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"The same recipes have delivered a high-flying "Wolflight" and here give a more disjointed and less emotional "At the Edge of Light"."
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3/5
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Steve Hackett is a stakhanovist of music: since his departure from Genesis, apart from a small break around 1985-87, hardly a year goes by without a new release satisfying his fans: "At the Edge of Light" is his twenty-sixth solo album. If the Genesis guitarist's production is overwhelming, it is also quite heterogeneous, both in terms of quality and the styles. So, good vintage or average production?
The regulars of Steve's productions will not be confused by the tracks presented during this album, which is dedicated to duality: between shadow and light, "at the edge of light", as the title nicely says (underlined by a superbly evocative cover). The style is quite comparable to that of "Wolflight" or "The Night Siren", with a guitar walking around the world, not hesitating to mix with oriental sounds (the excellent appetizer "Fallen Walls And Pedestals", Shadow and Flame' and its original sitar), flowing into a more orchestral mold (the middle part of'Those Golden Wings'), accompanying gospel sections ('Peace'), all wrapped in a troubling atmosphere where the keyboards, between chords and Mellotron, play their usual role.
"Usual." This is the problem in this "At the Edge of Light", in which few things surprise. To escape this stalemate, Steve tries some things like in "Underground Railroad": started on acoustic guitar, the track goes to gospel, then to US folk, then to rock, then to prog guitar solo, all this in a little over six minutes! It could be brilliant, but the truth is that the listener doesn't know where to start. This casualness is reflected in the fact that a lot of songs end up on a poor fade-out (frankly, doing an ambitious orchestral song like 'Those Golden Wings' and his 11 minutes to finish it off on the sly in decrescendo, Steve had got us used to better!)...
Don't think that this album is bad: it is very professional, impeccably produced and can be listened to easily (too much, sometimes: 'Hungry years' is completely forgettable). But the recipes that had given a high quality "Wolflight" did not take here and do not succeed in structuring emotionally charged pieces. There are still some dazzling features left, such as the sax lines of "Beasts in Our Time", the excellent sitar of "Shadow And Flame" and the electric parts of "Under The Eye Of The Sun" and "Peace", which remind us of all the sensitivity that Steve can bring to his instrument. - Official website
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TRACK LISTING:
01. Fallen Walls And Pedestals - 02:17
02. Beasts In Our Time - 06:21
03. Under The Eye Of The Sun - 07:07
04. Underground Railroad - 06:23
05. Those Golden Wings - 11:20
06. Shadow And Flame - 04:24
07. Hungry Years - 04:34
08. Descent - 04:20
09. Conflict - 02:37
10. Peace - 05:04
LINEUP:
John Hackett: Flûte
Simon Phillips: Batterie
Amanda Lehmann: Chant
Ben Fenner: Claviers
Christine Townsend: Violon, Alto
Dick Driver: Double Basse
Gary O’toole: Batterie
Gulli Briem: Batterie / Percussions
Jonas Reingold: Basse
Malik Mansurov: Târ
Nick D'Virgilio: Batterie
Paul Stillwell: Didgeridoo
Rob Townsend: Saxophone, Clarinette, Duduk
Roger King: Claviers
Sheema: Sitar
Steve Hackett: Chant / Guitares
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READERS
4.3/5 (6 view(s))
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STAFF:
3.5/5 (4 view(s))
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IN RELATION WITH STEVE HACKETT
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