ASHES ARE BURNING

This is the album that made the Mark II lineup (minus Rob Hendry-Guitar) famous! Note that Michael Dunford was not shown as a band member but he is playing his 12-string guitar and composing all the music (along with Betty Thatcher Newsinger-Lyrics). I would recommend getting the Repetoire Records version or the mini-LP sleeve Japanese pressing if you can. There were different covers for the European and North American LP's and I believe the CD's follow the original format per the country of release. Although the CD's have not been remastered the transfer from the analogue master tape to the digital tape is very good indeed!

For those of you new to Renaissance this album is part of their baroque/folk/jazz era. John Tout (keyboards) is influenced by Debussy/Prokofiev/Rachmaniov. He is really the anchor for the whole band. If you like 'light classical' music (French/Russian composers) then this album will appeal to you.

Annie Haslam's voice really starts coming into it's own as she now has the confidence working in front of a studio microphone. There is no doubt that she has an outstanding voice. I notice in a lot of reviews that Annie's voice is mentioned quite frequently. Please note that some copies of the song "At the Harbour" was edited in the late 1970's due to copyright changes to classical music. The Repetoire Records CD has the complete song. The japanese CD has both the full and edited version (very thoughtful) of the song.

As I mentioned in my review of "Da Capo" John Tout said that the band was quite distraught due to all the changes of band members. It would imply that if this album was not successful then they may have broken up completely. It seems this is another case of a British band being more popular outside of their home country. Their popularity in the N.E. USA (Boston to Washington, DC) was probably the most important factor.

The songs are mostly quite long (6-9 min.) yet the whole album comes together quite nicely listening to it in one sitting. Also, notice there is only one electric instrument (electric bass guitar) with the exception of Andy Powell's electric lead guitar on the title track. I think they do a superb job with acoustic instruments (minimal overdubbing - mostly the keyboards). In my opinion this is definitely what defines Renaissance early period (1972-1977). This music has definitely been neglected and derided by the mainstream rock press. The standard of musicianship and the construction of the songs hold up very well. I would venture to say this is a timeless album in the popular music catalogue. The band lasted from 1969 to 1987 with only one 'hit single' in 1978 (Northern Lights from "A Song for All Seasons" album) just as the band 'Yes' has lasted for so very long. Note that Yes, Genesis (P. Gabriel version), Gentle Giant, Wishbone Ash, Hawkwind, Marillion are usually mentioned in the music dictionaries (All Music Guide, etc.) yet Renaissance is usually ignored (not listed) or simply derided. Hopefully this situation will change in the future.