TUSCANY

There have been a number of attempts over the years to gather together those primarily responsible for the fine music created by Renaissance over the years. These efforts have tended to flounder, and the untimely death of Keith Relf in 1976 means that a reunion of the original line up is clearly not possible. There have however been many fine musicians passing through the ranks, so a gathering of some of the great and the good has always been feasible. The sole constant in such a reunion would be the essential presence of the unique voice of Annie Haslam (although even here, Stephanie Adlington made a decent job of stepping in on a couple of Michael Dunford's Renaissance albums).

In 1998, Dunford and Haslam met up to discuss the promotion of a musical based on "Scheherazade". They were subsequently joined by Terry Sullivan and John Tout plus Haslam's husband Roy Wood (of ELO, The Move, and Wizzard). The original intention was to simply record some bonus tracks for an already planned release, but such was the success of the reunion that they decided to record a brand new album.

Ten songs, all written by Haslam (lyrics) and Dunford (melodies), were recorded and overdubbed over two separate sessions. The first session involved the line up described above, but Wood and Tout were unable to perform on the second, so Mickey Simmons (keyboards) and Alex Caird (bass), neither of whom are former members of Renaissance, were brought in to complete the recordings.

The album is a clear attempt to recapture the majestic sounds of the band's heyday in the 1970s. The opening "Lady from Tuscany" has all the tenets of that era of Renaissance history, with time changes, punchy keyboard orchestration and the full range of Haslam's five octave voice. "Pearls of wisdom" features a fine piano arrangement by John Tout, the additional orchestration resulting in a truly majestic piece. Thereafter we have a succession of well produced songs which capture the essence of Renaissance. It would be easy, and indeed churlish, after a single listen to dismiss some of the content as lightweight. To do so though would be to miss the intricacies of the arrangements and the depth of the production. The songs here are brought to full fruition with sensitivity and care.

The album closes with "One thousand roses", a well constructed number in the true prog tradition of Renaissance. In all then, a fine addition to the band's discography which at time of writing sees them going out on a high.

"Tuscany" was originally only released in Japan some three years after the project had started, but it did eventually secure a UK release in 2002. The lack of interest by the record companies has meant that despite the quality of this product and the pedigree of the performers, no further releases have come from this fine band since.

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