Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Asia
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2017
Running time: 76:14
Rating: 4/5
Late this year, John Wetton passed away at the age of 67. He was without a doubt one of the most striking names in the story of rock’n’roll, going back to the days when it was still finding its feet. His contribution to the music and albums of Mogul Thrash, Family, U.K., King Crimson, Roxy Music, Uriah Heep, Wishbone Ash and, last but not least, the super (AOR) rock band Asia is unforgettable. After that intro it’s clear that John Wetton was an exceptional musician, especially as a singer, bassist and songwriter. In a word: unforgettable and one of a kind.
Let me skip the biographical facts and jump into the present. Asia, then, no longer exist. In 2013, though, they spent September touring Europe. On that tour they stopped on 06.09.2013 at the Harley Davidson Biker festival on Lake Wörthersee near Villach in Austria, where RockLine caught the show too. Well, a good two weeks later, on 21.09.2013, the same tour brought the band to Plovdiv in Bulgaria and its idyllic, majestic setting: a Roman amphitheater built in the second century AD. That night the band played as part of a festival called Sounds of the Ages, joined by the Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra (see the second CD), conducted by Levon Manukian. Asia played roughly half of their set with the orchestra. The show was filmed with multiple cameras and was also aired on Bulgarian national television on 30.12.2013.
And so a new live document was born, titled “Symfonia – Live in Bulgaria”. It’s a double live CD with a bonus DVD featuring a concert film and interviews. A Blu-ray version exists too.
Lately it’s become pretty much a habit for Frontiers Records to release Asia live documents with a delay of a few years. Even though three years have passed since the band’s last studio album, “Gravitas”, we got two live documents in 2014 and 2015 showing Asia in the days when Steve Howe was in the lineup. Those come from 2010 and 2012. Much like its predecessors, “Symfonia – Live in Bulgaria” arrives three and a half years late. At the time, the band’s latest album, “Gravitas”, was still in its infancy, so Asia chose a set focused on the material from their first two studio albums, which count as the band’s ultimate classics, with songs from 2008 to 2012 mixed in, meaning from “Phoenix”, “Omega” and “XXX”. In that respect, the real, top-notch surprise on this live recording is Days Like These, taken from the rarities compilation “Now And Then” (1990), along with the band’s decision to also put My Own Time (“Alpha”, 1982) in the set, which Asia, for instance, did not play in Villach, Austria, on 06.09.2013.
So what’s special about this document? Okay, that it came out posthumously after Wetton’s death, we know that by now. That a philharmonic orchestra takes part is the second fact, and it gives the overall sound a special touch and charm. The three-dimensionality of the soundscape this recording generates is phenomenal. The fullness of the sound, warmth and organic feel included. The orchestra really only provides supporting backing, and the band of course does everything else, but those orchestral additions are the factor that boosts the atmospheric, bombastic moment, which shows most in The Smile Has Left Your Eyes, which gains a special sense of solemnity with the philharmonic orchestra. That night Wetton was in superb spirits. Even though he was already fighting a treacherous illness at the time, Wetton showed excellent form on that long-ago September evening in Bulgaria, and he chatted keenly with the crowd between songs, including the opening “Good evening” right before the classic Time Again. Downes’ keyboards too, along with his backing vocals and vocoder, sound considerably more tangible and compact with the Plovdiv Philharmonic behind them, and combined with the guitar phrases they form the desired interlacing sonic dialogue that has always been a byword for perfection in Asia’s music.
Perhaps the key feature of this live document, if not the very key one, is the integration of Sam Coulson on guitar in early 2013, who joined the band on its September tour of Europe that same year. His guitar sounds far more hard rock, far more dynamic in performance, lively and bouncy, even tighter in execution, and in a word: fresh! Not only does he step into the shoes of the great Steve Howe with feather-light ease, but with Coulson Asia also sound more rock-edged again, something that was already documented once in the band’s history. When Howe was swapped out for Mandy Meyer during the recording of the album “Astra” (1985), the great eighties compositions picked up, with Coulson’s approach on this document, that much-needed hard rock responsiveness!
Farewell John Wetton, farewell Asia. It was a bold and unforgettable journey. In the future we’ll surely get more historically tinged documents with the Asia name on them that stir up feelings of nostalgia in us. That much is certain. As for “Symfonia – Live in Bulgaria”, it’s more than an excellent live document from the band, if not the best of all the officially released live documents we’ve had since the classic Wetton/Downes/Howe/Palmer lineup reunited, and it’s far from trivial that this time the guitar isn’t played by Steve Howe.
Asia – Heat of the Moment (official video, concert 21.09.2013, Plovdiv, Bulgaria):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn5EzIOAHAU
Lineup
John Wetton – bass guitar, vocals
Geoff Downes – keyboards
Carl Palmer – drums
Sam Coulson – guitar
Production
Asia
Track list
CD1:
1. Sole Survivor
2. Time Again
3. Face On The Bridge
4. My Own Time
5. Holy War
6. An Extraordinary Life
7. Days Like These
8. Open Your Eyes.
CD2:
1. Only Time Will Tell*
2. Don’t Cry*
3. Heroine*
4. The Smile Has Left Your Eyes*
5. Wildest Dreams*
6. Heat Of The Moment*
*Performed with the Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra
DVD // BLU RAY:
1. Sole Survivor
2. Time Again
3. Face On The Bridge
4. My Own Time
5. Holy War
6. An Extraordinary Life
7. Days Like These
8. Open Your Eyes
9. Only Time Will Tell*
10. Don’t Cry*
11. Heroine*
12. The Smile Has Left Your Eyes*
13. Wildest Dreams*
14. Heat Of The Moment*
– Interview
