STEVE HOWE

Of course, being an instrumental album based on short acoustic guitar pieces, the sounds of the album are very light. Even the three Yes pieces he reworked (To Be Over, Your Move and Disillusion) are very light, but the arrangements are very beautiful. The album in the whole is great, but it has a very specific mood and many Yes fans and other prog fans may not like this kind of music, once it is not similar to his playing with Yes or Asia, being more or less like Steve Hackett and Anthony Phillips classical efforts, with the only difference being that Howe plays other popular styles as well.

It is a perfect album for those who like great playing, instrumental music and soft and lighthearted music, so don´t go after it if you are a Yes fan but you don´t enjoy this kind of music. Go for it for its content, specified above in this review, and you will have a beautiful relaxing instrumental album.

If you were expecting another Fish Out Of Water with the first solo release of the other Yes-ax-man then you'd be sorrowfully let down by this album. Steve Howe's Beginnings is an album full of ideas, but not all of them are top notch. It would seem that at this point in his career Howe would still need collaborators (such as those in Yes) to streamline his ideas, and while this album does have some excellent high points, there are also some points which just make you want to reach for the skip button.

Let's get it out of the way right off the bat that Howe is not a very good lead singer. His backup vocals in Yes are good for texture, but as proven by this release, they fall flat when put out front. His vocals are still good in limited quantities, but they don't have the amount of range needed to stay interesting for the whole album. Still, there are a couple of very good tunes that have Howe standing behind the mic - the first is actually the album's opening track, which sets up the entire thing very nicely. Doors Of Sleep opens the album whimsically and has some very pleasant melodies that drift along to some well placed riffs. Lost Symphony ends side one with another excellent composition, this one rivaling some of the best moments from Squire's only solo venture. It's likely the album's standout, Howe voices for a bit before letting the climactic instrumentals take hold to bring the first side to an end. Unfortunately what lies in the middle is somewhat forgotten, and Australia makes too much use of Howe's weak voice to really be able to appreciate the instrumental sections present in the song.

The second side is even more uneven. Things get off to a start with the promisingly lengthy instrumental, Beginnings, that actually turns out to be the weakest song on the album. It's 7-minutes of orchestral rambling, which honestly sounds like it could be the soundtrack to Bambi. There's a certain degree of whimsy present (that which Howe is at his best with on this album), but the light hearted rompage is just so mundane that it turns into a 7-minute chore to listen to. Luckily there are two songs that save this side from complete destruction, Will O Wisp and Break Away From It All, but even these are not memorable enough to really make an impact by this point.

Overall, Howe's solo debut is not for everyone. Fans of Yes would be best to consider this a collector's item and fans of Howe should probably do the same. Still, this group of people will still find a lot to like about it, although everyone else - who are likely looking for some more complex, heavy hitting, well voiced progressive rock, would do best to look elsewhere. Good for a couple of listens, but then it'll probably hit the shelf for good. 2.5 stars, a weak effort with some shining moments.

The compositions have some different styles but a jazzy flavour is predominant and somehow most of the songs have a particular sound that makes them all sound rather similar. Spectrum is about as good as the instrumental Turbulence album, but not in my opinion as good as Elements or The Grand Scheme Of Things. As much as I love Steve, I think that this album is rated too high here on Prog Archives at this moment. It is very well worth checking out, but it is hardly essential.

With a running time of a whole hour it tends to get a bit samey towards the middle despite the generally high quality of the music. This is a problem that haunts most of Steve's solo albums.

Not Steve Howe's best solo album, but certainly not his worst either. I would go for The Grand Scheme Of Things and Elements first.

The excerpts from Yes' Close To The Edge, Turn Of The Century and Gates Of Delirium/Soon are interesting and very different from their original versions. These are not meant as improvements on these masterpiece songs, and they should not be judged as such. Steve is well aware that he cannot better them, and that is also not what he is trying to do here. He is merely putting them into a new light and having some fun with them. And I think he is very successful at this. And the audience seems to agree. He is even trying to be funny when he claims to have forgotten which song off Going For The One he should play, and he starts playing the beginning of every song off Going For The One, stopping with no, not that one, until he gets to Turn Of The Century.

No one, including Steve himself, thinks that he is a great vocalist. But you don't necessarily have to be in order to make good music, as long as you have good material. And Steve Howe has a lot to pick from, and he doesn't pick his greatest hits either (no Roundabout, I've Seen All Good People, Heat Of The Moment or When The Heart Rules The Mind). Besides, even if he does sing several songs, the focus here is, obviously, on the guitars. Only on track one are there drums and bass, for the rest Steve is all alone on stage.

This might not be the best starting point if you want to discover Steve's solo career. But I think it is preferable to many of his studio albums. Interesting and fun for Yes fans, judging it for what it is.

Also, the band feeling present on albums like the aforementioned The Grand Scheme Of Things and the later Elements is lacking here. Indeed, the only other musician involved in Steve's son, Dylan Howe on drums. Dylan is not bad, but he is not Bill Bruford or Alan White. The bass and keyboards, played by Steve himself, are not very present and rather timid. It is the guitars that take centre stage here, which, after all, is not too surprising on an album titled Quantum Guitar. However, even the guitars are often rather timid and do not at all have the powerful sound we all know and love from Steve's days in Yes, Asia, GTR and ABWH. Overall, the sound becomes rather light weight, even on those pieces intended to rock.

There are several good moments on the album, and even more moments where I feel that it could have been good if it had the right sound and was played with a bit more enthusiasm. But Quantum Guitar represents Steve Howe on auto pilot.

Therefore, this is only for Steve's more dedicated fans!

Many complain about Howe's vocals, and while I agree that he is not a great singer, I don't think that the vocals is the main problem. If he had really good songs to sing, his limited vocal abilities would be forgiven very quickly. But the material on Beginnings is not very strong; it is certainly listenable, but not memorable. The progressiveness of the album is also rather limited; the songs are quite conventional in their structure.

Other reviewers have focused on the people involved, so I will not get onto that. There is really no need to mention specific tracks either. Nothing here is poor, but there is also nothing that stands out as great. I will have to mention Ram, though, which is almost a carbon copy of Clap - not very imaginative at all.

The strangest thing about this album is that it is not at all a very good showcase for Howe's guitar prowess. His enormous talent and unique guitar sound is far better represented on the Yes albums of the 70's and on several later solo albums.

Recommended only for Steve Howe fans!

This all instrumental music is extremely subtle and subdued, almost like sophisticated elevator music! It is clearly designed for relaxation. Soft keyboards are the dominating instrument here and not Steve's guitar playing. Only on a couple of passages is the music recognizably Howe at all. This is basically a Paul Sutin album, I think.

The instrumentation is as simple as is the arrangements, the keyboards are not very varied and the only other instruments are acoustic guitar and electric guitar and sometimes drums. Only one track is really annoying, with a more rhythmic approach (I don't remember which one, but it is one towards the end). The rest is listenable, but utterly forgettable.

For the general Prog fan there is nothing of interest here, and not even for the Steve Howe fan (like myself) is there anything of particular interest.

Ignore this one!

There are very few of the vocal numbers on Elements (probably as a result of much criticism on Howe's vocal ability). He is not a great singer, but I think he handles the vocals fully acceptably and I would like to have seen more proper songs here. The instrumental material is very good and quite varied; Rock, Blues, Jazz, Country and some other styles are touched upon.

Despite all the variety, this album tend to get a bit too samey towards the end. An hour is simply too long for this material to keep the listeners attention. This album also lacks acoustic numbers, like the ones on the Natural Timbre album. Maybe if he took the best from that album and put it together with the best from this one, he could have made a much better album?

The track Hecla Lava cannot be interpreted in any other way than as a Brian May tribute. It has exactly Brian May's style and his unique use of echoed harmonies. Smoke Silver is my favourite track on Elements though, amazing guitar work!

Elements is not as good as The Grand Scheme Of Things, but still clearly one of Steve Howe's very best solo albums (the competition is not very fierce, though!) And there is a lot to enjoy here for the Steve Howe fan.

The album starts with Kenny's Sound, a song by Kenny Burrel, a jazz guitarist who seems to be one of Howe's idols. Beginning with a cool jazzy melody, it goes into jamming as the guitar dialogues perfectly with the hammond organ played by Ross Stanley. Mood for a day is the next, but don't think it'll be a predictable version of this classic piece. Steve plays it for first time on electric guitar, and the song has everything changed, including the time signature. As Steve said in the Trio's concerts, it's surprising what you can do to a tune: bend it, twist it, shake it. The Haunted Melody, by jazz saxophonist/flutist Roland Kirk, is a short tune with a beautiful melody that will be in your head for hours, but I doubt you'll get tired of it. Siberian Khatru is another shaken and twisted tune, in which Ross Stanley's hammond bass carries the changing time signatures. It's a less orthodox jazz piece, but another great new arrangement. Blue Bash was composed by Jimmy Smith, and this arrangement is similar to the one featured on Jimmy's album with Kenny Burrel (also named Blue Bash). Momenta originally appeared on Steve's Quantum Guitar (solo album from 1998) and it's perhaps the less interesting tune here. Closer to free jazz, it could have been shorter in my opinion. Laughing with Larry is Steve's solo piece. He plays acoustic guitar in a finger-picking style similar to Clap. Travelin' is another Kenny Burrel tune that follows the style of Kenny's Sound: starting with a remarkably good melody, it goes into jamming (including a moment when Steve stops playing and his son, Dylan Howe, shows his talents accompanied by the hammond bass) and ends with a rework of the melody from the beginning. Dream River is from Steve's acoustic album Natural Timbre (from 2001) and here it is reworked with a slow tempo and the relaxed fingers of Howe touching the electric guitar gently. Close to the Edge is just the introduction of the epic song from Yes. Dylan ressembles Bill's stylehere , while Ross plays mostly the lines originally from Chris Squire. However, the agressivity of the original song is lacking here, on the drums, on the organ and especially on the guitar. So once in the album I guess Steve could play with a more agressive sound. But the song's signature melody can still give you goosebumps moments... Sweet Thunder finishes the album well, with a good hammond work, but perhaps it lacks a more remarkable melody...

Overall, Steve presents us with a fresh album in which three people who love playing music start a new project. Let's hope for a second album!

There's no denying the instrumental talents of Steve Howe and Yes cohort Bill Bruford (who plays on this album), and TURBULENCE puts those talents on display. Even more amazing is the number of instruments (guitars and basses mostly) Howe used in the making of the album; the curious can examine a diagram of those instruments. So, why the harsh rating after all of the positive comments?

Simple, this is the most uninteresting album I've ever listened to. Yes is a band that has an uncanny ability to get me to remember any song they've ever done (during classic period Yes, of course); TURBULENCE leaves nothing for me to grasp musically with the exception of a few scattered ideas. There's simply no staying power in the compositions, nothing memorable to latch onto, nothing that would make me really want to pick the album up for a few more spins. Generic instrumental music is what this is.

Even with my respect for Steve Howe and his most successful association (Yes), I can't see any essentiality in this. This should be an album that is reserved for the extremely curious no matter how big of a Steve Howe fan they are.

Last words: The adjective ''turbulent'' isn't exactly how I would describe the album.