Mr. Steven Wilson is commonly known for lots of reasons. As a musician he is really busy with Porcupine Tree, No-Man, Blackfield, Storm Corrosion and his solo projects. As a producer he is busy as well because in the last months, he mixed the new Opeth album, he remixed the back catalogue of King Crimson from 1969 to 1984 working with Robert Fripp, and just recently he finished working the re-mastered edition of Jethro Tulls classic album Aqualung. Lucky man! He is a musician working with musicians he listened when he grew up.
On top of all that, the Englishman just released his second solo project entitled “Grace For Drowning”. Those who have listened his first solo album “Insurgentes” know what to expect. These projects are far from the music Steven Wilson does in any other band. In these projects he takes his influences from bands like King Crimson, Tangerine Dream, Faust, Frank Zappa etc. combine them with Jazz music and record the best prog album of the year (so far).
The album has lots of different sounds in it. But these sounds have been combined excellently and the resulting sound is really coherent. Great work in the songwriting and in the production. There are some great melodic tracks like “Part of Me” and “Postcard” that could easily appeal to anyone, and then there are the complex songs like “Sectarian”, “Raider II” and “Remainder the Black Dog”.
In both disks there are songs that could be used for a soundtrack in a David Lynch movie. The Instrumental part in the track “Remainder the Black Dog” is a really good example of the chaos that this album can create. On the contrary, there are beautiful themes and sounds of nostalgia and autumn in songs like “Postcard”. The song “Raider II” is the 23 minute song in the second disc of the album that really sums up every single aspect of the album. It shifts from progressive rock, to jazz, to psychedelic, to hard rock and all that pretty effortlessly without being boring.
This is one of the best artistic efforts from the Englishman. One of the facts that make this release so unique is the people that worked for it. Some of the names of people that contribute music parts are: Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater), Steve Hackett (Genesis, GTR), Robert Fripp, Tony Levin and Trey Gun from King Crimson as well as some really great musicians from the Jazz scene like Theo Travis and more. And of course there are some great photographs of Lasse Hoile expressing perfectly the theme of the songs.
Generally the album need lots of listens to digest the music that is inside. This is a must for every prog rock fan and an album that will be considered as a classic in the years to come.
