Release date: January 25, 2019
Label: InsideOut Music/Wolfwork
Production: Steve Hackett, Roger King and Benedict Fenner
Length: 54:27
Genre: progressive rock
Rating: 9.5/10
Unlike his former Genesis bandmates, who only occasionally surprise us with some new (commendable) studio or live move, guitar legend Steve Hackett is still very active and successful on both the touring and studio fronts. “At the Edge of Light” is already his twenty-fifth studio album and the follow-up to “The Night Siren” (2017), which fans mostly received with enthusiasm. Listening to “At the Edge of Light” they’ll have more than enough reasons to be happy too, because Mr. Hackett keeps cooking up his highly successful eclectic recipe, once again delivering a colorful mix of prog rock that blends elements of symphonic prog, world music, ambient and, this time, even gospel. Before the album came out, Steve explained that the title refers to the troubled times we live in, when we’re moving along the “edge of light,” constantly in danger of taking a wrong step and tumbling into the “abyss.”
He has once again called on his tried-and-true crew of excellent musicians (keyboardist Roger King, woodwind player Rob Townsend and drummer Gary O’Toole), who have been loyally backing him on stage for years. Among the longtime collaborators, Steve’s brother John is back on flute, and his solo career gets more interesting with each passing year, along with guitarist-turned-“merely”-singer Amanda Lehmann, who is also the sister of Steve’s wife and manager Jo. Prog rock fans, which is what most of Steve’s followers are, will be thrilled to see names like English drumming legend Simon Phillips (ex-Toto), American drummer/singer Nick D’Virgilio (Spock’s Beard, Big Big Train), Swedish bassist Jonas Reingold (The Flower Kings, Kaipa, Karmakanic) and American singer Durga McBroom, who has worked extensively with Pink Floyd and David Gilmour in the past.
“At the Edge of Light” opens with “Fallen Walls and Pedestals,” which, despite its short running time, will instantly charm every longtime devotee of Hackett’s musical artistry with its crossing of world music and symphonic prog elements and its superb atmosphere. The somewhat gloomy “Beasts In Our Time,” where Steve shows that after decades of hard work he has grown into a really good singer, is steeped in ethereal ambient and mighty orchestral touches, which makes it yet another classic achievement of his career, complete with a deliciously tasteful, melancholic guitar solo.
The symphonic prog treat “Under the Eye of the Sun” sounds like it was written at the start of Steve’s solo career: there are melodic harmonies, distinctive guitar passages, lush symphonic arrangements and those signature rhythmic touches that marked some of his early work. After this rather “traditional” piece comes the album’s weirdest experiment, “Underground Railroad,” whose first part features elements of blues and gospel thanks to the “churchy” singing of various guest vocalists. For a moment it feels like you’re listening to a different artist altogether, since everything sounds very “American,” until an unexpected shift into more stylistically and atmospherically familiar waters, where Steve’s vocals, his fast-fingered guitar playing and Reingold’s beefy bass lines kick in.
The epic prog masterpiece “Those Golden Wings,” with its eclectic sections and outstanding atmosphere, is the high point of “At the Edge of Light” and the main reason this album is yet another top-notch effort from the guitar grandmaster and one of the few keepers of the original symphonic prog tradition, who was also one of its creators. “Shadow and Flame,” packed with “oriental” motifs, will go down best with world music lovers, while the acoustic-leaning “Hungry Years,” with its cheerful harmonies and “friendly” arrangements, comes off as unexpectedly jolly compared to most of the album. You could say the last three tracks are linked, if not conceptually then at least in terms of ambience. “Descent,” which apart from Hackett’s phenomenal soloing strongly recalls Holst’s “Mars-Bringer of War,” specifically the version King Crimson used to play, with a heap of Mellotron, sounds like a descent into the depths of Dante’s Inferno. After the nearly-as-gloomy and warlike “Conflict” comes an epic finale with the ethereal ballad “Peace,” which features sacral, majestic harmonies while Steve once again proves how much he has grown as a singer in recent years.
With “At the Edge of Light,” Steve Hackett once again proves why he enjoys the greatest respect among prog rock fans of all the former members of the unforgettable Genesis, especially when it comes to studio work, which remains at an exceptionally high level and brims with shamelessly seductive ambient magic and plenty of intriguing, eclectic musical adventures with a few new surprises. This is yet another album from Hackett’s rich creative treasure trove that’s a joy to listen to from start to finish, and there’s no doubt it can already be declared one of the prog rock studio highlights of 2019.
Review by: Peter Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Fallen Walls And Pedestals (2:17)
2. Beasts In Our Time (6:20)
3. Under The Eye Of The Sun (7:07)
4. Underground Railroad (6:22)
5. Those Golden Wings (11:19)
6. Shadow And Flame (4:24)
7. Hungry Years (4:34)
8. Descent (4:20)
9. Conflict (2:36)
10. Peace (5:03)
Musicians:
Steve Hackett – guitar, harmonica, lead vocals
Durga McBroom – vocals
Lorelei McBroom – vocals
Amanda Lehmann – vocals
Simon Phillips – drums
Nick D’Virgilio – drums
Jonas Reingold – bass guitar
John Hackett – flute
Gulli Briem – drums, percussion
Roger King – keyboards
Gary O’Toole – drums
Rob Townsend – saxophone, bass clarinet, duduk
Ben Fenner – keyboards
Dick Driver – double bass
Sheema Mukherjee – sitar
Malik Mansurov – tar
Paul Stillwell – didgeridoo
Christine Townsend – violin, viola
