice over taking centre stage; “The soil waits to welcome. Reach out to touch and teach us, Our ancestors, generation upon generation.” It’s a striking and confident piece of music that really makes its mark. A more laid back and relaxed Talking Heads? Well, if such a thing could exist, it does on Earth Reborn, a swirling, cultured track that is another stand out on an album full of confident, literate and accomplished music.
Wistful and sepia tinged, Lazy day does exactly what it says on the tin with its full on 70’s psychedelic nostalgia washing over you in waves of comforting sound. Rik’s echoing vocal, the hypnotic keyboards and flashes of strident guitar all combine to deliver a mind expanding experience (without the need for anything illegal!). Post Truth State is just superb songwriting, there’s no other way to put it. An incisive five minutes of music that brings images of XTC to my mind with its sharp, shrewd lyrics and a guitar sound that Dave Gregory would be might proud of. For me, it is the highlight of the album among some rather special tracks. The album proper closes with the dark and moody Road Dreamer where the sublime 80’s infused keyboards are front and centre before a calming acoustic guitar takes over and we are gifted a mightily impressive instrumental piece that has a true widescreen cinematic feel to it. If you’re lucky enough to hear the instrumental version of Generations then that is an added bonus and fits perfectly with the rest of the album.
Rik Loveridge has taken us on a quite moving and immersive musical journey with the rich and deeply engaging ‘Generations’ and should you choose to join him, you will be richly rewarded.
I sat down with fellow Yorshireman, and all round good egg, Nick Fletcher to talk about all things music. We discuss how it all started, his influences, his latest album ‘Quadrivium’ and the current state of the music industry and it sounds like two mates talking in the pub. However, I can confirm that no alcohol was consumed…
Progradar: Nice to meet you Nick, are you alright?
Nick:Yes, I’m fine Martin, how are you?
Progradar: I’m good thanks. This was instigated by the post you put on (Facebook) by that musician friend of yours where he said, in so many words, that there is no point making great albums any more! I think you are a little older than me but we are both from that generation where music was all about the hard copy, spending your 80 pence pocket money, or what you got in those days, on vinyl. I thought it would be good to have a chat about that and the state of the industry but, also to get a bit of background.
I got to hear about you from John Wenlock-Smith and his reviews of your albums at Progradar, especially ‘Quadrivium’. I get drawn in by great album art and I love the cover of that album so, after reading John’s review, listening to the album and chatting a bit with you online, I thought it would be great to find out more about you. From a bit of research, I found that you left music college in 1981 and became a classical guitarist, a teacher and a session guitarist. That’s the bare bones so can you fill me in on your back story?
Nick:Originally, I wanted to play the electric guitar when I was much younger. Then I came across quite a few bands in the 70’s where guitarists were venturing into other areas of music as well and I got to hear people like Steve Hackett, Steve Howe and Jan Akkerman, those kind of players who were also introducing elements of the classical guitar into what they did. That kind of sparked my imagination with getting involved in, and developing, that kind of playing.
When I was younger, If you wanted to take playing the guitar more seriously, the only outlet you had really was to do a classical music course, there was nothing else available in those days. You either did that or there was one course available in Leeds, a jazz music course and, at the time, because I’d been getting into the classical guitar, I didn’t feel that was appropriate for me, so I went down that classical route.
I then became a classical trained musician and, when I left there, I started doing concerts, I was doing a lot of teaching but I was also playing the electric guitar, playing in a lot of bands, I used to play with Dave Bainbridge quite a bit. Dave went to the Leeds College of Music and I went to the Huddersfield School of Music and we met through a mutual friend and formed a couple of bands together.
Of course, as soon as we left college, which would have been ’81, like you said, it was a bit like a scorched earth, ‘progressive rock’ what’s that?, that’s all done with now!
Progradar: Yes, and I’ll put my hands up here, that was the start of the New Romantic style of music, bands like Simple Minds, Duran Duran, Ultravox etc. and I loved them!
Nick:And there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just that I went into music college in ’79, came out doing some classical stuff but also wanted to do some progressive rock but it was like, well, where’s it gone!? In two years it had vanished! I couldn’t get a gig, there were no gigs to be had, no one was interested!
So, to that end, I got involved doing some jazz and jazz fusion stuff because there were some gigs for that kind of thing. I also got involved with a couple of record companies at the time who needed a couple of session players to do some stuff for them and I developed a bit of a career in doing that as well.
Progradar: Did that desire to play progressive rock disappear or was it always there in the background with no outlet to take it any further?
Nick:It’s like anything in life, if you’ve got the opportunity to do stuff then you get on and do it but if the opportunity isn’t there, you have to find a different way, don’t you? Basically, the doors were shut on that for me for many years and then I had a family and, of course, that entailed not being able to go away from home too much because of the kids and everything.
So I did develop more and more solo work and more and more teaching so I could make a living out of doing that. I didn’t actually play the electric guitar in a band for twenty five years, I stopped playing it really.
Progradar: So no noodling in the back room if you had half an hour then?
Nick:I probably would do a bit of that, yes, but very little really for a long period of time because it just felt inappropriate, it just felt like that opportunity had gone, to do that kind of music. Then I did a solo concert, in Sheffield actually, and John Hackett was in the audience. John introduced himself at the end of the gig and, of course, I knew straight away who he was, we got chatting and I discovered he lived in Sheffield too.
We got to know each other, it must have been around 2009, we started playing together and then, through John, I met Steve (Hackett) and became friends with him. John then wanted some help with the launch of an album he’d done, I think it was called ‘Another Life’, he had to go and do a lunch show in London and was a bit terrified of it as he’d never done that on his own, playing keyboards and presenting your songs.
I said to him one day, why don’t you play it with me, let me have a listen and have a run through and see how it goes. So he did and, as he was playing, there was an electric guitar and amp in the corner that belonged to his son, I switched it on and started playing and John suddenly stopped and said, I didn’t know you played electric guitar like that, you kept that quiet!
I just said I hadn’t done it for a long time, he was just astounded that I could play the electric guitar! So he said do you want to come and join me, it would help him and give a bit more of an interest to the performance if I played guitar as well, so that’s what we did. I went down with John, we did that and then, when we came back, John thought well I could put a band together, he’d always wanted to do it and then he asked me if I’d play electric guitar.
I thought that it sounded like a bit of fun so, yeh, let’s do that and it morphed into being more than a bit of fun, I thought, after a while, I’ve really missed this, what have I been doing for all these years? It was the opportunity, you see? the opportunity arose and I took the opportunity and went with it. It kind of revitalised my whole interest in the electric guitar, I think that it had always been there but, because I hadn’t had the opportunity, I’d put it to one side.
I then started to develop that playing seriously, did some writing, did some work with John. We did an album together in 2018 called ‘Beyond The Stars’, which I think John Wnelock-Smith reviewed as well, and then I started doing some more solo stuff, which I’ve been doing ever sinceand that’s about it really.
Progradar: So, to put you on the spot then, would you say that you are an electric guitarist who can also play classical guitar or classical guitarist who also plays electric? Or are you just a meld of both really?
Nick:I’m a meld of both…
Progradar: You’re a guitarist basically?
Nick: Yes, they’re both two quite different disciplines. The technique and the approach to playing are both quite different really, I think one of the reasons I shut down the electric guitar is, while I was trying to build up the classical playing, there was too much coming from the electric side and it was interfering with the development of that technique.
The thing is, once I had developed that technique, I could go back and play anything, it just opened up the doors, technically, to go into all sorts of areas with the guitar that I otherwise would have found more difficult to do, I became more adept at using my fingers, basically!
Progradar: Is there one you find more enjoyable than the other? Or this that saying that, if you had two kids, which one do you like more!?
Nick: There like two sides of the same coin, I enjoy playing solo, performing on my own but it’s a very different discipline to playing in a band and I enjoy that side as well, it’s more of a social thing. You interact musically with each other and also on a social level. So, for me, it’s the best of both, I like doing both and I’d find it hard to stop doing both, doing one of them exclusively. I’d like to keep doing both.
Progradar: It surprised me, even after reading John’s review of ‘Quadrivium’, how modern it sounds and it’s quite heavy in places. When you read your background, you think here’s a guy who’s a classical guitarist, you think that here’s a guy who plays electric but will be more intricate, delicate in the way he plays it but ‘Quadrivium’, in places, just absolutely blows you away! Not that I can see you with hair down past your shoulders playing speed metal Nick! but there’s some really technical playing on the album.
Nick:Those days have gone, yes, but i did have longer hair in my youth!
Progradar: You mentioned those guys at the start, people like Jan Akkerman, SteveHowe and Steve Hackett, but, when you first started playing the guitar, were they your first influences?
Nick: No, one the influences that got me into the electric guitar was Hank Marvin, there was a Shadows album in the house, I had an older brother who introduced me to music that I wouldn’t have known otherwise. I heard Hank Marvin and I thought it was just magic, what’s that sound? That got me into the electric guitar, it really sparked something.
After that, what really got me into the electric guitar was listening to Jimmy Page, I heard some early Zeppelin stuff and it kind of blew my mind, those sounds he was getting out of the guitar, I thought I want to do some of that! That really sparked my imagination, I think Jimmy Page is a great individual player, there’s a real character to his sound.
I also liked some quite melodic players as well, and I still do as one of them is still going, that’s Andy Powell of Wishbone Ash. I really liked Andy’s playing and I still do, I think he’s actually quite an underrated player, a fabulous electric guitar player.
Progradar: I’ve recently got back into collecting vinyl and I’ve literally just bought the Wishbone Ash live album, ‘Live Dates’, there’s some really good playing on that! I quite like to listen to a studio album, I like the structure but, then again, if a live gig is done right, it can be brilliant on record.
Nick:Talking of live albums, probably the biggest influence on me, musically, in the early 70’s was, more than anything, Focus, because, Focus, for me, had everything. They had this classical thing going on, they had jazz improvisation, they had really great, bluesy, rock roots, they had it all for me.
I thought they were such an interesting combination of music that made you think, well, actually, why is music in a box? Why do we compartmentalise it because, actually, here’s a band that can fuse it all together and make a sound that’s so original, very unique and it’s brilliant. It draws on all the things that I was interested in.
I still think that ‘Focus – Live At The Rainbow’ was one of the greatest live albums that I’ve ever heard. I’ve listened to it recently and it’s so good, these guys were in their 20’s and, bloody hell, could they play! The music they were playing was just off the chart! I still love it today, I think it’s a great live album.
Progradar: I didn’t get into progressive rock until the late 80’s/ early 90’s, the first prog album I heard was Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman & Howe, then there was Rush‘Hold Your Fire’, it was my ex-wife’s stepfather who introduced me to those. Before that, as we’ve touched on already, my original musical influences started with The Police in the late 70’s but then, like my friends at school, I got into Duran Duran, Ultravox and Simple Minds, bands like that.
When I left school, a friend of mine was heavily into hair metal, heavy rock, Van Halen and all that sort of stuff. I don’t know if you remember but, in the late 80s’, Channel 4 was the first channel that would have programs on after midnight and there was one called ‘Music Box’. We used to got to the pub, get in and we would listen to ‘Music Box’, it was when David Lee Roth had just left Van Halen and he was with Steve Vai on ‘Eat ‘Em And Smile’.
So that was an influence, then I got into progressive rock and then it was the blues. I remember seeing Joe Bonamassa play at Bridlington Spa and B.B.King playing Sheffield Arena with half of it curtained off, he was too big for the City Hall but not big enough to fill the arena! As things have gone on, I have settled back into progressive rock so my musical influences are all over the spot.
I do like the fact that I didn’t get into progressive rock until the 90’s because, now, I can discover it all, I’ve bought every Genesis album on vinyl. People would say to me that this band sounds just like Genesis but the only stuff I’ve heard is Land Of Confusion! So I think that’s why I tend to write about a wide variety of music due to my musical influences over the years.
Nick:Which is great, the interesting thing about progressive rock is that it does incorporate so many other elements. If you’re generally interested in music, it’s a stylistic form that actually incorporates stuff from all over the place that you’ve dipped into over your life. You like that and you like this and , all of a sudden, you hear someone putting it all together. If you’re somebody who is open to music then progressive rock is amazing, it’s a great thing.
Progradar: I would never have listened to jazz music without listening to progressive rock first.
Nick:Well, I didn’t either.
Progradar: If you take jazz on it’s own, originally I just wouldn’t have listened to it!
Nick:I got into jazz music probably through Bill Bruford. When he left Crimson and he started doing his own thing, I bought his albums and they were just incredible, well crafted albums, the music, the production, everything about them. But listening to those albums got me interested in what had influenced him, why is he writing that stuff, where is it coming from? Then you delve back into some other stuff and realise, well, that’s jazz, isn’t it? It’s not coming from rock or blues, it’s coming from a different place all together. So I think listening to Bill Bruford really helped me develop an interest in other music as well.
Progradar: I got, through working with David Elliott at Bad Elephant Music, into Snarky Puppy and delving into their back catalogue. I do like a bit of trumpet and cornet, I love saxophone and things like that and the only sort of reference, when you mention saxophone to most people, is Gerry Rafferty and Baker Street or Tina Turner, We Don’t Need Another Hero, those are the two that everyone comes up with! I think you’re right in what you’re saying, it opens you up to so many other things. It’s like sponge, isn’t it?
Nick:It is and, if you’re open minded, and want to be educated a bit more, broaden you’re horizons, you can listen to this stuff and it takes you into other areas that you never have probably gone into.
Progradar: Talking of your solo career, when you first start writing an album and, to be fair, you’ve probably got another that you’ve already started now, how do you go about writing? Where do you get your influences from for the tracks? Do you have four or five all on the go at once or do you start with one track, finish that and then go on to the next one?
Nick:I do tend to have lots of ideas which, over time, either become something or they don’t. If it’s a strong idea, you’ve developed it and then I go back and I play stuff, an idea that I might have had and thought I couldn’t take it anywhere. Strong ideas tend to develop and start to have a life of their own.
The initial idea will spark off the rest of the progression of the music, it will develop out of that. If the idea that you had isn’t going anywhere then it tends to just become a dead end but I do tend to have several pieces of music on the go at once, I don’t just write one piece and then move on to the next.
Progradar: Obviously, if you’re in a band then you’re all working together, you’re bouncing ideas off each other, as a solo artist do you bounce ideas off, say, your wife or fellow musicians or is it just something you keep to yourself?
Nick:No, it’s totally in my head, it is literally in my head, I write in my head.
Progradar: So you’re not going to have any idea of how your music is going to be felt by anyone else until you’ve literally finished and played it then?
Nick: The thing is, I don’t use any software and I don’t record anything at all until I go into the studio, I write it all out, apart from the improvised sections, obviously I don’t write them. The main structures of the pieces are all written out and I play around on the guitar and practice what I’m going to record but I have an idea in my head of what I want it to sound like but it’s not until I start recording it that it starts to unfold. So it’s very gratifying when you’ve finished an album, that was what was in my head and now it’s out of my head and on record.
Progradar: It’s very organic then, it’s a very organic process…
Nick:It is very organic, I don’t use software and, this is going to sound weird, I don’t plug the electric guitar in to write, I just play the thing with virtually no sound at all.
Progradar: It’s like a silent disco!
Nick:It is a bit like a silent disco, it’s a bit odd. The reason I work like that is because, if you play an idea with a great sound then you tend to develop the idea using the sound, the colour of the sound that you’re working with and it kind of develops from there. For me, I like to work purely with the music, I think of it like a pencil sketch, an artist would often do a pencil sketch of a landscape and then they would take into their studio and fill it in with the colour and the paint and develop it from there but they would always start from a pencil sketch.
You look at Turner’s work and he always had loads and loads of pencil sketches, so did Constable, any of these landscape artists and they would go into the studio and develop it, using the colours that were available, to make it come alive. That’s exactly how I think of it, I sketch out lots of ideas but I have no ideas of how the sound is going to be appropriated until I actually start the recording process.
A lot of people these days, they use the equipment, they use the sounds to generate the music, the form and the structure. There’s nothing wrong with doing that but, for me, it just doesn’t really work like that because I have such a lot of strong ideas in my own mind. I feel that you could spend hours and hours messing around trying to find the right sound whereas I don’t have that problem.
Progradar: Do you think you write music like that because of your classical training?
Nick:I think it might partly to do with that, I’ve never really thought of it in that way, it just feels right to me to work like that, you know?
Progradar: Getting on to the elephant in the room and what initiated this conversation in the first place, the Spotify and streaming generation. It’s a generational thing, our generation, we loved that thing of going down to the record shop and buying the vinyl buying the CD and having the physical product in our hands.
We didn’t have instant access to the music, our Spotify was almost the radio, wasn’t it? That was where you’d hear snatches of music and, if you liked it, you would go out and buy the album, you wouldn’t have the option of, having heard that one track, now being able to stream the rest of it. My own personal opinion is that it has devalued music massively.
Maybe due to my influence, my stepson will listen to the whole album from start to finish but he is an anomaly of the current generation. The whole point of the music that you write, that Big Big Train write and the bands that I really enjoy listening to is that they write an album of songs and they will put them songs in order, in the structure, that they are meant to be heard in. You’re not supposed to pick a little bit out here and there and I find it frustrating!
Nick:I do as well. For me, going back to my classical background, I view albums as like symphonies, you know? The reason the LP came into being was because it was a way of fitting a symphony onto a disc, that was why the LP originated, there was no other reason why the LP should exist. A long player exists because record companies wanted to find a way of putting long form music onto a recording. For me, the progressive rock stuff is the same, it’s an album that has a start, it has a finish, it takes you on a journey, it takes the listener somewhere.
They’re not just disparate tracks, it’s not a ‘best of’ album, it’s something that’s got a narrative and a direction. It unfolds like it would a film, you go and watch a film, you don’t pick and mix or watch that scene and watch that scene just because you like them, you watch the whole narrative start to finish. That’s the process, that’s the enjoyment of watching the film and, for me, it’s the same with music, it unfolds over a period of time, it takes you on a journey and it stimulates your imagination.
Progradar: I think the question posed by the musician you quoted was, is there any point in making a great album anymore? In his opinion, it didn’t have a place in today’s society. Well, I disagree, I still think that music like that is an art form and art is still out there. As people still paint pictures, people still like to listen to music.
Nick:Definitely and, like you said before, it devalues it. If you start cutting it up into bits, little sounds bites here and everywhere, you devalue the whole thing. In fact the YouTube generation of people who go out there and do their thing, play their guitars and play their songs, they have thirty seconds to get somebody’s attention because there’s so many millions of people doing it. They’ve got to do all this stuff which, half the time, isn’t very musical, it’s just to get people’s attention.
In the old days you’d have record companies doing their best for the bands or the artists which would give them longevity over a long period of time, they’d put money into it, they’d develop the artist and the companies would see a return for their money over a period of time. Whereas now everyone wants instant everything, they want instant return on their money, instant gratification from the music, you know.
There’s not many gigs, everyone’s just sat in their bedrooms playing music and hoping that, within thirty seconds, someone will take notice of them or they’ll switch onto the next one. What’s that doing to music? It’s just devaluing the whole thing.
Progradar: You’ll be like me, there was an old record store in Bridlington called Turners and they had listening booths. You’d get the album out and put the headphones on. On a Saturday you’d spend hours in there but you’d come out of there having spent quite a few quid by the time you left!
Nick:Exactly, it was all part and parcel of the enjoyment of the music. It’s a generational thing because kids these days have so many other distractions what with games and everything. We never had that when we were younger, music was part of our culture.
Progradar: It was a tactile thing, wasn’t it? It’s lost that tactility.
Nick:Definitely, I hope it comes back but I’m not going to stop doing it.
Progradar: I don’t want you to stop doing it! I want to hear what comes next after ‘Quadrivium’, I love that album. Right, we are going to have to wrap it up now Nick, I really appreciate you talking to me tonight, it’s been brilliant.
Nick:It’s a pleasure Martin, thanks for talking to me. I start the new album soon and I’ll keep you in the loop.
‘Quadrivium’ was released on 15th September, 2023.
You can order the album (and all of Nick’s other projects) direct from Nick’s webstore here:
This is a list of the albums that have made a big impression on me this year. They are not in any order although several marked☆ are my favourites and I will nominate one as my album of the year.
Here is the list:
1.Orion– The End Of Suffering – This came out of nowhere and it is a testament to one man’s vision and willingness to create music that he wanted to.
3. John Greenwood – Dark Blue ☆☆ This arrived, again largely unnoticed, but what a brilliant release, thoughtful, emotional and an utterly captivating listen.
14. Nick Fletcher – Quadrivium ☆☆☆ My album of the year. Fusion for today, an album forging forward and beyond while embracing the past.Unbelievably fine music that is beautifully realised.
15. Pattern Seeking Animals – Spooky Action At A Distance – Fourth excursion from some-time Spock’s Beard men along with John Boegehold and a further step forward.
16. Cyan – Pictures From The Other Side – Second album from Rob Reed’s excellent young project, with Peter Jones and Luke Machin firing on all cylinders.
20. Swan Chorus – Achilles and The Difference Engine – My favourite vocal led album of the year, especially the wonderfully poignant track Being There about Peter Sellers, a beautiful song.
It’s been a tremendously fine year for music. A post-covid boom has inspired some stalwart activities with some excellent and impressive releases, here’s to an even better 2024!
I took the opportunity to talk with the ever affable, Huddersfield based, guitarist about his forthcoming new album release ‘Quadrivium’.
JWS: Good afternoon Nick, how are you doing?
NF: I’m doing very well thank you!
JWS: So let’s talk ‘Quadrivium’, What’s it all about Nick?
NF: Well the album which is fully instrumental with no vocals this time (due in part to be unable to locate vocalists who could sound right for the albums themes), it’s based upon Plato’s four noble arts, Mathematics, Astronomy, Geometry and Music. This album, ‘Quadrivium’, links three of those; Astronomy, Mathematics and Geometry, under the overall one of music, as the whole album is, in effect, music.It may be a lofty concept yet I feel it is a valid one.
JWS: It is definitely an interesting one and I found it interesting that drummer AnikaNilles hardly appears on the opening track and then her presence is strongly felt thereafter.
NF: Yes, that was a deliberate decision to ease her in gently, I think it works?
JWS: Yes, I agree, how did that tie up come about?
NF: It’s a long story so I’ll give you a shortened version of it, I was going the see JeffBeck but the tour got cancelled because of the pandemic. It was rescheduled, which also got subsequently cancelled as well. When it was rescheduled once again, I couldn’t get a ticket, however, a friend of mine told me I’ve got tickets but we can’t go, do you want them for half price?
Well, I almost bit his hand off to get them, this was in May 2022 and when the band came onstage I was surprised to see that Vinnie Colaiuta was not amongst them, instead this young girl was on drums. I thought, what!? As I really like Vinnie as a drummer but, with the first songs, I could see why see was there (those first songs were Rumble and Isolation, the latter with Johnny Depp on guitar).
After the concert I looked her up online and got in touch to see if she would play on my next album. I heard nothing for a while and I thought she’s probably busy or not interested, so forgot about it. Then, out of the blue, I got an email saying “Hi Nick, sorry for the delay in replying but I was checking you out and, yes I would love to play on your album.”
I was gobsmacked I can say, so we talked and shared the music and Anika did her parts in Germany where she is based (in Berlin) and the results can be heard on the album. Anika has all the skills I was after, she can go from a whisper to a scream within the same track, she is a percussive powerhouse. I am very proud of the parts she played for this album, she is a phenomenal talent and I am proud to introduce her to the world on this album.
JWS: She is joined by some familiar names like Dave Bainbridge and Tim Harries, Along with your regular collaborator Caroline Bonnett who, along with being the producer, also provides keyboards.
NF: Yes, I’ve known Dave since we were both 19 and Caroline from my earlier career as a session musician for mainly Christian music artists like Dave Bilbrough and Martin Joseph, amongst others.
That Jeff Beck concert was fantastic, Jeff was a totally unique player with his own identifiable sound and style, he was a master of his art and it almost made me want to give up playing as he was so good!
JWS: I saw Jeff in Birmingham in 1982, his concert was like a guitar masterclass really, totally remarkable. He’s start a solo and something new would come out of it or that’s how it seemed to me. So, on to the new album then…
NF: Yes, well it begins with a track that is referenced in the last track of my previous album, ‘The Cloud Of Unknowing’ and the latter part of that album’s last track The Paradox Part 2, which is reprised on this album in the opening track, A Wave On The Ocean Of Eternity. In addition, The Fifth Parallel uses repeated harmonics within the track.
The album takes you on a journey through life to death, from the earth to the outskirts if the solar system. It is a journey best undertaken in a single setting so that various soundscapes can be fully heard and appreciated fully. You will find all of the styles I employ, fast, emotive, soft and heavy, although you won’t hear any whammy bar effects as I don’t use those, nor do I use any tapping techniques. I feel that this lick is a trademark of mine, it hopefully marks me as being different and yet still, hopefully, I remain interesting to listen to.
The album changes moods often within the same track and my collaborators have made this album a worthwhile listening experience.
JWS: I’d have to agree, it’s a wonderful release and one of the albums of the year, many thanks for talking to me and all the best.
NF: Thank you John, I much appreciate the comments, look after yourself.
‘Quadrivium’ was release don 15/9/23 and you can order direct from Nick’s website here:
‘Quadrivium’is the latest solo release from Sheffield based, highly acclaimed guitarist, Nick Fletcher who, as anyone who has seen him can testify, is a very accomplished player who can not only shred with the best of them but is also a player of taste and style. So, it is with little wonder that even Steve Hackett regards him very highly, possibly sensing a kindred spirit and, finding in Nick, a musician who strives to be the best he can be, whatever the situation in which he is found.
Well this album is particularly fine, it is entirely instrumental and it is very fusion focused. Within its tracks you can find many references and nods to those gods of fusion, from Al Di Meola, Alan Holdsworth, Pat Metheny and, of course, Jeff Beck, to point out the obvious ones. There are also a whole slew of others that Nick has drawn upon in his style and playing and this is all put together perfectly into a melting pot with this album emerging as the result. This release is a musical journey that demands listening to as a whole, you need to clear fifty-five minutes in your schedule and settle down to enjoy this masterful slice of fusion pie. It is also an album that uses lots of atmosphere and nuances to punctuate is dreamy sound, in between the bluster there are gentle moments of almost serenity occurring, this gives the album an even pace and allows individual contribution to shine, like the excellent bass work of Tim Harries who is there at every turn, propelling or pushing the bear along as needed. His sympathetic playing adds greatly to the overall dynamics and sound, he also provides a solid platform for Nick’s fiery guitar flights of expression and frees him to really soar,
This is fusion for today with nods to the past but generally forging ahead in new directions and pathways, it is extremely musically strong and focused. I doubt if you will hear another fusion album that burns this hot, it is almost incendiary such is the firepower contained within its grooves, this is blistering in its intensity and depth of vision. Now, if fusion doesn’t usually grab you then, don’t worry as this is more than just fusion, it has great rock sections as well and some truly jaw dropping guitar playing, enough to make you sit up and even to put away your own guitar in envy. The album has eleven tracks ranging from the very brief Ziggurat Of Dreams Parts One & Two to the longer tracks like Aphelion and The Journey To Varanasi, the songs changing in style, often within the same track.
Nick is aided by several of his good friends like Dave Bainbridge and the aforementioned Tim Harries, who provide excellent keyboard and bass support. On the drums Nick has enlisted Anika Nilles (who was previously in Jeff Beck’s last band and is also a drum teacher and has her own band as well). She is very much an up and coming fusion star in the making and adds strong syncopation and delicacy along with the powerhouse drive as required. Anika is like a young Billy Cobham in style at times, in short, she is a truly exceptional talent and really makes her mark here.
The album has a theme as Nick is very interested in philosophy and especially the works of the Greek masters, Plato, Aristotle and the like. This record is based on Plato’s four noble arts, these being mathematics, geometry, music and astronomy. Well, the music relates to either mathematics, geometry or astronomy and the whole album is music, the fun is spotting which track relates to which! There is a lot of fun to be had by doing that, so I won’t actually tell you and leave you to find out for yourself but look at the track titles for clues. The use of Google might be of use in this task, at least you will learn something new in the process.
I always feel that, for me personally, knowing and understanding the background to a music piece aids my enjoyment and enriches it significantly. Not for nothing is the maxim that knowledge is power quoted. However, don’t let the concepts behind the music stop you from listening to this extremely masterfully delivered release, instead let knowledge lead you onwards in your journey from the inner soul to the edges of the universe, life and beyond, onwards into eternity. A very entertaining and illuminating concept for certain but also a very worthy one for our modern age.
There are so many highlights on this album from the gentle introduction of A Wave On The Ocean Of Eternity that had me in mind of Beck’s The Final Peace, with its emotive guitar lines. The Indian styled The Journey To Varanasi has some very heavy guitar parts featured prominently, in all it is a very rewarding listen and does bear repeated listening thereafter as it has many depths to be uncovered as you absorb the music fully. I also appreciate that this album ends as it begins, delicately as the circle is completed.
This album is really rather a revelation in sound as it sounds absolutely gorgeous and is extremely well recorded and produced, with a full and clear production that allows room for everything to be clearly heard. There is excellent definition with good separation between the instruments, alongside which you have really great sympathetic and skilled performances from everyone that all combines to make this an astonishing musical accomplishment. Kudos must also be given to Nicks co-producer Caroline Bonnett who aids him in this crafting so diligently and adds some fine keyboard work too.
‘Quadrivium’ is an absolute stormer of an album, most impressive and very highly recommended and is my fusion album of the year so far. There is so much to discover, to embrace and to enjoy in this mighty fine stew.
In 2021 multi-instrumentalist Rik Loveridge‘s Parkinson’s diagnosis led to him leaving The Kentish Spires. The only proper responses were a little cry and a new album. The album is drenched in the spirit of progressive rock but also explores other genres whilst remaining musically inventive (says Rik)!
He envisaged some stunning guitar and sax elements so enlisted the help of friends Nick Fletcher (John Hackett Band) and Chris Egan (The Kentish Spires and Nuadha). He also saw the need to work with talented audio engineers… cue PaulCobbold (ex Rockfield) and David Pickering Pick (FFG studio) on mixing and mastering duties. Oh, and granddaughter Willow aged 1!
Something good shall arise from this dark time!
And something good has indeed been delivered with this immersive musical masterpiece. The opening three-part Trilogy suite is languid, relaxed, low key and beautiful and has hints of latter day David Gilmour solo work. Egan’s sax is quite beguiling throughout and Nick Fletcher shows his consummate skill and class with a quite lyrical display of guitar. It’s a testimony to Rik’s songwriting ability that it all blends seamlessly and his vocals add that requisite touch of calm sensibility. Instrumental Dark Matter is a wistful, dreamy piece that adds thoughtful reflection to the album. The wonderful organ that opens Nature’s Eyes imbues a sense of tranquility and harmony to this elegant ballad, a charming touch of nostalgia and this is carried through with spiralling keyboards to the understated grace of SilentSpring.
Death of Major Tom is a more serious feeling track with a melancholy underbelly and one that reinforces a feel of The Tangent to my ears, a theme that runs through the album due to its intelligent writing and sumptuous delivery. You can’t help but smile at the electronica tinged brilliance of West Coast Journeyman that goes perfectly with Nick Fletcher’s virtuoso guitar to deliver a superb instrumental, a highlight of what is proving to be a fantastic album. The inspiration just keeps flowing, With a Glance adds a funky, jazz infused feel to Rik’s Roger Waters edged vocals, Song For Jude with its Tears For Fears intro is an ode to Rik’s beloved wife and is uplifting and engaging and Tully Remembered is as jazzy as they come, Egan’s sax just oozing class and sophistication.
Queen’s Gambit brings us to the closing part of the album and is an outstanding piece of songwriting. An involving and compelling musical journey that entrances and mesmerises the listener throughout and probably my favourite song on the album. Perhaps the two-part Entropy could be called music for the intellectual, it certainly has a feel of 60’s prog from the days of black and white, it’s certainly quirky and idosyncratic but that just gives these two pieces a charm all of their own and one that definitely drew me in. The album closes out with the hypnotising ambient electronica of Teed’s Lullaby, three minutes of trance-inducing calmative music that resets your perceptions.
Sometimes great music just seems to seek me out and I was obviously sent this promo for a reason as the stars have aligned and delivered a wonderful collection of tracks that leave a warm feeling of nostalgia and hope washing over me. With his Single Helix project and this Prog Gnosis album, Rik Loveridge is baring his soul, both musically and personally and, not only is it a superb release, it is very brave of him to do so. I can highly recommend this completely uplifting album, you won’t regret it.
Duncan Parsons is the drummer for the John Hackett Band and bizarrely the bassist for Joanne Harris’sStorytime band, ‘On Earth, As it is’ is his latest album of original material.
The album is not a concept as such, although it has songs that share a common central theme. Much of the music is performed by Duncan, although he has managed to get assistance from some very interesting guest musicians like John Helliwell of Supertramp, Dave Bainbridge of Iona and Lifesigns and his fellow John HackettBand members Nick Fletcher and John Hackett himself, who both add graceful parts to the lengthy opener Heaven, the album’s longest track at twenty three minutes. The song opens with seven minutes of instrumental music before Duncan’s vocals join in. This is intoned with a pulsating synth bass line which is very ethereal sounding, there is then a section of massed non-verbal vocalisations which add to the atmospheric nature of the track. Then follows an acoustic guitar section which which dissolves into deep keyboard bass and more vocalisations along with Lizz Lipscombe’s string playing. An urgent bass then picks up the pace and creates a strong platform for Nick Fletcher’s fusion guitar part in which he shreds wildly and, as always, immaculately with a great clear tone. This then gives way to synths that lead to another guitar outburst from Nick that takes the track towards its conclusion, the guitar playing on this section is breathtaking, very fiery and highly impressive. The song ends with synths and guitar lines playing, a really strong opener.
This Day follows and has plucked guitar harmonics from Duncan and bass from the legendary Leland Sklar, whose bottom end anchors everything together wonderfully. The track has Duncan playing a washboard and also John Helliwell elegant clarinet. This has a very satisfying jazz elements to it and the saxophone from John also impresses highly. Fissures of Men is a short, dynamic piece featuring violin, viola and cello all set against a sparse piano but it all sounds really good. This is followed by another shorter track, Finish Line, which alludes to a fractured and possibly broken relationship but, ultimately, the song is about how we choose to be.
Unnecessary Kindness opens with an acoustic guitar and is largely a solo guitar instrumental track and very accomplished it is too with plenty of shades of Anthony Phillips in evidence here, at least to these ears. Three Sixteen is more muscular in tone with some crunchy guitar and a simple, but effective, solo halfway through that is ended by the cello as the vocals begin again. This is followed with a mournful violin and some jolly flute as a contrast then a solid tap on what could be a cowbell leads to the last verse of the song. There’s not a little urgency and a comfortable yet easy guitar line leads to the song’s conclusion. This is a very good track indeed, a clear winner. Lead Us Not is another shorter track with the solid bass of Leland gracing proceedings again, along with the graceful flute of John Hackett. The song seems to be about temptation and how we battle with it and how it leads us to where we don’t wish to be.
There is reprise of the earlier Fissures of Men track but it is only very brief, this leads to the last and second longest track, Valediction (Power And Glory) which closes the album out. This song features John Steel on various guitars and is a very atmospheric piece of music with lots of good sounds and textures. It is all fairly free form in nature but very well assembled, with some fabulous acoustic guitar interjections and a great solo that moves over the sumptuous backing and it all sounds really impressive. Along with Heaven, these two epics bookmark what is a most impressive collection of tracks that certainly makes you think as you listen to this fine album. It is one that most folk will be largely unaware of and more’s the pity, as this is a highly intelligent and articulate album of music.
Nick Fletcher is a man of many talents for not only is he the guitarist in the excellent John Hackett band, he also has his own acoustic guitar recitals happening in the North of England. Last year he released his excellent solo album ‘Cycles OfBehaviour’, which was very highly regarded. In addition, Steve Hackett, no less, has stated that he considers Nick to be the finest Jazz Rock guitarist in the country. In the intervening months Nick has completed and released his new album ‘The Cloud Of Unknowing’, let us have a look and see shall we?
The album consists of nine tracks which are all thematically linked by the album’s attempts to illuminate a journey towards enlightenment, understanding and the acceptance of how things are and our place within that cycle. It is mainly instrumental, although it has vocals on the fifth and ninth songs and is best heard as a single piece of music to get the best out of it and to allow the journey to unfold as you listen.
Nick says the album came out of lockdowns and during the time of the pandemic in which he became open to search for deeper meaning and value to life. He did this by looking at mythology and to Christian mysticism from the likes of St John Of The Cross, whose words that illuminate the paradox we face are shown on the inner CD sleeve. Right, enough background, let’s hear the music…
The first piece, Out Of The Maelstrom, is a brutal hard-hitting track that reminded me of Billy Cobham’s ‘Spectrum’ and the track Quadrant 4 as it has a similar vitality and energy to it. It is full of dynamism and a mad organ from Dave Bainbridge, off which Nick plays flurries of notes and runs and it’s all highly impressive. Even better though is the more reflective The Eyes Of Persephone, which features a great flowing piano solo from Dave and over which Nick soars, playing some fluid guitar lines that would not be out of place on a Camel album. However, it still has a fire burning underneath making it a formidable and exceptional track
We then move into a set of five tracks that together form a suite entitled ‘Scenes From The Subconscious Mind’.
The suite opens with We Need to Leave This Place…Right Now!, twenty seconds of modern life noises, traffic and sirens and the like that display the unrest of life, this then moves into the more, almost metallic, crunch of Pandemonium which is rather brutal really, although it allows a great platform for Nick to solo from, adding some very sweet slide guitar tones in the latter part. This is all magnificently underpinned by the wonderful and highly versatile fretless bass of Tim Harries whose parts really add much to the sound, another magnificent track.
Then we have The Cloud of Unknowing Part 1 Part 2 Part 3, the first vocal track from Stuart Barbour, who is a contemporary Christian musician who Caroline Bonnet suggested to Nick. His voice is very English sounding, sounding a little like John Wetton in his U.K. days. This is an album that is better with some volume as the sound unfolds as you listen, the more you play it the more you hear, the track ends in gentler but still highly atmospheric soundscapes.
We then have a gentle arpeggio led guitar piece called Awakening The Hydra, which in turn leads to Dance of the Hydra,a blistering five plus minutes of wild fusion playing and a monstrous riff that the likes of Metallica would love It is a brutal, kicking piece of music with lots of wild guitar riffs and manic drumming from Russ Wilson. Nick is all over this track, employing many of his artistic tools to profound effect, there is furious playing but he never loses sight of feeling, melody and touch and this closes out the suite perfectly.
Arcadia is a classical guitar piece that flows seamlessly into The Paradox Part 1 Part2. This is a very questioning song that asks questions about how we live today. There is a great synthesiser solo from Dave Bainbridge at the halfway mark and a very spacey, yet fluid, guitar line from Nick carries the song forward, along with more subtle slide parts that really add to the atmosphere of the song. The song ends gently with classical guitar playing that draws everything to a close and completes our journey. Hopefully, during the journey, we should have gained enough insight to be able to continue our lives in the light of the wisdom that has been handed to us, to discover, absorb, and allow us to illuminate the paths that lie before us.
‘The Cloud Of Unknowing’ is an astonishing album that reveals more and more of itself as you become familiar and open to its themes. It is deeply spiritual and is one that we invariably need in these days of turmoil that the world is facing. Whatever you believe, this album is at least a call the ponder, muse and meditate even if only for yourself, why not try it? It is a highly highly recommended listening experiencefor the discerning music fan.
