THE STORY OF OUR LIVES

Here is a artist that spells out its wares in their Moniker" Elegant Simplicity ": that's the way to describe the music! It's Elegant and yet not overtly complicated. Some of the past and future albums are so-so but some are great: : Architect of Light (with vocals) and Anhedonia are really yummy! An accomplished multi-instrumentalist , Steve McCabe is really a rather rare number in today's world , laying down vivid lead guitar lines, blending deft keyboard solos and atmospherics , held together by some great bass work. The drums are held by guest musicians. This disc is interesting in that it almost sounds like a movie soundtrack to a story (Story of our Lives?) , with some moody atmospherics, a harsher recurring theme ("Second Meeting") and a blissfull ending! The vocalists in Prog are not always superlative (or frankly even relevant) with a few exceptions, its a genre that lives and dies by the mastery of the instruments.

This is good driving in the rain/snow music , a little somber and gloomy with some wonderful soloing . A masterpiece? No but definetily well worth encouraging. 4 bios

I was searching through the web looking for music related to Ken Senior one night when I came across the excellent web site of Elegant Simplicity (www.elegantsimplicity.com). I had forgotten that Ken sang for Steven McCabe, and realised that I had also lost touch with Steve himself. I made contact again and discovered that the reason Steve had not been in touch over recent years was that his computer had died and he had lost many of his contact addresses. To rectify the situation Steve sent me his last three albums so that I could hear what he had been up to in recent times.

Steve is prolific, and since 1992 has released 14 full-length albums, 4 promo tapes, and 2 sampler tapes. But just because he has a large amount of output it does not mean that there is any reduction in quality, he is just an artist with a lot of ideas. It appears that the last album I heard was 'Reversal Of Time' which I reviewed in #42 (1997). Between that one and 'The Story Of Our Lives' (2002) there were two more that I haven't heard so it was interesting to be able to sit down and see what changes there had been during that time.

Elegant Simplicity started life as a one man band, with Steve providing instrumental albums where he not only performed and produced the music, but also all of the sleeve design and artwork. This is the case with this album as it is an instrumental, which is one piece of music just under forty-eight minutes long (subdivided into 12 so sections can be easily accessed). The whole thing was recorded and produced in about two weeks, which is quite an undertaking for music that is as layered and complex as this. While Steve the music is laid back as opposed to dynamic, there is a great deal going on with keyboards and guitars interacting in a mellow Camel/Floyd style. It could be construed then that this is background music but that is definitely not the case. It is uplifting music that made me keep thinking of the sea, music that I could drift on and wanted to hear to the end.

Originally appeared in Feedback #69, Aug 02