Customer Reviews

Sky V.2

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album was originally released in 1980, by John Williams (acoustic guitars), Kevin Peek (electric guitars), Tristan Fry (drums), Francis Monkman (Keyboards), and Herbie Flowers (bass).
This album contains many classics such as Toccata (originally written by J. S. Bach for organ), Gavotte And Variations (Originally written by Rameau, french composer), Andante (Written By Vivaldi), and Sky wrote the rest of the songs. Here's what I think about all Sky 2 songs:

1.Hotta: The most rocker song in the album, fast electric guitars, lots of drums and bass. A fast paced song. 10/10

2.Dance Of The Little Fairies: Great keyboards and harprichord! 10/10

3.Sahara: The best song in the album!!! Quick piano at the beginning and in the end, the middle of the song contains a slow but incredible electric guitar solo!! 11/10

4.FIFO/Adagio/Scherzo/Watching The Aeroplanes: an incredible 17 minute song. A very enjoyable song. The Last part is phenomenal. 10/10

5.Tuba Smarties: A tuba solo played by Herbie Flowers, excellent, but not perfect: 9/10

6.Ballet-Volta: A calm, slow song written by Michael Praetorius Great. 10/10

7.Gavotte & Variations: A 6 minute long song led by Monkman's amazing harprichord. A Classic, as I said before. 10/10

8.Andante: Written by Vivaldi, another calm song, very relaxing when you play it! 10/10

9.Tristan's Magic Garden: This song is made of mostly drums (which are excellent) 10/10

10.El Cielo: A classic Spanish folk tune arranged by Williams, great acoustic guitar here! 10/10

11.Vivaldi: Sky made a very good job playing this one.Not much to say about it. 10/10

12.Scipio (Parts 1, 2):Lots of synthetiser, harprichord and acoustic and electric guitars (and bass!!) 10/10

13.Toccata:The second best song in the album. They use an electric guitar instead of piano, harprichord and fast drumming. 11/10

In summary, the band (Sky) is made of virtuosos. You will not regret buying this CD (If you like classic rock)I know that here in amazon, there are no samples to hear, go to google and search for Sky + "John Williams" and go in the first page that shows up and go to the albums section, Sky 2, and click on the song you would like to hear. I hope that my review was helpful to you.
P.S.: You will not be able to find this album in a CD shop.

Bought this double LP in 1981 after hearing Tocatta, which sounds like a modern rock instrumental, even though it was written by JS Bach a few hundred years ago! Tracks 1-7 are fabulous but my personal favorite is Scipio Parts 1 & 2. One sour note: on the Cd Scipio fades about one minute earlier than it does on the vinyl version. Guess they had to shave something to get it all on one CD. Overall a great example of how jazz,rock,classical and pop can be combined to make great songs. Intelligent and fun!

my fav instrumentals: scipio I & II, toccata and vivaldi. don't confuse w/ funky band called skyy. this sky has john williams.

See my review of SKY V1; this is also a replacement for my 15 year old albums. I like the classical themes and enjoy the "Tuba Smarties" as it reminds me of my college days when 3 of our tuba players presented "Holiday for Trumpets" on tubas. If you like classical music and soft jazz, you will probably love this music.

I had been searching for a long time, for this particular album and I was absolutely thrilled to find it here, on Amazon, for a ridiculously low price!
Even though the Album was in USA and I am in Australia, it came to me in perfect condition,and extremely fast!
The details given of the above album where clear and I knew exactly what I was purchasing and how much everything would cost including shipping..

This was an important album to me, as I listened to it through my childhood, and even when I did not have the album, the songs would play over in my mind in different moments in my life..

So I am one very pleased customer, and I shall be back for more wonderful purchases!!

I knew what I wanted from this CD because I had a cassette copy of this album many years ago. I lent it to a friend who managed to lose it and I was greatly dismayed. Now, having found a CD of the album I had grown to love is marvelous. Sky is a wonderful, upbeat, innovative group and I really enjoy listening to this music as I travel. Looking forward to acquiring as many Sky productions as I can find!

I first learned of this album in the late 70's working at Friendlys. BCN started playing Toccata and I immediately stopped what I was doing just to listen to the tune. The next day I went down to Harvard Square and bought the album and immediately discovered just how talented this particular group of musicians truly were. Unfortunately I lent the album to a friend of mine a couple of years later and never saw it again. I had been looking for it in record and CD stores ever since. Discovering it on Amazon last month was just about the ultimate Hanukah present. I ordered it on the 5th and it arrived on the 9th, a four day turnaround. Bravo Amazon.

The second album as the name implies from this amazing group. It is full of fantastic music. Tracks such as Hotta, Sahara, Dance of the Little Fairies and Tristan's Magic Garden all show off the sheer artistry of these wonderful musicians. In my opinion there is not one dud track on this album. You willl want to listen to it again and again. No lyrics to clutter up your listening experience just fantastic, strong and sublime music. A fantastic album. I have this on vinyl and wanted to get a cd copy before you can no longer access this album. That would be a real shame.

I love this album. Originally a 2-LP set, I played it over and over. Musically, it's a little dated, but holds-up well.

Like me, I suspect most buyers are already familiar with Sky, and have been long-term fans. I mention this because as much as I love these guys, I can't openly recommend it to everyone.

Sky 2

This one had been on my buy-on-sight-money-no-object list for years (I'd heard it on 2-LP vinyl). Chiefly it's classical works or pieces barely removed from classical music, largely redone on modern rock-band instrumentation and no small amount of whimsy. I suppose adjectives from pop-music reviews of the early-Eighties era for this would have been "extravagant", "self-indulgent", and "bombastic". The group's most popular cut, "Toccata" (it's J. S. Bach's Toccata and Fugue in d minor), is from this album; other cuts with the same rich performance include "Hotta" and the last movement of the four-section "Fifo", subtitled "Watching the Aeroplanes". If your tastes span the range between early Deep Purple and Baroque organ, give this one a listen.