INVENTION OF KNOWLEDGE

Wow, a collaboration of Roine Stolt of The Flower Kings and Jon Anderson of Yes! How exciting to see the old school and the not-so-old school (Roine will be 60 later in 2016) working together! Or is it?? That's the question my mind pondered as I fell asleep multiple times while listening to this. Or perhaps the meaning of this music is simply above the ability of my brain to comprehend? Like it was intended for spirits in another dimension to listen to and maybe humans simply have not evolved (at least in my case) enough to understand Anderson's enlightened gibberish.

Let's get the first thing everyone wants to know out of the way. Does it sound like the Flower Kings? No. Does it sound like Yes? Barely. What does it sound like? It sounds like the plodding, slow-moving, new age music Anderson has featured on many of his solo albums (Olias of Sunhillow is one reference point), with an occasional Howe-like nod from Stolt. There really is no prog rock workout here. It plods along at the same speed for over an hour, occasionally reaching minor crescendos in places. The music is by no means simple either. It has some complexity to it in an almost orchestral fashion. And with musicians such as Lalle Larsson, Jonas Reingold, Tom Brislin, and Felix Lehrmann at their disposal, I'm shocked that there wasn't anything worthy enough to provide the "rock" portion of prog rock. The entire album had this folky, new age vibe running throughout; a never-ending "sameness."

Now, maybe there were some interesting instrumental things going on, but they were lost on my ears from the incessant wordiness of this album. Anderson's vocals are nice, but they are forced way above the rest of the mix and there are few moments on the album where he isn't singing. I never imagined Anderson's vocals being "too much" for an album until now.

I can't really comment on the lyrics much as I don't understand them (as I suspect most humans that haven't reached whatever world Jon lives in). There is much repetition, but that still doesn't help me understand them either. I would have better luck understanding the output of a random word generator than this gibberish.

Fans of Anderson's solo career will probably like this; maybe Yes fans that like the softer, sleepier side of Yes. Fans of gibberish will also enjoy this. If you want the rock equation of prog rock, look elsewhere.