..:: audio-music dot info ::..


Main Page      The Desert Island      Copyright Notice
 Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz


Steve Hackett: Under a Mediterranean Sky

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Inside Out Music
Released: 2021.01.22
Time:
 51:39
Category: Acoustic, Classic
Producer(s): Steve Hackett, Roger King
Rating:
Media type: CD
Web address: www.hackettsongs.com
Appears with: Genesis, GTR, Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, Phil Collins, Chris Squire, Steve Howe
Purchase date: 2021
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Mdina (The Walled City) (S.Hackett/R.King) - 8:45
[2] Adriatic Blue (S.Hackett) - 4:51
[3] Sirocco (S. Hackett(J.Hackett/R.King) - 5:13
[4] Joie de Vivre (S.Hackett/J.Hackett) - 3:42
[5] The Memory of Myth (S.Hackett/J.Hackett/R.King) - 3:29
[6] Scarlatti Sonata (D.Scarlatti) - 3:40
[7] Casa del Fauno (S.Hackett/R.King) - 3:51
[8] The Dervish and The Djin (S.Hackett/J.Hackett/R.King) - 4:57
[9] Lorato (S.Hackett) - 2:29
[10] Andalusian Heart (S.Hackett/J.Hackett/R.King) - 5:34
[11] The Call of the Sea (S.Hackett) - 4:44

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Steve Hackett - Nylon-, Steel-, 12-String Guitar, Charango, Iraqi Oud, Producer

Roger King - Keyboards, Programming, Orchestral Arrangements, Producer, Mixing at Siren
John Hackett - Flute on [7]
Malik Mansurov - Tar on [3,8]
Arsen Petrosyan - Duduk on [8]
Christine Townsend - Violin &Viola on [5,10]
Rob Townsend - Flute on [7], Soprano Saxophone on [8]
Franck Avril - Oboe on [10]

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


After the worst year in living memory, here we are back in lockdown and holidays are becoming a dim and distant memory. While there is no imminent prospect of foreign travel (5 miles is frowned upon in some quarters!) Steve Hackett’s new album Under A Mediterranean Sky is the perfect antidote to brighten your day and whet the appetite for better times to come.

With this album Steve Hackett, Genesis’s guitarist through their classic period in the 1970s, paints such wonderful and vivid images of the wide and varied cultures and landscapes of the Mediterranean region, one has the feeling of being on a whistle-stop cruise!

“I think you’re right,” Steve agreed when we spoke recently, “and, because we can’t really travel substantially and safely at the moment, I hope this album will take people on that journey. It’s the quickest way to travel, in the mind, and it celebrates the Mediterranean which is just a beautiful area. Whether you sit down and listen to it or whether you drift off with a glass of wine…”

That would be very easy, me thinks.

“Well, I think it goes with that, really,” he laughs. “I’m very happy to do that! This sort of music, whenever we have friends round, always seems to go down well as a background to things. You don’t have to play it at vast quantities of volume, it works when it’s gentle.

“The Mediterranean is special because it connects lots of disparate cultures from the Europeans to the Arabic. We’ve had lots of extraordinary visits and it gave me a chance to look at classical roots of music and the flamenco aspect of ethnic music.”

Following his departure from Genesis in 1978, Steve released a string of critically acclaimed albums. While most of his albums fall into the rock category, Under A Mediterranean Sky is Steve’s sixth classical/acoustic guitar album and his first acoustic outing since Tribute in 2008. It is a project Steve has had in mind for a while but, when his American tour was cut short last March by the accelerating global pandemic, he returned home without his electric guitars. They arrived later and were quarantined, leaving Steve at home with just his nylon-stringed acoustic guitar.

“I fell in love with the sound of nylon guitar from the first note that I heard Segovia play,” Steve says. “It is a completely different sound and, within the compass of what the nylon string guitar can do, there are a lot of different tones. You can do the full-on attack, the kind of salvos that you expect from the flamenco players but it can also be very gentle, gentle as a harp, and it conjures a number of different tones. It’s shades of black and white but, if you love it, that’s what it does for you. The idea that all that was even possible on one guitar seemed like a miracle.”

As he explains, the first lockdown was just the opportunity Steve needed to focus on the new acoustic project. “It made me concentrate solely on that for some time. I’d been putting in long hours, as I have over the course of a lifetime. It’s a mixture of thrill and frustration in equal measure as you always want to make it better and you’re dealing with your own limitations. Sometimes those limitations give way to surprising results. I didn’t rely entirely on technique and speed but it’s fairly nippy in places, so it’s not all laconic.

“When I first tried doing acoustic albums, like Bay Of Kings, I was thinking of music to accompany siestas, all the pieces were pretty slow. The last acoustic album I did was called Tribute, a tribute to lots of different composers, and I really had to work hard to be able to play those pieces. But, working with the speed of some of those pieces, I thought ‘Come on, now’, I had to make sure that speed must not be a limitation, I had to think like a composer. The great thing about classical composers is that great technique and speed is a foregone conclusion. They were my influences, if I could play it like a virtuoso then it gave a lot more possibilities. You could lay into it and gild it with speed but if you use enough chords it’s not just one more solo after another. There has to be a reason for it, to give it shape.

“Those records inch their way forward, bit by bit, and technique builds up, the imagination takes over and, over the years, it erodes the internal invalidator, thinking that ‘I can’t do that, I’ll never be able to play that well.’ When you work at it, bit by bit, despite yourself, I found that it led to areas that I’d previously rejected.

“When I started out I was a plectrum player on steel strings and I thought ‘The only way to do this is with two fingers, thumb and forefinger,’ and then, reluctantly, all the others come into use, even if it’s just to pick out chords. So many people have been my guitar teacher over the years. I’d be watching somebody on a street corner doing something, ‘That’s a good sound, that’s good.’ I never needed to have a guru, I just always picked up things that I saw other people do.”

Our journey around the Med begins on the island of Malta, in Mdina – The Walled City. It’s imposing strength is portrayed by Roger King’s dramatic orchestration while Steve’s guitar weaves through the atmospheric streets describing the creativity, love and strength that held Malta together between all the waves of conflict.

With Steve’s delicate guitar work, Adriatic Blue paints an enchanting view of stunning scenery as tall cliffs of forested mountains plunge into the deep blue sea along the Croatian coastline. Sirocco is altogether more atmospheric, inspired by the winds playing through the imposing structures of Egypt.

The lively Joie de Vivre expresses the unique sense of joy the French have through their wine, food and folk music, with paintings reflecting family gatherings, spectacular vistas and the vibrant colours of their cities. The art of dreaming is embodied in their sensual love of life.

“At first hand, I’ve marvelled at the mystical whirling Dervishes,” says Steve.  Along with otherworldly beings such as the Djin (Genie) they sprang from Persia’s dreaming past. The Dervish and The Djin captures the extraordinary atmosphere of this most exotic of civilisations with the help of (Steve’s touring band regular) Rob Townsend’s soprano sax, the tar of Malik Mansurov (from Azerbaijan) and Armenian Arsen Petrosyan’s duduk. “Of course, those countries are virtually at war with each other,” he adds, “and there has been something like a thousand casualties (at the time of speaking) on both sides. Again, it’s a case of music being able to do things that politicians fail to do, to do something constructive.”

The Memory of Myth embodies the deep and rich history of Greece and features the violin of Christine Townsend (no relation to Rob) while Lorato – ‘love’ in the language of the African Tswana tribe – is a pretty folk tune.  Love is the force that heals and links all disparate peoples of the Mediterranean.

Steve and his wife Jo were enchanted by the little Faun statue in the House of the Faun, Pompeii. “The villas there seemed to come back to life as we walked through those wonderful atriums and gardens,” inspiring Casa del Fauno and featuring the light and airy flute of Steve’s brother John.

The only non-original piece is Domenico Scarlatti’s Sonata. This embodies the Baroque music of Italy, a sensitive interpretation embellished with cross-string trills, a technique introduced to Steve by the fine classical guitarist, the late Theo Cheng.

Steve also expresses his admiration for the flamenco guitarists of Andalusia who are celebrated on Andalusian Heart. “One of the flamenco guitarists was showing me the extraordinary things they are able to do,” he explains. “Seeing the gypsies playing and dancing in caves there, you get the feeling that these people are dancing for their lives. I think that they are the best players in the world, the flamenco players.

”There’s a couple of videos with the album,” Steve adds. “Some of it was shot while we were away, they’re very much travelogues, in a way. It’s a chance to celebrate those things on film. It’s a mixture of things Jo shot – we originally met when she wanted me to do some film music for her. And then Paul Gosling has put stuff together as well. It’s interesting the way those videos have come out, really nice.”

Our journey comes to an end with The Call of the Sea, a gentle and peaceful reflection of the vast body of water that unites these many civilisations, both ancient and modern.

“I had a great time doing this album,” Steve reflects, “seeing it take shape, and I’m very pleased with the outcome and very proud of it. When I work on rock stuff, I often wish I could get that degree of subtlety into it.”

Geoff Ford
© 2013-2021 The Progressive Aspect (TPA)



Steve Hackett needs no introduction, he’s one of the most respected guitarists in the prog genre, a rock ‘n roll Hall of Famer for his work with Genesis, and he regularly features at or near to the top of polls listing the best guitarists. But his work goes well above and beyond prog rock. He draws his influences from a wide variety of styles, possibly wider than most, and merges them into whatever it is he’s hoping to create. As his 2019 album At The Edge of Light, and current album Under a Mediterranean Sky illustrate, his music is often infused with jazz, blues and even, on recent albums, world music. His solo albums usually feature guitar as the dominant instrument but, as Edge of Light and Mediterranean Sky suggest, not exclusively, with the inclusion of an orchestra and other exotic instruments .. his latest album features musicians performing on the Duduk, Oud and the Tar, with Hackett playing the Charango .. not exactly rock ‘n roll but it works.

Hackett’s approach to his music takes a different route from others. He says .. “I’ve always pitched my tent in the genre that says, ‘the more obscure something is, the more I want to go for it.” As a result, his solo career has certainly been much less commercially successful than his ex-Genesis bandmates, but he’s one hell of a lot more interesting to listen to. His work is always impeccably well-crafted and, while a few of his solo albums may have fallen short, all of them are worth a listen. Whether he’s playing full-on prog or world music, it’s always performed with the touch of a master craftsman.

On his latest album, the wholly instrumental Under a Mediterranean Sky, he takes the listener on what he describes as a “virtual journey to places I’ve enjoyed visiting, a chance to travel with music,” with every track on the album portraying a different place. Hackett plays mainly nylon guitar and is accompanied by orchestral sounds and other instruments on this imaginary journey through the Mediterranean.

So, despite being still in recovery after minor kidney surgery, Steve Hackett agreed to talk to RAMzine about his latest album and his approach to his music, and I began by asking him whether Under a Mediterranean Sky would have been written and recorded had his tour plans for 2020 not been loused up by the pandemic? 

Steve Hackett (SH):  “ Well, to be honest, last year, we were talking to our record company, Inside Out, about whether to do a rock album or an acoustic album, and they said we’d like to take both. So, earlier this year, we ..the band, my wife Jo and myself ..managed to get, literally, the last flight out of Philadelphia as our US tour had been terminated, America pulled down the shutters and closed up because of Covid, so I thought ‘why not get on with an acoustic album straight away?’ so we did.”

“I had the idea for Under a Mediterranean Sky and we thought, as it was lockdown and people weren’t able to travel, perhaps we could do something which functioned in a more symbolic way and allowed for an inner journey, and if people wanted to dream with it, they could. So I guess you could say the album is a bit of a soundtrack to a dream, depending on the way you like to listen to music, whether you want to try and work out the changes or drift off with a glass of wine. I did the album as a non-competitive thing, a kind of alternative landscape to looking at the four walls we’re all currently surrounded by and hemmed in by.

“At the same time, I’ve also been working on other projects, but this has been the first acoustic and orchestral thing I’ve done for some years, since Tribute in 2009. It’s an alternative to rock ‘n roll, isn’t it ?” He laughed at the thought.

Under a Mediterranean Sky is certainly different from anything Hackett’s done for some years, so I wondered who he had in mind when he made the album; was it his usual fanbase or anyone who enjoys listening to music?

SH: “Well, you know, I just follow my heart with this kind of thing. I love classical guitar and flamenco. I love all kinds of things which aren’t as popular as rock, but,” he paused, “ who knows who picks up on this kind of stuff?

“It’s funny. I did an acoustic album years ago with an orchestra, and I got quite a bit of play on ‘Classic FM,’ and suddenly I was getting people writing to me who normally wouldn’t listen to rock ‘n roll at all, and it was obviously a very different audience, maybe people who’d learned to play piano at home, and they wouldn’t be the leather jacket crowd you’d normally get at gigs. Nothing wrong with leather jackets,” he stated, “I love all of it, music in its entirety, but this was a different audience, using an entirely different kind of language to describe what they thought I’d done with this album, so I was very pleased to welcome in a whole different audience, so you could say it was a sideshow to rock ‘n roll, as all forms of music are. Compared to rock ‘n roll, all other forms of music are marginalised anyway. But I’m happy to do it for the love of it, and if it only sells two copies, to my mum and her sister,” he laughed, “fine. If it goes ballistic, well, that’s also fine.”

Did Steve think Under a Mediterranean Sky would be performed ‘live’ at some future point?
 
SH: “I have played some of the tracks ‘live’ before but, in the main, I tend to think of this kind of stuff as,” he thought for a moment, “music to drift off to. It’s difficult to find the words to describe it, but if I was going to be pretentious, I’d describe it as ‘Post-industrial pan cultural,” he laughed again,” that’s for the intellectuals and all the rest, and it’ll probably get me into pseuds corner.

“But, on the other hand, I do it for the love of it. You could say this bit is more flamenco or more classical, but really it’s more of an attempt to be virtuosic in places. Rock guitar, even at its most dazzling, most of the time it’s the single line which is being played, no matter how fast or slow you’re playing. This is different. You’re playing parts on the same guitar at the same time which, personally, I find, infinitely more difficult, so you could file it under ‘difficult music’ if you want. I guess the secret is to play something where the listener doesn’t think, well, the fretboard is limited compared to the keyboard, so I think this is the challenge for all guitarists”

Steve Hackett occupies an interesting position in the music spectrum, in that when most fans tend to think of him, he’s immediately regarded as a ‘prog rocker,’ but as his last two studio albums, At The Edge of Light and now Under a Mediterranean Sky suggest, there’s far more to him than just prog. He clearly draws his influences from a diverse range right across the board, particularly world music as heard on these albums, so I wondered what was it about world music which attracted him to incorporate it on his albums?

SH: “You know, that’s a very interesting thing. I never thought I’d ever nail my colours to the mast as far as world music is concerned, but it came as a by-product of travelling and meeting people and hearing them play instruments in places like cafes or street corners, rather than arenas. When I was in Morocco, some years ago, I heard someone playing the Arabian Oud, the fretless Oud, and I thought this guy was absolutely marvellous. Next night I heard someone play and he was even better. So I bought an Oud myself and played it from time to time, probably very badly, but it colours the way you write music, particularly if I’m trying to describe some of the extraordinary landscape I’ve seen, places like Egypt and Jordan. Describing it musically, an Oud steps into this territory, like some of the other instruments from various countries around the world used on this album, like the Tar, the Duduk and the Charango. I’ve met people who can play these instruments wonderfully, and they could be from anywhere. I marvel at the skills of others on these instruments, and it’s nice for me not to always take centre stage.”

Sticking to the musician theme, I wondered whether Steve thought it was more important for him to be considered as a musician, making albums with wide ranges of instruments and influences, like his last two, or as a prog rocker who’s simply the keeper of the Genesis flame, which is now a widespread perception of him?

SH: “Well, for me, I don’t think you have to do one at the expense of the other. I noticed, when we did ‘Selling England by the Pound’ in 1973, John Lennon gave us a name check, saying we were one of the bands he was listening to, so that was possibly my proudest moment. A little later, I heard Lennon arguing with Yehudi Menuhin on TV, and Yehudi had used a piece of mine for a film he was making about English gardens and I thought, these two are arguing but, on the other hand, it was nice to know there was some common ground between them. Quite by chance, maybe Lennon had picked up something I was involved with in Genesis, and Yehudi had picked up something I’d done on my second solo album, which was a piece of my brother playing flute.
 
“With Genesis, however, I notice over time the guys have got more dismissive of the early period and what the rest of us perceive as their more ‘poppy’ period, when they were infinitely more successful,” he exclaimed. “Nonetheless, I think what we did at that stage, and the record sales we achieved, I don’t think I need to aim higher than that so, for me, what they might dismiss, I choose to celebrate and say, ‘I think this was really great’.”

“It’s very odd. Even now, we talk to each other, me and the Genesis guys, but it’s often privately to congratulate each other, and then find it being publicly denounced. It’s a strange competitive team that doesn’t work together any more, but occasionally reconvenes as a three piece,” he paused for a moment, “but I prefer to think of Genesis as a five piece which existed between 1971 and 1975 with Peter Gabriel, and into this picture I’d like to include my predecessor in Genesis, Anthony Phillips, who I think was the prime motivator and prime writer. He’s very self-effacing but I see quite a bit of him.”

I ventured to suggest to Steve that Selling England by the Pound is, for me, an absolute prog classic and a desert island album.

SH: “That’s the one I think is the best album,”  Steve agreed, “and it happened to be made as a five piece. We did a couple as a four piece, and they had lots of strong points, but for me overall ‘Selling England ..’ is the strongest, most surprising non-formula album. I mean, we didn’t know we were supposed to be progressive, we really didn’t, and the subsequent album, ‘Lamb Lies Down,’ on reflection was probably rock meets Rachmaninov, or a Mexican stand-off between Peter Gabriel and Tony Banks, a collision of very different schools.
 
“But it’s a very pleasant memory that we did that, to the exclusion of songs which were perhaps less virtuosic,” he said, proudly, “ and the musicianship was really starting to shine through at this stage, so I’m proud of the fact it’s got good songs on it, quirky lyrics with social comment and bits of virtuosity, and prog-isms all over it. But I don’t think we were trying to do any one kind of music, I think we were just trying to do separate themes, a film for the ear rather than the eye.”

Steve’s music down the years has embraced a wide variety of styles and influences, and he’s known for more than just playing Genesis. So, how important does he regard it to keep moving forward as a musician?

SH: “ Well, I think I use one as a platform for the other. I mean, I’m infinitely more well known for what I did with Genesis, but occasionally it’s nice to work with an orchestra or work with world musicians, or even get my toes wet dabbling with Jazz or Blues. I grew up wanting to be a blues player. I loved the Blues, and I used to go and see Peter Green playing with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers every other week. I was hugely influenced by this. I was also lucky enough to see Hendrix ‘live’ a couple of times, and also Eric Clapton, and they were great guitar lessons. I’m currently reading a book about Hendrix, and he was a real one-off, but then so was Segovia,” he emphasised. “My record collection’s quite broad.

“People ask who I listen to now, and do I think there’s a progressive scene ? I listen to Elbow, I like Muse with their pan-genre approach and also Florence & the Machine, with their operatic approach and wide dynamics, and although none of these acts are being described as progressive, in terms of the sheer bulk of records sold, people think of the sub-culture that is progressive versus really successful acts, they might be taking a leaf out of the same book. Muse might wander off into a piece played by Chopin or something inspired by Prince. And why not?” he asked, “why can’t it all be under the same umbrella ? If it’s music without prejudice, who knows, progressive and punk might pull something off together.”

Time was running out so I had one more question. How pleased was he with the reception given to his recent autobiography, There’s a Genesis in my Bed?

SH: “ It’s all gone very well. In fact, we had a call from the publisher today saying we’ve only got three hundred copies left in the warehouse, ‘so I think we should do a paperback version next year.’ First of all, I don’t think he was expecting the book to sell the quantities it has, but it seems to have done very well so it’s possible there could be an updated edition next year, and who knows, the paperback might have a different cover.

“Lockdown throws up all kinds of possibilities, and meanwhile I’m doing rock stuff at the same time. Med Sky is the current project but I always tend to think in terms of any subsequent projects, of what’s coming next.”

With some solo artists, their passion for music and their desire to embrace new ideas wanes and they get older, but Steve Hackett’s passion for music and exploring new ideas hasn’t. He still marches forward producing quality new music while, at the same time, playing the music which made Genesis such a creative force in the 1970’s for a new generation. It was said, when Peter Gabriel left Genesis in 1975, they lost their brains, but when Steve Hackett left in 1977, they lost their heart and soul, the man who gave them their musical edge. Who am I to disagree with this comment?

Laurence Todd - December 23, 2020
RAMzine.co.uk



Under a Mediterranean Sky is Hackett's first acoustic album since Tribute (2008), which saw him pay homage to various composers. The album originated in March 2020, when his North American tour was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw him return to England without his electric guitars. The situation left Hackett at home with just his acoustic instruments, including his nylon guitar, and the opportunity to work on a new acoustic project.[1] Hackett had discussions with his label, Inside Out Music, regarding if his next studio album can be acoustic or rock-oriented, and both ideas were green-lit, so he thought the time was right to do an acoustic album.[2] Around this time, Hackett and his longtime producer and keyboardist Roger King decided to upgrade their software and purchase new orchestral samples.[3] A series of videos were shot while Hackett and his wife Jo were visiting the places depicted on the album, including footage from Jo herself and from Paul Gosling.

Wikipedia.org
 

 L y r i c s


Currently no Lyrics available!

 M P 3   S a m p l e s


Currently no Samples available!