Philip’s Demo at Sound Sanctuary, Austin (Part III of III)

Philip’s Demo at Sound Sanctuary, Austin (Part III of III) is last part of our 3-part series highlighting 11 albums with curator’s notes for an event in Austin early April.

>> Return to Philip’s Demo at Sound Sanctuary, Austin (Part II)

>> Return to Philip’s Demo at Sound Sanctuary, Austin (Part I)

~ Polydor ~

“On the Boards” is the second album by Irish progressive blues rock band Taste. It was recorded in London in 1969 and released in January 1970.

“It’s Happened Before, It’ll Happen Again”. features Rory Gallagher on alto sax. Gallagher originally taught himself to play the alto sax in just two weeks by practicing in a wardrobe.

Gallagher was known to be influenced by Ornette  Coleman in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was a fan of Coleman’s free jazz style and even adapted some of his own guitar techniques to emulate Coleman’s saxophone playing. Naturally,  Gallagher on saxophone sounded pretty much like Gallagher on guitar. While they were not close friends, they were both part of a generation of musicians that crossed genre boundaries, and they both performed in similar musical circles and venues during their careers.

But Taste were famous for their driving rock anthems, such as the opening show-stopper What’s Going On, and also I’ll Remember, Eat My Words.

A hard-to-find album, reissued in 2016 on 180 gram vinyl.

 

 

~ Cold ~

 Annie Lennox’s 1992 solo debut, a joyous and liberated pop album with an underlying message about her disillusionment with fame.

 

After disbanding the Eurythmics, Annie Lennox got married again, and while she was pregnant with her daughter, Lola, she sat down and wrote her first solo album, “Diva”. Without the help of Dave Stewart, from the Eurythmics, she was left to do this alone; it took her 15 months. But she enrolled synth pyrotechnical Marius de Vries, and she recorded at her home in Maida Vale before and after Lola’s birth.  She also enlisted producer Steve Lipson (Paul McCartney, Simple Minds, Propaganda, Grace Jones, Frankie Goes To Hollywood) to guide her to completion and encourage her through her writer’s block, from time to time.

 

Diva was Annie Lennox’s declaration of independence; no longer the voice and the androgynous beauty, she took control of her own career and showed that she could write her own music, quite distinct from the Eurthymics, less synth pop and more soul-pop.

 

“Precious” celebrates Lola’s birth: “I was lost until you came,” she sings from the soul, her words thick with sentimentality, gratitude, and a newfound maturity.

“Cold,” a bitter-sweet love song, full of regret. 

 

After a decade of Dave Stewart’s electronics, Lennox sat down and wrote Diva on the piano; it was the vehicle for her liberation.  Though Diva was a huge hit in the UK, she did not tour the countryside to promote the album, but stayed at home and had a second child. She chose to walk away from fame and enjoy a private life. Good for her.

 

First UK pressings are hard to find, especially quiet and not abused. In fairness, the 2019 reissue on 180-gram vinyl sounds terrific.

 

 

 ~ Orinoco Flow ~

 Enya, born Eithne Ni Bhraonain, started her career in her family’s Irish traditional folk band, Clannad (family in Gaelic), in 1982  she left Clannad and teamed up with Clannad’s former manager, Nicky Ryan, and his wife, lyricist and poet Roma Ryan. The trio has been working together ever since. Roma writes lyrics, sometimes in conjunction with Enya and Nicky, who crafted Enya’s ethereal sound by layering vocal tracks on top of each other, sometimes using up to 24 seconds of reverb, instead of the customary 1.5 seconds, and then drenching synth melodies, piano ballads, blending traditional Celtic folk, sacred early music, infused with streaks of world music. The sixteen tracks on Enya’s self-titled debut album – Enya (1987) and reissued in 1992 as The Celts. When Warner Music chairman Rob Dickens signed Enya, he said: “Sometimes the company is there to make money, and sometimes it’s there to make music. Enya’s the latter.”

 

The group perfected their craft as they honed their follow-up, Watermark. Nicky Ryan made a conscious decision not to use compression. Nor did Enya use a click track, as she wanted to retain a more natural feel to the music.  I could never imagine Enya using “Auto-Tune” on her vocals, heaven forbid.

 

Nicky & Enya often discussed the idea of layering Enya’s voice to make it its own instrument. Clannad had used multi-vocals successfully on their albums, so both were familiar with the concept. After experimenting with the concept on Enya/ The Celts, the vocals became more established on Watermark, with as many as over 200 vocal tracks painstakingly recorded for certain sections.

 

“Orinoco Flow” is the monster hit single from the album, but there are many gems on this album

“Cursum Perficio” – a phrase that Marilyn Monroe wrote on the tiles of her doorstep – “Your journey ends here” in Latin.

“Storms in Africa” was recorded twice, first with lyrics in Gaelic and then in English. It won’t come as a surprise that both Nicky & Enya preferred the Gaelic version.

 

 

~ Time to Say Goodbye with Sarah Brightman ~

 

Thirty years ago, a Tuscan law graduate named Andrea Bocelli won the Sanremo Newcomers’ prize with Il Mare Calmo della Sera , the Calm Evening Sea. He had studied with the great Franco Corelli, walked everywhere because he chose records over a car.  He explains that his passion for opera was so consuming that any spare money he earned, specifically from his early days playing piano bars was immediately funneled into his collection of opera records.  He arrived at international fame not through a conservatory but through a piano bar and a lucky audition for Zucchero. Duets (30th Anniversary), released October 2024, is the shape of those three decades in voices.  Thirty-two tracks, ten new collaborations, and the architecture of a career that was always built in company.

The new pairings carry the album. Firstly, Chris Stapleton, Kentucky country soul, with no obvious bridge to Italian opera, sings Bocelli’s original 1994 Sanremo winning song back to him, partly in Italian, closing a thirty-year circle with quiet audacity. It is the record’s most structurally satisfying moment in my opinion. Karol G initially refused the project entirely.  Her mother talked her back in by pointing out that the Vatican’s Jubilee comes only every twenty-five years. When her mother heard the finished recording for the first time, she broke down in tears on camera , a moment that went viral before the album was even out.

The emotional centre is the Hans Zimmer-arranged Time to Say Goodbye, performed at the 96th Academy Awards with Bocelli’s son, Matteo, his first Oscars appearance in twenty-five years. Matteo described the song as his family’s national anthem. Zimmer called it a privilege and a thrilling challenge to find a new perspective on a masterpiece.  Lauren Daigle recorded Canto della Terra pushing herself well past her technical comfort zone, and said so publicly with unusual candour.  And Bambina Mia Ricordati, a delicate duet with Bocelli’s twelve-year-old daughter Virginia was written decades earlier by a small-town Tuscan composer who received the call from Bocelli and genuinely could not tell if he was dreaming.

The album does not announce itself. It arrives the way music does when it means something — quietly, and then all at once.

>> Return to Philip’s Demo at Sound Sanctuary, Austin (Part II)

>> Return to Philip’s Demo at Sound Sanctuary, Austin (Part I)