SURVIVAL & OTHER STORIES

Well what can I say regarding such a remarkable step of Jon Anderson brilliant career?!!..As in the recent times his illness brought about a certain strength in his composition, thanks to his strong reaction to his unlucky fate (also in his recent 2011 American Tour, where his performance on stage has been improving all his successful concerts in America and Mexico for a few months), now I like to point out that He's been able to put a great quality into the present new composition, by considering this "Survival..." in its essence.

As a matter of fact, in spite of all the problems with his health, that anyway charged him with a lot of motivations before the same Tour, I think We often have missed his full talented music, especially during his absence: so such Jon's artistic "calibre" in the world of the New-Age and Prog Related music, which has always characterized his career (despite a few occasional uneven arrangements in his last albums), is still growing nowadays, after all, and for me that's enough to regard this new music project as a clever work to be checked out at least!!

This time Jon as a soloist has got a convincing spiritual mood in his album, creating one of his best products ever...it's enriched by means of an intelligent variety of tunes, from the most religious ones, to those more symphonic compositions à-la "Jon and Vangelis", accompanied by some clever musicians, which makes this "Survival..." almost a must- have!!

Here you won't find any programmed drums or "midi-files", cause the talented musicians who play with him are able to emphasize his darkless lyrics- as you instead don't expect here- without pushing towards the high notes in his vocalism; even though He's always able to maintain a kind of "religiousness" in his songs and that's surprising, along with his optimism!!

The piano accompaniment, the orchestrations inside and the music variety in general, are brilliant features here for Jon, being not in a spot into this "mystic" context, regardless all the electronic backdrops: in fact, thanks to his collaboration with unknown musicians from all over the world (even some delicate finger-picking guitar parts by a sensible guitarist, enriching the composition...), Jon has been able to create an organic work !!

Think of "Understanding Truth" for example, with its variety, or "Unbroken Spirit", with its clever arrangement, witouth forgetting a completely different and "religious song" entitled " Big Buddha Song "...well at the end make your personal choice, but for me it's all quite interesting after all!!

Actually the true score is "three stars and an half", as the present album probably is not essential inside a typical symphonic prog collection, but into the world of the New Age Music almost it is...