Customer Reviews

Olias of Sunhillow

5 star:		(94)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This swirling, organic mass of an album is the masterpiece Anderson has never managed to match. At the height of his creative powers, even if not of his instrumental skills, Anderson produced a landscape that carefully reflected his own peculiar musical culture. No other album is as Andersonian as Olias. Spacey yet earthy, grandiose yet humble, poetic yet strangely inarticulate, mystical yet accessible, self-indulgent yet awe-inspiring, this is an effort in passion, originality, and creativity that would leave many other contenders biting the dust in the ambitious musical environment of the 1970's.

Olias glides along seamlessly from one piece to another, showcasing Anderson's uncommon gifts for melody/harmony as well as for songwriting. Together with arrangements that veer from the rustic to sci-fi, the music appears to travel through Earth and Space, incarnating the elements of the material and ethereal worlds. The scope of the music is cinematic, freely pursuing concepts to every corner of its vision and fashioning an experience that is as breathtaking for its range as it is for its depth. Few works of modern music have found such a powerful communion between form and content, where both are truly inseparable, interdependent, as in Olias. One can only wonder what the rest of Yes would have done with the wealth of ideas in this record.

Anderson has done us proud.

Jon Anderson is lucky that he has YES to do. Because he is so spaced out I dont think he could function in our world if he had to be like the rest of us. I dont know what the instrumentation is on this album but nothing sounds like guitars and drums.....more like harps and bells and lots of voices and harmonies and I must say that it is the best piece of modern music that these ears have heard. I got the album years ago and it was a little much for me. I was expecting something like a YES album. But now after all these years I am completely BLOWN AWAY by this guy! From waaaaay out in the cosmos somewhere Jon Anderson conceived of and recorded this awesome work that I dont think has a peer in "modern" or " rock" or "progressive" music. It is entirely in a class by itself. It would be impossible to make a follow up album to something like this so its all your going to get------so...............what are you waiting for?

If you have followed Yes throught the years, you are aware of the abstract images that Jon Anderson conjures up with his lyrical genius. This LP is way over the top! He manages to tell a story here, and still stay true to his "mystical" style of writing. This album is not just good Progressive music, it's a celebration of what Progressive music is all about. Moving, and awe inspiring. Nobody paints a mental picture like Jon. The fact that this gem has made it to CD after all these years is incouraging. In a day when music is all about pain, rage and anger, this LP brings back memories of a time when music was artisic, and uplifting...not primal therapy for the socially disturbed. Like other works of it's kind, this was music for the mind, written from the heart. I said the same thing about Chris Squire's "Fish Out OF Water". They do not make music like this anymore. Buy it now before it dissapears completely.

Jon Anderson's 1976 solo album "Olias of Sunhillow" is one of my favorite pieces of music. It doesn't quite sound like Yes, yet it has that ethereal quality that their classic era records had. (Close to the Edge, Tales of Topographic Oceans, Relayer). Using synthesizers, tape loops, ethnic instruments, sound effects and different voices, Jon creates a rich, evocative world. It's one of the few albums I've entirely uploaded to my MP3 player and I usually listen to the album once every couple of days, and it never gets old for me.

The lyrics tell a story of a fellow called Olias, who lives in Sunhillow, a land where "each man belonged" and where "the slightest confrontation was dissolved before the start". With his friends Ranyart and Qoquaq (pronounced ko-quake) and many others he boards the Moorglade (a ship that can fly, powered by song). On it, they fly into space, past their moon, ascending to the stars, searching, searching...

I remember the first time I heard this record, it was like experiencing a dream, it really, really was. Atmospheres, feelings and adventures floating through the speakers, merging into each other. It's one of the few albums I think can truly be called otherworldly. My favorite segments include "Meeting (Garden of Geda)" with its strange choir harmonies and rather modern sounding beat, "Solid Space" with its uplifting synths and eerie electronic thunder, and "Naon" with its thick percussion and a chant/chorus from Jon that sounds kind of like like a thousand people singing their hearts out from the mountaintops. Beautiful. It's all as detailed and rich as any fantasy novel. I can picture all that is happening just as well, if not better, than some stories.

The album artwork both inside and out is brilliant and just as evocative as the music. I just wish there was more of it.

Highly, highly recommended for prog rock fans, Yes fans, and lovers of fantasy of all kinds.

Hmm... after Relayer in '74, the members of Yes took time out to record solo albums. This was the time of Squire's Fish Out of Water and Howe's Beginnings as well. Anderson's Olias of Sunhillow uses multi-layered vocals to replicate the feel of airy Yes of the period, lots of harp and gauzy sound, the kind tha Anderson's voice shines best through. Forget the plot, the lyrics are silly; this is about the sound. If the sound of Jon Anderson's voice grabs you and deposits you squarely in the driver's seat of your old Camaro with the 8-track, circa the mid-70s, then this record will deliver the goods. At the time it was recorded, Anderson has just done Close to the Edge, Tales of Topographic Oceans, and Relayer in rapid succession, and has Going for the One in the offing. In other words, this is straight from his peak. I still think its his best solo album; no New Age, no faux gravitas, just idyllic, psychedelic sounds inspired by his other-worldly visitors.

A lush and beautiful piece of work, at once cosmic and folksy. This is a true solo album- Jon did everything here: he wrote and arranged all the music, wrote all the lyrics, sang all the vocal parts and played all the instuments (this is the album for which he learned to play the harp). That in itself makes this an awsome piece of work. But it isn't just the technical prowess he shows here that makes this such a good album. He has always shown a knack for coming up with delightful, beautiful melodies, but on this album he also demonstrates that he can develop appropriate rhythms and orchestrations to go along with those melodies. For anyone who thinks that Jon's only contributions to Yes are his voice (!) and his arcane lyrics, this piece will be a revelation. This and Toltec are, in my opinion, his two best solo efforts. If you have any interest in Yes' music or "progressive" rock, you MUST own this C.D.

An amazing album that symbolizes a time long gone when some artist took rock music to places it has never been to since. Not that this is the best music ever, but I love it, and there just isn't anything like it anymore. Jon believes in this music with all his heart, and it shows here. You don't have to be an old prog rocker dude to get this album. I'm 18 and into antifolk and punk who can hardly remember the early 90's and I dig this CD. In a weird way Olias fits in my mind with that music. Jon just made the music that was in his warm, crazy, spaced-out heart, at the same time giving a beautiful operatic rock middle-finger to the whole music industry. If you are a fan of 70's Yes, this is a no-brainer; just buy it. If your not, but you want to hear the ultimate piece of prog rock, or you are just curious what classical elf music on acid sounds like, get this CD.

Ah, if only I could give an album Six Stars. This would be The Only One.

This was the last release of the initial "Yes Solo Albums", and it is the best. Sonically pure, musically deep, the songcraft of Jon Anderson has never been better showcased.

Bill Bruford once said that Jon Anderson was a genius at writing melody. This is Jon's Genius Work. His brilliant exploration into the structures and complexities of the mechanics of Song.

Here's the deal: Anderson wrote every note, and he plays every instrument (no, contrary to the rumor, Vangelis didn't help him out by playing some of the keyboard parts). Is he a great instrumentalist? Heck, no. His technique on guitar, bass, and keys is very limited.

But, being the clever man that he is, he KNOWS what his limitations are, and he works WITHIN them. He relies on beautiful melodies, moving lyrics, and truly inspired arranging.

And this last bit is the real mark of Jon's genius on OLIAS. Because it's the arrangements that really make this album work. Those simple songs are set in a framework of majesty and power almost unrivaled in contemporary popular music.

Jon said in an interview in 1991 that he locked himself in his garage and nearly drove himself mad in the making of OLIAS. He must have been communing with the Muses, because he brought to earth one of the best pieces of music ever put to vinyl.

From beginning to end, this is a work that beckons each of us to share Jon's journey. We gladly follow, knowing that we will be made better by the trip.

Thanks, Jon. If you stopped making solo albums after OLIAS - if your stellar career had only been one album long - you have done more for the transendence of your fans than you could ever possibly know.

Along with Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd, this is one of those rare complete and perfect recordings. Jon Anderson was a clear and open channel as he painted this view of heaven onto a tape recorder. I used to put this album on continous play on my turntable so it would be the last thing I heard as I went to sleep at night and the first thing I would hear when I woke up in the morning. It is the sound of your most beautiful dream. If you can still find it, I would suggest that you also pick up a copy of the LP to view the artwork in full size as you are listening to this recording. The Roger Dean artwork is also resounding in beauty as part of this wonderful manifestation. There is no album out there to compare it to.

To say I grew up a Yes fan is an understatement. After hearing "I've Seen All Good People" on the radio I weeded every garden around our house just to get the money to buy the 8-track(!) of Yessongs. After just one listen I went through such an emotional implosion I faked sick from 9th grade for 3 days just to listen to it continuously ... I was a goner. One day, years later, I was walking around an outdoor flea market and saw the 8-track(!) of Olias (I didn't even know he put out solo material at that time), I bought it for .75 cents, and - Boom!- another emotional implosion. Why? Jon really tapped into something external here. There is something so "otherworldly" about this music - like your listening to another (space-) culture's music from a place that is non-existant. I know he is "out there", especially during the "Relayer" and "Tales..." period, but you get this feeling that this wasn't "created" as much as "dictated" to him from somewhere "out there." It is so different, so original, and I really don't think he ever came remotely close to approaching this level of originality and creativity before or since this album. His other solo stuff is listenable, but they just don't have that quality - "the spark" that this has. There is actually apart of me that believes this may be the high point of his career - including Yes, Vangelis, Kitaro etc.... My point is: collaboration with Yes et al... may or may not have diluted his powers and collaborative influence is impossible to quantify. For example, "And You And I" is unequivocally genious, but collaboratively so, no matter how much Jon brought originally to the sessions. If Jon conceived, wrote, played all the instruments on Olias (though my CD insert has a picture of him posing with a band), then I truly believe this surpasses anything he did with Yes. This is Jon's testament. It stands alone.