BBC SESSIONS

Truth be told, Renaissance is the type of band that probably could be able to perform their most stellar work in their sleep. An illusion given off by the fact that they are so familiar with their material, along with their super musicianship coupled with their always uber professionalism.

Their necessary BBC " live in the studio" session takes, found sprawled across these two sixty plus minute double CD's, issued from Wounded Bird Records in 1999, is quite a gem.

The main selling point is the inclusion and execution of later era material from the Novella album such as Can You Hear Me? and Touching Once (is so hard to keep), both carried off extremely well without backing from an orchestra. I can envision that John Tout did a lot of pre recording on the backing tracks to flesh out the sound along with percussionist Terry Sullivan. Or Perhaps Sir Johnalot simply did his one of his renown octopus imitations with Annie Haslam flailing away on tambourine and maracas.

This material focuses mainly on the best material from the studio albums Ashes are Burning (which of course closes the concert as it's the band's MO) as well as another flawless full length version of Scheherazade (again sans orchestra.)

It really saddens me that this album is currently out of print, but I'm hoping that the BBC will see fit to rerelease this exquisite time capsule recording again in the not too distant future. This is nothing less than required listening for Renaissance's fans.