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Olias of Sunhillow by: Jon Anderson

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Publisher: Elektra
Release date: 26th February, 1996
Media: Audio CD

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Track List

• Ocean Song
• Meeting
• Sound Out The Galleon
• Dance Of Ranyart Olias
• Qoquaq En Transic
• Solid Space
• Moon Ra Chords Song Of Search
• To The Runner
• Naon
• Transic To

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Average rating - (more reviews)

Rating: - Bringing back the memories!

I first had this as an LP back in the 70s but it got lost somewhere. Saw Jon recently in Liverpool and he played a song from it so I had to get the CD. Shame you can't read the cover details on the CD but the music still sounds great- to Jon Anderson fans anyway!!It won't be to everyone's taste but who cares!!?

Rating: - Sunhillow

I am a YES fan of over 25 Years but have not heard all of the individual solo efforts of the Group members. This was a bit of a flyer, so now that I have given the Album a fair chance my opinion is that on a lot of the Tracks the Instruments overpower John's voice to the extent that I am straining to hear the vocals, that's a shame because there is some lovely music on this Album, it's just a little overbearing in parts. It would probably sit nicely in the Tales from Topographic Oceans era of YES. on a lovely Summers evening on your own and looking at a beautiful sunset would suit the mood.

Rating: - There's no such thing as bad press

I nicked a music magazine (Vinyl Collector?) from a reception room somewhere because there was a section on prog music. In the margins they asserted albums to be avoided and Jon Anderson's Olias' was a prime suspect. I remembered the album being played by the 'upper 6th' at school, thinking then that it sounded like a movie and that the band defined 'organic'. Twenty or more?.. years later I discover that apart from some strings and engineering Olias of Sunhillow is written, performed and produced all by the man himself and the album sounds even more amazing than I remember.

Melody is king and there's reams of it here suffused with way ahead of it's time synth arrangements and knee wobble percussion all held together by Andersons unusual voice and singing.

I am hoping that Olias will give us an update sometime and that when we strangle the last breath out of mummy Earth, there will be room for a few no hopers wherever he and his people are.

Rating: - Magic! Mysterious!

This is all rather self-regarding and pompous, but Jon Anderson is a superb musician who knows how to write a tune and most of all understands the architecture of a pop song. So through all the bombast comes a delightful work, brimming with lovely melodies. He knows his English classics too. There are echoes of Bantock in the Dance of Ranyart and the end of the wonderfully conceived final track To The Runner echoes the sublime end of Vaughan Williams's 5th Symphony.

I'm grateful to other reviewers for explaining the story, because I never understood it at the time and the size 1 font in the CD reissue doesn't help a bit! I've deducted a star for the crap presentation of the CD brochure, which is nothing more than a semi-representation of the original album, but smaller. Reissues like this deserve more.

Rating: - Great stuff!

A little tinny in the production at times, but a great delve into the world of Jon Andersons dream-like music. Harps, church organs etc. You name it.

My old mate who got me into the album told me he was going to call his first born Qoquaque..... Nearly.... he ended up calling him Kevin!

Ah well, real life has to spoil things.

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