OLIAS OF SUNHILLOW

In my recent review of Yes' "Mirror to the Sky," I wrote that I felt like a "traitor" to Jon Anderson. I now realize in what capacity I have been "disloyal" to him: It has taken me 47 years to give "Olias of Sunhillow" its commensurate due attention. In 1976, I found it easy to give my attention to Chris Squire's "Fish Out of Water." Somehow, I paid less attention to "Olias of Sunhillow." Fortunately, I still have the opportunity to surround myself with this work as I did with "Fish Out of Water" and "Tales from Topographic Oceans."

I'd like to dedicate this review to the memory of a great, authentic Yes Fan: H. Eldon Wood, 8/13/1959-1/30/2019. In 1804, as Ludwig van Beethoven finished his Symphony # 3, "Eroica," he modified his dedication "to the memory of a great man." Beethoven's original dedicatee was to have been Napoleon Bonaparte. However, by 1804, Napoleon had demonstrated his true, dictatorial intentions (a tendency we sadly must observe in the "character" of a certain ex-president . . .). With his diminutive stature and "maestro-like" tendencies, Jon Anderson has been likened to Napoleon. In "Olias of Sunhillow," Anderson, perhaps, furthers this analogy, assuming the lion's share of all creative aspects of this work. Working only with Mike Dunne, Yes' studio technician, Anderson singularly composed and performed all of "Olias of Sunhillow" (notwithstanding assertions that Vangelis may have contributed to the album).

On one level, Anderson posits an imaginative rendition of, say, a quest parallel to Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings." Planet Sunhillow is threatened with annihilation through the eruption of its primordial volcano. Here, the "Fellowship" consists of Olias, Ranyart, and Qoquag, who are entrusted with salvation of their people, the four tribes of Sunhillow, each representations of vibrational awareness. Olias is a magician, responsible for the design and construction of the Moorglade Mover, the ark by which the four tribes of Sunhillow will be re-located to another planet. Ranyart is the harp-playing pilot; Qoquag, mystic and uniter of the four tribes of Sunhillow. And the design of the Moorglade Mover comes from Roger Dean's cover of "Fragile." "Ocean Song" opens with suggestions of the great, oceanic reality from which life has emerged on Earth. In the transition to "Meeting," Anderson conjures up a soundscape like the harrowing music from Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey," when the astronauts encounter the Sentinel on the Moon.

Of course, what is remarkable about this album is Anderson's ability to become proficient on the instruments that comprise this work. Further, to learn the capacities of the chosen instruments to convey the imaginative realizations that surfaced in the composer's mind's eye, his "Topographic Ocean," is remarkable. And, throughout the album, Anderson's primary instrument is his voice.

The "linear" plot of "Olias of Sunhillow" proceeds from "Meeting," "Sound out the Galleon," "Dance of Ranyart," "Olias ( to Build the Moorglade), "Qoquag en Transic," "Naon," "Transic To," "Flight of the Moorglade," "Solid Space," "Moon Ra," "Chords," "Song of Search," and "To the Runner." Essentially, "Olias of Sunhillow" delineates the background for the quest, the marshalling of the four tribes of Sunhillow, Olias' construction of the Moorglade Mover, the dance of Ranyart, and Trance of Qoquag, culminating in the immediate departure of the Ark, to its arrival on a new home planet.

Fundamentally, there is a "third person," who narrates this quest. There are key intervals in which Anderson excels as an instrumentalist. In "Dance of Ranyart," there are harp and synthesizer solos evocative of 1977's "Awaken." During "Solid Space," a cavernous synthesizer melody accompanies the Moorglade, now in transit. There's reference to a Rider, which makes me think of the Rider Publishing Co. that brought forth "The Finding of the Third Eye" by Vera Stanley Alder from which Jon Anderson has found inspiration.

Noteworthy towards the end of "Olias of Sunhillow" are "Song of Search" and "To the Runner." In "Song of Search," Anderson performs an acoustic guitar solo, suggestive of influence from his Yes colleague, Steve Howe; this is followed by synthesizers with a chasmic vocal background.

Finally, Anderson brings us "To the Runner." Jon has written some challenging lyrics at the conclusion of this quest: "Spurn all ye kindle/and cradle his sweet pleasure/as you just look/farther and farther beyond him, /beyond him, beyond him . . . Ultimately at the end of the journey, one transcends the fruits of human labor to gaze at the ultimate mystery behind it all. So, in "praying to the runner," [we] "ask a flower to kneel" in recognition of the energy that informs all. And, then, there are the troublesome lines: "In it all/to the devil take . . . ."

I'd like to move eleven years forward to Yes' "Big Generator" and "Holy Lamb." Perhaps Sunhillow finds a new manifestation in the world started by humanity and "The Holy Lamb." Humanity now faces a different cataclysmic volcano, and I am not sure, that left to our own devices . . . the future is a friend/of yours and mine[.]