Album: End of Innocence
Artist: Tony Kaye
2021 Spirit of Unicorn Music
CD: SOUM010CD

Tony Kaye: keys
Dani Torchia: vocals (1, 10)
Jay Schellen: drum solo (4), drums (8)
?: guitar (5, 10)

Produced by Kaye
Paintings and logos by Roger Dean
Layout design and sleevenotes narrative: Michael Inns
Mastered by Maor Appelbaum


Tracks:
1. "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star / Twilight Time" [trad./Kaye] (3:47)
2. "911 Overture" [Kaye] (4:01)
3. "NYC Blues" [Kaye] (1:40)
4. "Battle Cry" [Kaye] (7:08)
5. "285 Fulton Street" [Kaye] (4:43)
6. "Let's Roll" [Kaye] (6:32)
7. "Tug of War" [Kaye] (1:48)
8. "Flight 11" [Kaye] (5:24)
9. "Towers Fall" [Kaye] (2:11)
10. "Sweetest Dreams" [Torchia] (4:10)
11. "Aftermath" [Kaye] (3:58)
12. "Heroes" [Kaye] (4:06)
13. "The Battle" [Kaye] (11:23)1
14. "Hope and Triumph" [Kaye] (5:16)1
15. "Homecoming" [Kaye] (3:06)1
16. "Ground Zero" [Kaye] (3:49)



Notes: 10% of all sales was donated to the Gary Sinise Foundation. Late into his career, this was Kaye's debut solo album. It was distributed through Cherry Red Records and released 10 Sep 2021, the day before the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which the album is about. The album description says, "The album takes you on a journey from the peace of the night before, to the emerging hopeful looking to the future." The album had no performing credits, but I have assembled these from interviews. Dr Daniela Torchia is Kaye's wife. He met her 2 weeks after 9/11.

In an Aug 2020 interview, Kaye talked about how he had stopped playing for a period before 9/11, but had started work on the piece the day after 9/11, moved by what had happened. He explained to YesWorld, "The next day I unpacked my keyboards for the first time in a long time[.] I didn't know what I was going to do. It was one of those things that happened, inspiration on a musical level." He wrote the album as a continuous instrumental piece and he uploaded an earlier version of it with visuals as a 45:46 duration piece to YouTube in Sep 2011 (he subsequently removed the video). He talked about wanting to re-record the piece with a real orchestra, but this wasn't to happen. In a Dec 2018 interview, he said he was going to release the music as an album "probably by [...] September [2019]". Kaye returned to the piece during COVID-19 lockdown. In his Aug 2021 SOAL Night Live appearance, Kaye said that Yes's manager, Martin Darvill, had encouraged him to release an album. He also explained how, "I wrote it to listen to as one piece". In the Feb 2021 interview, Kaye said, "the 20th anniversary of 9/11 is coming up and there's a very important album that has been percolating and written and re-written for 20 years. It is a musical commemoration that takes you through that day. It's pretty intense. It's basically an orchestral album and I'm just at the end of finishing it now. I'm mixing the last tracks now."

Kaye said to Yes fan Doug Curran, "There's some tracks the same (as 10 years ago) but it is now 1 hr & 10 mins long with new music. I remixed it". In an Aug 2021 podcast, he said there are "two or three" tracks on the album that he had recorded on the day after on an 8-track cassette recorder using Korg keyboards. He was living in Los Angeles, CA at the time. On the other hand, three pieces were finished "over the last 2 years". Kaye asked Torchia to write "Sweetest Dreams" shortly after the Christmas after 9/11. That song was also recorded on 8-track. Kaye performed most of the album on Roland keyboards (particularly the Fantom X7), including using a Roland VK-8 for a Hammond sound.

On an interview for the 500th episode of Yes Music Podcast, Kaye talked about wanting to avoid using minor keys on the album. (2) was the first piece Kaye composed on the day after 9/11: "I had no recording equipment, just an 8-track cassette recorder and some of those recordings became what you hear now." (4) uses audio recordings from the day. (5) was described by Kaye as an homage to the Graham Bond Organisation. (6) recorded live while Kaye and Sherwood were on tour in Japan 2011. Kaye explained of (13) that he "wanted [the album], musically, to be about that day, but I felt compelled to extend it to deal with the repercussions of what happened. Musically, it was quite challenging to do the battle scene and then the Hope And Triumph [14], a patriotic anthem and the consequences of war." He described (16) as "the hope for the future, the rebuilding."

The cover is by Roger Dean, and was inspired by the music. Michael Innes wrote vignettes for the CD booklet about each track. (HP, 29 Jan 24)
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