After the magnificent acoustic live performance of 'Einar Solberg', it's another great of progressive music who is releasing a new solo album, I named 'Steve Hackett' whose latest studio recording, 'Surrender of Silence' dates from 2021. In recent years, the Briton has been busy with his different 'Genesis' cover tours with 'Genesis Revisited Band and Orchestra – Live' in 2019 which was followed by 'Selling England By The Pound & Spectral Mornings' in 2020, itself followed by 'Genesis Revisited Live: Seconds Out & More' in 2022 and the last one on the list was the cover of 'Foxtrot' with 'Foxtrot At Fifty + Hackett Highlights: Live in Brighton' in 2023. But we know that Steve is always prolific in also offering us magnificent albums and 'The Circus and the Nightwhale' is therefore his latest baby which must not be far from being the 30th of the British! No surprise, beyond this progressive rock that he has been perpetuating for more than 50 years now, we find this alchemist of world music, influenced by numerous styles and who this time takes us, I quote Steve in "a rite of passage concept album that says the things I've wanted to say for a very long time": so I'll let you imagine what this cover represents on which a whale engulfs a circus. In any case, this album is dedicated to his wife 'Jo' and tells the story 'Travla' which is certainly a mix between reality and fiction, of Steve's life.
Musically, and as we are now accustomed to, we navigate very different landscapes from each other which once again gives this album an absolutely fantastic diversity but, on the other side of the coin, we have to be open to all kinds of musical genres quite distant from each other which for my part generally brings me the most pleasure. On the menu for 'The Circus and the Nightwhale', no long developments but 13 fairly short compositions each and, for all those who are familiar with 'Steve Hackett' albums, we find the well-known artists who revolve around the 'British' (see list below).
The first three compositions have no gaps between each and form only one: 'People Of The Smoke' opens the album by taking us on a steam train and, after a symphonic introduction, it is in a catchy rock atmosphere with magnificent vocal harmonies that the title continues at the locomotive tempo, then, the short 'These Passing Clouds' changes register for a romantic instrumental on which the guitar of 'Steve Hackett' plays wonders on a melancholy melody. Alternatingly, more energetic, 'Taking You Down' takes us into muscular and well-paced rock with vocal arrangements filled with reverb and with two magnificent solos, firstly, of saxophone from 'Rob Townsend' and then, of guitar from 'Steve Hackett'.
Without transition, we return to calm waters with 'Found and Lost' whose introduction once again highlights Steve with, this time, his acoustic guitar (let's remember the very beautiful acoustic album 'Under A Mediterranean Sky' dating from 2021) and which is followed by a section bathed in a languorous cabaret atmosphere, then, 'Enter The Ring' takes us back to the progressive of 'Genesis' in the 70s with very beautiful vocal harmonies, Steve's faithful friend, 'Nad Sylvan', always bringing this softness in the singing) and the flute of his brother 'John Hackett' adding a bucolic side in the middle of the title before Steve offers us a new remarkable guitar solo, the title ending in an atmosphere of barrel organ, all this in less than 4 minutes!! With 'Get Me Out', we are taken into a magnificent composition with a very beautiful melody punctuated by remarkable guitar interventions with a completely unbridled central part, then, 'Ghost Moon and Living Love' is the longest track of the album which, after an introduction reminiscent of a church song in which 'Amanda Lehmann' offers us magnificent celestial volutes, unfolds a captivating melody on a light and poetic mid-tempo.
This time we are heading to the East with the muscular 'Circo Inferno' which the Israelis would not have denied 'Orphaned Land' with whom 'Steve Hackett' had collaborated on the magnificent title 'Chains Fall to Gravity', taken from the album 'Unsung Prophets and Dead Messiahs' from 2018, this composition showing, no offense to some who would like to place all artists in certain boxes, that music gains its letters of nobility when it becomes universal, 'Steve Hackett' now being a very fine ambassador of this world music (his collaboration with the Hungarians of 'Djabe' being another good example). The two following titles 'Breakout', 'All at Sea', not exceeding two minutes each, are instrumental interludes, for the first, energetic under the muscular strike of 'Hugo Degenhardt' on the drums, 'Steve Hackett' us also showing that in this style quite close to that of progressive metal groups like 'Dream Theater' or 'Threshold', he also has a talent for very muscular solos, and the second which begins with guitar sounds like 'Eddie Van Halen' (it also reminds me of introduction to 'The Obliterati' from his latest album 'Surrender Of Silence') and which then continues into atmospheric style, taking us back to the electronic peregrinations of 'A Saucerful Of Secrets' from the beginning of 'Pink Floyd'.
We then find ourselves in the dark inside the whale with 'Into the Nightwhale' which offers us keyboards with frightening sounds and which gradually gains momentum with a disturbing chromatic rise leading to a peaceful finale with a sung section that reminds me of the title 'The Great Gates of Kiev' from the adaptation of 'Pictures At an Exhibition' from 'Modest Mussorgsky' by 'Emerson, Lake & Palmer' from 1971. Follows 'Wherever You Are' (see video here) which is multi-faceted progressive rock for starters on a catchy sung melody which continues with a very rich instrumental section making up a succession of snippets of baroque music, then contemporary music then very muscular modern music, the whole being accompanied by Steve's guitar which continues the changes of style very naturally. After all this debauchery of energy, 'White Dove' closes this magnificent album in serenity to send us, once again, to the edge of the Mediterranean (which will remind some of Italy and perhaps for others Greece) with a mandolin which rocks us to a very beautiful melancholy melody.
In conclusion, as you have noticed in this column, I have cited many very varied influences which, for me, make this album an exceptional summary of progressive in the broad sense because each composition takes us into a journey different from the previous one. Certainly, some will perhaps be taken aback by so much diversity and will prefer albums like 'Wolfflight' more focused on progressive rock but, for me, this album shows this always constant evolution in 'Steve Hackett' to cast a wider and wider net. , feeling that I had in the last three albums (the first on the list being 'The Night Siren' released in 2017) and which have forever entered my ideal collection of music in general... | |
