Ocean Song/Meeting (Garden Of Geda-Sound Out The Galleon/Dance Of Ranyart-Olias (To Build The Moorglade)/QoQuaQ En Transic-Naon-Transic To/Flight Of The Moorglade/Solid Space/Moon Ra/Chords/Song Of Search/To The Runner
Olias Of Sunhillow was the debut album of Yes vocalist Jon Anderson. By this time the best work of the group was behind them. This rambling solo release did nothing to rehabilitate their reputation. (US:47 UK:8)
“This album features Anderson's multi-instrumental skills, handling all keys, guitars, bass and strings, helped by a very strong technical team, that assisted with the endless overdubs. A concept work around a character named Olias, an alien, who leads his people to a new world due to a volcanic catastrophe. It has a strong pre-new age atmosphere, backed up by lots of spacey sounds and light Yes overtones.”
“Anderson layers both conventional instruments and his own voice to produce a lush, symphonic underpinning for a saga inspired by Roger Dean album covers. The sort of voice-as-instrument multi-tracked experiment heard on here had a prequel in the form of We Have Heaven on Fragile, but whereas that was a brief, quirky experiment, here Anderson expands this form into sustained, sedate and blissful space journeys, proving himself an adept multi-instrumentalist.”
“Musically, this is flamboyant sparkly fairy prog, as befits a solo project. Lush keyboards, world music new-ageisms and pretty sounds abound, immersing you fully in the sci-fi fantasy world of Jon Anderson, king of the pixies. A really pleasant album to listen to, it's happy, fluffy and enjoyably eccentric in the way only feel-good prog nonsense can be. It's essentially a Yes album stripped of instrumental fireworks, and the moderating influence of the other Yes members.”
“It showcases Jon's musical ability, which is quite accomplished. There are also a lot of instrumental tracks which keep the album flowing nicely. One word that sums this up is tranquil, but don't confuse that with boring as this definitely isn't.”
“I enjoyed the parts where it was just Jon Anderson and the guitar. But the instrumental pieces were quite boring, having the simplest and most uninspiring and beats, melodies and riffs. Overall, this is just a mess with a bad mix of instruments and musical genres, along with curiously high pitched vocals.”
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