KEYSTUDIO

After their "Talk" album and tour from 1994, both Tony Kaye and Trevor Rabin left the band in mid 1995. Billy Sherwood also have been working with the band in the 1994 tour as an additional guitarist, keyboard player and backing singer (and also playing a bit of bass guitar along with Chris Squire in the "Talk" title track in concert), and also in previous years in the recording studio without him still being an official member of the band. But it seems that by mid 1995 with the lack of enough success from the "Talk" album and tour, the band was planning to do other things, and both Kaye and Rabin left the band. It also seems that by mid 1995 they had an offer from a record label to reform the "classic" line-up of the band from the seventies, as , if I remember well, Chris Squire said in one interview. So, Jon Anderson, Chris Squire and Alan White were joined in the band again by Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman. It also seems that Wakeman due to his solo career commitments was not available to work with the band full time. Anyway, the band started in late 1995 to write new songs, to rehearse them and to record them with the aim to release a new studio album. Wakeman's absences are more clear to me in some songs, with his keyboards sounding more like being overdubbed in the finished songs (in "Be the One" and "That Is, That Is"), but his work with the band maybe started to be more frequent in the rest of the songs (in some of which he also had some songwriting credits).

The band also planned to rehearse old songs for three concerts to be played at the Fremont Thearte in San Luis Obispo, California, in early March 1996. The concerts also were recorded and filmed. But the plans for the studio recordings changed, because they were combined with the live recordings from San Luis Obispo to be released in two double CD albums: "Keys to Ascension" and "Keys to Ascension 2", which were released in late 1996 and late 1997, respectively, with also the release of a DVD titled "Keys to Ascension" . In both albums and the DVD the band released all the songs they played at the concerts (with the best versions of the songs being chosen to be released). In the "Keys to Ascension" album they included the "Be The One" and "That Is, That Is" studio recordings, and in the "Keys to Ascension 2" they included the rest of the studio recordings ("Foot Prints", "Mind Drive", "Bring Me To The Power", "Sign Language" and "Children Of Light"). But it seems that the band started having some problems with the management by mid 1997, with a tour being planned, and with Wakeman not very happy with the way the new studio recordings were treated, being released more as "bonus studio tracks" to the live recordings. Also, the new tour dates were planned without consulting him, and this caused some problems between him and the band and the management, with him finally leaving the band again. So, the band canceled the proposed tour dates, and Billy Sherwood mixed the rest of the studio recordings to be released in the "Keys of Ascension 2" album in late 1997. Also the band changed management and record label and found themselves without a keyboard player and with the new management and record label wanting another new studio album from them in a very short time. So, Sherwood (who have been working with Squire writing some songs for a planned duet album) was finally asked to join the band as a full time member, and this led to the recording of the "Open Your Eyes" album (but that is another history!).

I don't know who had the idea to release the 1995-1996 studio recordings together in an album. But this finally happened in 2001, with this "Keystudio" album. I have to say that because I previously have bought both "Keys to Ascension" albums I never bought this "Keystudio" album. But the only difference that exist in these studio recordings is the inclusion of a previously cut keyboards introduction to "Children of Light", of an almost one minute in lenght, being composed and played by Wakeman. This keyboards introduction sounds well, almost in a "spectacular" way and maybe sounding a bit similar to Vangelis's music. So, with this keyboard introduction the title of the song was changed for the "Keystudio" album from "Children of Light" to "Children of the Light". This song also has other minor changes in editing, but it is almost the same song.

I think that it was a good idea to finally release all these studio recordings together in one CD, as it was originally planned. All the songs are very good, very Progressive, with the band sounding very well. For me the best songs are "Be The One", "Mind Drive", "Sign Language" and "Children of the Light". "That Is, That Is" sounds to me like being influenced a bit by New Age music and it also sounds a bit fragmented.

It seems that this album is now out of print.