WHOISWHO

During the time that I try to run this website I met some unbelievable nice musicians. From some I know that they are David Gilmour and Pink Floyd aficionado's just like me.
So I started to e-mail around and asked if they would help me with a review of some of the songs of On An Island. This is the fantastic result!
Have fun with reading it and look below for some back ground stories.
Thanks,

Catellorizon
Never was an introduction better than this. All samples and passages taken from all the other songs of the cd, reconstructed and remixed in what is a unique starting track, like presenting what listeners will encounter during the trip trough the album. A brilliant idea, a great opening with the second part being a Gilmour signature, that can live and die only in his fingers. Amazing.

On An Island
When Nick asked me to review this song for his wonderful site, I felt a bit worried. Why? Well, how do you review an artist and his music when so much has been said about him and said so much more eloquently? So, I thought it best really to tell you how it makes me feel, rather than go too in depth into guitar tones, textures and lyrics.

Here goes then…….
The beautifully slow, almost lazy feel of the track draws you in straight away. There is no messing about here, David Gilmour is doing what he does best, taking you on a journey that you want to go on. That sound, that feel, that voice, it is everything you want to hear and he doesn’t disappoint. The drums roll by in no immediate hurry and I was in no great hurry either for the track to finish.
As he sings the words, you can place yourself in the same situation with the person you love lying next to. Then the guitar starts off on the first solo and there it is – Bang! – You are lost in the moment and you don’t want to come back. Simply wonderful! Throughout the song this happens time and again and every time you just have to smile.
As the song ends and the guitar fades out, you open your eyes realize that Gilmour has done it again. I think it is time for another glass of wine, turn the lights off and listen to the whole thing again. This is truly stunning music by a man who knows how to take you on a voyage that will leave you feeling relaxed, contemplative but ultimately happy and satisfied.

The Blue
Goodness, I hope I’m not going to upset anyone here….but here goes my critique for what it’s worth.
Initially the track reminds me of a 70’s film score song, you know… flares, hazy camera shots, tie dye shirts, hand in hand running along a sun kissed California beach.
There’s a few interesting chord changes and some nice vocal harmonies before a pleasant if rather over-arranged guitar solo. It sounds as if Dave has only just discovered the wonders of the Digitech Whammy pedal as he gives a comprehensive technical display of what this piece of guitar hardware can do.
Dynamically the song doesn’t do much and kind of washes over you, which I dare say was the intention anyway. The solo goes on just a little too long for my liking, and it would have been nice to re-introduce some vocals to close the song, but hey, it’s only my personal opinion.
One song of a similar feel but superior in my opinion is the instrumental track ‘714’ by Wishbone Ash off the Front Page News album, lovely dreamy guitar work by Laurie Wisefield and not a Digitech Whammy in sight!

Take a Breath
On an album that contains many laid-back, reflective songs, ‘Take A Breath’ stands out as the most rock-orientated number. While it contains many familiar references, Gilmour has managed to create something new and fresh. The opening chords are actually more reminiscent of some of Syd Barrett’s work - raw and drenched in slap back-echo. In other places the vibe calls to mind ‘Momentary Lapse of Reason’ era Floyd with its almost mechanical bass line and drum beat. Gilmour plays a superb slide guitar solo before the track temporarily halts and is filled with various atmospheric sound effects. There is then a reprise to close the track with one of Gilmour’s beautifully lyrical trademark guitar solos.

A highlight of the album!

Red Sky At Night

One of the things I love about Pink Floyd is, that at their best, their music can be extraordinarily evocative, creating moods, atmospheres and tensions – it’s something that largely sets them apart from their peers.

Many of the tracks on Dave Gilmour’s new album unashamedly echo pieces from the past Floyd catalogue and in the case of ‘Red Sky At Night’ the shortest track on the CD, it’s the opening of ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ that is the reference.

As with ‘Shine On’ it’s the open, background soundscape that forms the basis for the piece and allows the solo instrument, in this case saxophone, to weave a free flowing melodic spell. Soundscapes are often designed to stimulate the imagination. They can be used as a very ‘visual’ musical concept, creating pictures in the mind of the listener.

The title of this track clearly gives a hint to the picture Gilmour’s trying to create, but if you listen carefully there’s much more. The vision it conjours for me is a sunset beach scene at low tide, a gently lapping sea, bright with the shimmering reflection of the low sun and with a multitude of birds on the vast expanse of glistening, exposed sand. If one listens carefully, the sounds of the sea and the bird calls are actually quite implicit within the soundscape. You can build on this as your imagination pleases, a rowboat being slowly oared, a lone figure walking – there is something maybe a touch solitary and melancholy about the atmosphere of this short piece. But, as I say, this is just my particular vision, where the track leads my imagination. The beauty of music is that it touches each of us in its own way.

Red Sky At Night II

Hi Nick,
I picked up a copy of 'On an Island' a few days after its release in San Diego, heading up the Pacific Coast Highway to San Francisco. What stuck out to me, apart from being a beautifully crafted album, both musically and lyrically, was how personal and honest it came across. It almost seemed David has nothing to prove and is completely content with his life. The track that really sent me was 'Red Sky at Night' (David's first ever recorded saxophone contribution), as I was tracing the setting sun along the Pacific coastline at the moment; timeless...I will never forget what seemed like an age, but in reality lasted only two minutes and fifty-two seconds.

Best of luck and enjoy the show.

Best regards,
Liam.

This Heaven
Starts out like a live jammed acoustic led ‘12 bar’, recorded in a small room, before settling down into the track formally.
The chorused vocals somehow reminded me of a Godley/Crème (Or 10cc) sound.....very nice indeed.
This is a track which sounds deceptively simple and therefore is all the harder to pull off with conviction, but Dave et al do so extremely well.
The odd lilting orchestral swells just add that touch of peculiarity to the proceedings. 60’s legend Georgie Fame provides the needed blues punctuating Hammond touches over a solidly steady Andy Newmark drum performance
Excellent stuff!

Smile
"Search for a better way to find my way home to your smile" well we've all been there, but none of us have found such a beautiful way of saying it. Smile has a lazy gentle sound reminiscent of Meddle and Ummagumma and if you've ever seen the David Gilmours riverside studio/houseboat then the song should conjure up images of a sleepy river slowly passing by. The fragile slide guitar and rhythm are perfectly accompanied my an intimate vocal and polly's perfect bvs, not too much and not too little a perfect song 10/10. I wish I' written it.

A Pocketful Of Stones
So what makes a good progressive rock song?
Swathes of mellotron and keyboards, long screaming guitar solos, intricate time signatures, the song lasts for over 12 minutes, and a singer that sounds and looks like Peter Gabriel ?.............these are the same old cliches than have been used and re used as the yardstick by which to measure progressive rock.
But to me there is one element that is the only key to 'great music' , EMOTION!
It was there with Bob Dylan, it was there with almost any Tony Banks composition , it was there with any Marvin Gaye song...........and it is here, thank God with Dave Gilmour.

I approached On An Island with a sense of excitement, not really knowing what to expect, and I was surprised because what Gilmour has done is essentially first and foremost an album of emotions and phenomenal simplicity.....and surprises. Overall the album has that sleepy, dreamy feel that I hear from Neil Young. Bliss....
A Pocketful Of Stones is more or less just piano and vocal, as soon as I heard it I felt a wave of inspiration and a staggeringly strong feeling that I have not heard from a song in a long time , because Gilmour is telling you about something , not just a load of old prog piffle, he has something to say in this song. The song seems to be about a child who is oblivious to the influences of the outside world, a pocketful of stones is something that you find when you wash your childrens clothes, you find all kinds of stuff in their pockets after you've been to the beach, I wonder if this is what Gilmour was talking about??
In the song it seems that inevitably the child will grow up and move away from this magical world. The piano sound is just gorgeous, very mellow and I thought I heard just a hint of Tony Banks in some of the scales. There is a melancholy, simplicity and beauty in this song that only someone like Dave Gilmour could create. It takes you somewhere! That is rare these days with progressive rock as most so called progressive rock journalists and musicians are more into the science and maths of the music than any REAL emotion!

A Pocketful Of Stones

Sublimely meandering through dreamy melodies with a carefree smile while been slowly drowned by a collection of minor chords shifts that inevitably win over, sinister yet of incredible beauty, provocative and gentle in the same breath, a few passing thoughts in the form of a lullaby seamlessly married to music, every word carried with total musical description of it's own meaning, the weight of the world swinging below and of course the apparent fool refusing to notice. Work of genius.

Hope this is okay Nick

cheers,
Bryan.

Bryan Josh - Mostly Autumn
Official website: www.mostly-autumn.com

Where We Start
The opening and ending tracks of On An Island, are for me without doubts the best of the album, in a perfect Pink Floyd album style. If Castellorizon is an introduction, Where We Start continues the tradition of songs like High Hopes, a melancholic and dreamy Gilmour song, perfect in all details. Lyrics can touch heart, a clear look to the life behind, to the present, and that positive message (yet present in High Hopes) 'so much behind us, so far to go'. Gilmour is now a 60 years old man, looking at his life, who wants to bring his listeners in the quiet and dreamy world he always singed, inviting to stop and listen, in the simplicity of his music, without special effects, just the music and lyrics. These days his messages is even stronger, now that all the rest of the world seem to go in the opposite direction. The message and lyrics fits perfectly the Gilmour music at his best since High Hopes, with dreamy choruses, a so melancholic and precious piano underway, sapient hammond and orchestrations underlining all significant moments, and two simply breathtaking guitar solo.. A positive, melancholic and dreamy song, for sure one of the best things Gilmour ever wrote, it just keep my heart everytime I listen to it. Simply incredible.. '

Bryan Josh
Guitaris and leader of the band Mostly Autumn.
Please tell us about your "first" Pink Floyd experience.
I can clearly remember sitting in the back of a grey mini van driving away from "The Harney Peak"; a pub situated in the north of the mountainous lake district, after a few pints of shandy. I was only nine years old so the alcohol content had me feeling particularly relaxed. There was a margarine tub with a car stereo jammed in it and on it my brother Andy was playing "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" by the Pink Floyd. In those fragile but sublime moments that followed I began to sense a very powerful relationship between music and nature. It seemed the two merged in some kind of organic harmony. I watched the bright night sky shine over the mountains, forests and waters through the front windscreen, while the perfect musical progression of “Crazy Diamond” was cutting the air. It definitely stirred up some kind of emotion in me and from then on Andy would carry on playing the likes of Pink Floyd, Genesis, Deep Purple, Spirit, Roy Harper, Jethro Tull, Supertramp, Queen and many more, not only when we were out camping but at home as well. All of these bands have had a great influence on me but I must say that I feel there is something about the Pink Floyd that got in my blood. I believe they are special in some way. "Shine on you crazy diamond" is still a song I hold as an all time favourite along with the album "Wish you were here".

Mostly Autumn

Liam Davison
Second guitarist in Mostly Autumn and busy with a solo album!
He was the most underrated guitarist of Mostly Autumn. But by the time they did a Pink Floyd gig it became clear for a wider audience that he's is brilliant player as wel.
He's responsible for the great guitar effects and so now and then he's giving away a solo that makes you shiver.
I'm really looking out to his new adventurous solo album. More about him soon.

These are a few bits of an interview I did:

"The Dark Side" is still your favorite album?
[Nick B.] huh huh...one of them!!
You're quite young when it came out, was it love at first sight?
[Nick B.] Yes I was still at school, it was the first progressive album I heard, man that album has strong feelings for me, I guess I was 13/14 something like that!
Ya know 'that' feeling when you hear again maybe in your 30's or 40's , an album, that had a big impact on you in your teens, you are almost overcome with the emotion of it...it's almost too much..
Is there no album which came close?
[Nick B.] Yes: Trick Of The Tail, The Lamb, Moonmadness, these albums are NOT MUSIC, they are part of my soul!!!
Do you have still the regular edit of your favourite albums, or did you bought the surround sounding ones?
[Nick B.] Normal ones, I am not into different versions, with the extra pictures and booklets and photos and dvds and tin of beans and leather jacket! I'm too lazy to 'collect' music.
You never had the urge to play DSOTM at live gigs?
[Nick B.] Nahhh.....I'd like to do it...but for fun, there are already TOOOOOOOO many tribute bands! It kills your own credibility I think.
What is you favourite album of the 90-ies and of the new century? I'm curious... Arena, or something obscure... ???
[Nick B.]of the 90's Tears For Fears Seeds Of Love..........................maybe
the new century Steely Dan Two Against Nature.........................maybe
...

If you want to read more or have a look at at a live review and pics check out this page.

You recently played as support act of Tony Levin!
Yes we played with the band, Nosound, and Tim was with us..yes we played before Tony Levin in an Auditorium ... very enjoyable situation.

Did you like David Gilmour show in that same fantastic building?
Yes, amazing, the right way between the 'big floyd show' and the previous acoustic DG tour.

If you were him, would you have choosen a different setlist?
No, I think every playlist is right as it is ;)

Did you ever saw Pink Floyd live?
Yes, twice in Rome in 1994.

What was your first record you bought ever? and what was your first Pink Floyd record?
I can't remember what was my first record ... really...even if Cluster One from The Division Bell signed a lot my music vision the first time I heard it.

Giancarlo.

With regards to Pink Floyd, I was first aware of them when 'Another Brick in the Wall' was in the charts as a single - the song seemed very dark (I was very young!) but had this really cool guitar solo - so that, for a few years summed up my impression of Pink Floyd.
Years later I was in a recording studio in London with a band for a few days and every morning the engineer would come in and fire up the desk and put a track on while we would set up our gear. One morning this epic track came out through the studio speakers which just blew me away, I asked what it was and the engineer looked at me as if I'd asked who the Beatles were - the track was Shine on you Crazy Diamond! Then I thought ...... Ah, THAT'S Pink Floyd......now I understand.
So to answer your question the first album I bought was Wish You Were Here - it still gives me a buzz now. I think there are still references to their sound in current music and they are one of the few prog style bands who have remained 'cool' where other bands have dropped in and out of favour over the years.

The first album I bought was Outlandos D'Amour by the Police - still a favourite band of mine.

Cheers,
Chris.

Chris also plays sometime in a classical trio and that is something totally different then his extraordinary stage show with Magenta.
I was pleased that he liked Lionna Boyd too, but was surprised he didn't knew the album "Personna" with David Gilmour.

Picture at the right; taken by me at the excellent performances at the Boerderij 20 May 2006.
Was nice meeting you Chris and the rest of the band, gonna see you soon!
More pics.

Jamie Field of Mermaid Kiss.
This is a new guy I met by the internet, on the MostlyAutumn forum there were some posts about their fantastic adventurous soft prog album Salt on Skin. So I did buy the album and indeed splendid! They deserve some publicity. This is my page about them, a small review, some words of this fine guy a link to their own page with some samples, so listen and be amazed.

Mark Rowen
Another guy I met recently is Mark Rowen, he's a guitarist and plays in Iain Jennings new band called Breathing Space. He is also involved in Marc Atkinsons band. Mark sent me some demo's and they sound really good, hope to hear more! Marc Atkinson I knew from his previous albums with Gabriel. Marc did backing vocals with Mostly Autumn, and the two guitarist of Mostly Autumn, played on of his albums.
To make it complete; Iain Jennings is the ex-keyboardplayer of Mostly Autumn and made a fantastic album called Breathing Space. They will hit the road this summer.

Roger Newport, a dear friend from England, he made some nice demo's and a true "Mostly Autumn" and of course a "Odin Dragonfly" fan. Together with Mostly Autumns webmaster David White they are making an album with some amazing people involved. One of them will be Uriah Heeps John Lawton.
Check out: www.davewhitemusic.com/ and enjoy the beautiful roaring guitar!