Album: From a Page
Artist: Yes
2019 Yes Records
CD: YES002BX / LP: YES002LP
Chris Squire: bass, vocals (not 3)
Steve Howe: guitar, vocals (not 3)
Alan White: drums (not 3)
Benoît David: lead vocals
Oliver Wakeman: keyboards, vocals
Produced by Wakeman
Engineered by Patrick MacDougall/Tim Weidner
Recorded in Phoenix, Arizona and Beverly Hills, California
Additional keys and backing vocals recorded at The Opus Suite, UK
Mixed by Karl Groom
Mastered by Mike Pietrini
Bands photos by Dimo Safari, Robert Knight
Paintings by Roger Dean
Inlay design & layout by Wakeman
Management: Martin Darvill
Copyright management: Daniel Earnshaw
Tracks:
LP/CD1:
1. "To the Moment" [Wakeman] (6:13)
2. "Words on a Page" [Wakeman] (6:21)
3. "From the Turn of a Card" [Wakeman] (3:27)
4. "The Gift of Love" [Wakeman/Squire/Howe/David/White] (9:57)
5. "To the Moment (single mix)" [Wakeman] (4:38), vinyl only
CD2/CD3:
As In the Present – Live from Lyon
Notes (****): After Fly from Here
and Fly from Here – Return Trip, we now have From a Page,
a release of material with and largely by Oliver Wakeman from the Fly
from Here sessions that was abandoned when Horn took the album
in a different direction and Geoff Downes replaced Oliver Wakeman.
(Asked in the Yes Music Podcast #404 whether he'd heard Return
Trip, Wakeman said he had only listened to bits of it.) From
a Page was released 25 Oct with no warning or prior rumour. It
was available exclusively through Burning Shed. Wakeman assembled
this release, which was approved by Howe, White and David.
CD liner notes are by Wakeman about his time with the band, while he
also did the graphic design for the release, which has new art from
Roger Dean. White said of the release, "New songs from the past and
I'm hoping we can find even more music in the archives for future
releases."
Tracks 1, 2 and 4 were recorded in 2010 for Fly from Here,
but not used once Wakeman was out of the band. Wakeman has described
how on tour in 2009 in Europe, he and Squire would often be the last
ones awake on the tour bus, and they talked a lot about music and
doing a new album. Howe was interested, but reticent: he wanted to
make sure the band had gelled. But he was ready for a new album by
2010. The band did a writing session in Phoenix in early 2010 and
some parts here are from those sessions. In mid-2010, Squire, Howe
and Wakeman met up at Howe's, listening through their demos and
talking about what they could do. Wakeman and Howe also went through
the pieces on other occasions. They then went into the studio for
the Fly from Here sessions in late 2010: Horn was focused on
"We Can Fly from Here" and Tim Weidner was reported at the time to
be producing the rest. While Horn was away, the band worked on other
pieces: Howe's "Hour of Need" and "Don't Take No for an Answer",
Squire's "The Man You Always Wanted Me to Be", the band's "Into the
Storm", and these four From a Page songs.
(3) was written by Wakeman on David's guitar in Los Angeles during
the sessions, but wasn't recorded then. (4) includes elements
re-used in "The Game" on Heaven & Earth: Squire and
Gerard Johnson had writing sessions together in 2006/7 writing
sessions for an abortive Squire solo project and one demo then was
contributed to this song and "The Game", although the elements used
here were just those from Squire, whereas more was used in "The
Game", which has Johnson credited as a co-writer. On Twitter in
2018, Wakeman had said "The Gift of Love" was a co-write between him
and Squire. In the liner notes, he describes how the core of the
song began by combining an idea of his and an idea of Squire's
(actually Squire and Johnson's), but all the other band members
contributed. Elsewhere, he has given the music as by
Wakeman/Squire/Howe/David/White and the lyrics by
Wakeman/David/Squire. In the 2018 Twitter exchange, he describes "To
the Moment" and "Words on a Page" as "fully recorded" in the 2010
sessions, but not "From the Turn of a Card", although it was written
then. Wakeman and Gordon Giltrap did a version of this on their 2013
album Ravens & Lullabies,
with Benoît David on vocals. The version here is a piano/vocal duet
taking David's vocal from that album and newly recorded piano parts
by Wakeman.
When Yes didn't use Wakeman's songs, they posted him the session
recordings. Wakeman and Squire kept in touch by email. After
Squire's death, Wakeman was inspired to re-visit at (4). He sorted
through the tapes and assembled a rough mix, adding some keys and
vocals, but having just done the work for himself. He had this for a
couple of years and worked a bit on the other songs. He then tweeted
about the sessions and Yes's management got in touch with him about
doing this release. Wakeman contacted David about the project, and
David was keen for people to hear the material.
Oliver tweeted late Oct 2019: "I listened to them [the songs] again
after Chris passed & spent a long time going through everything
& worked with YES to get them released. Booklet has full story".
He also said on Facebook: "These were the tracks we worked on before
Trevor Horn came on board and we continued to work on when he went
back to the UK in the middle of the recording sessions." And on
Facebook: "I've been working on the mixes over the last few years
and when Yes heard that I was doing the work we started to talk
about how we could get it into a position to release". On Facebook,
he said more: "There were songs we worked on and wrote during 2009
and whilst in Phoenix after the Zacatecas show in Mexico in early
2010. There were then recorded when Trevor Horn went back to the UK
during the sessions. There were lots of parts which were finished
and I had the discs on my office shelf when I left [...] I started
to listen to them again after Chris passed as I felt I should see
what sort of shape they were in. There were lots of takes but the
core parts of the tracks were very complete - they just needed some
production time - I spent a lot of time going through everything and
felt they were worth the effort to tidy them up just for myself as a
memory of my time with the band. The Yes management read about them
on a tweet and the rest [...] is [...] history..." Asked if there
are any more unreleased tracks from these sessions, Wakeman said,
"There are the demos and a few bits and pieces but when Steve and I
met to discuss the project we decided it should be a proper record
of finished pieces and not a mixture of finished pieces and demos."
For the cover, Dean suggested the painting used on the front. As he
described in the Yes Music Podcast #404, Wakeman loved it, but asked
if he could add some figures. Dean said that wasn't possible, but
instead said he would paint something new for the back cover. He and
Wakeman talked, and Wakeman said how he liked the In the Present
art, which had a group of five figures on the back. Wakeman said how
he felt this represented him and David coming together with Howe,
Squire and White. So they talked about these characters carrying
through to the new painting. The back cover has a group of five, and
then two figures somewhat apart. This, Wakeman says, can be
interpreted several ways: are they an audience? Is this him and
David coming to replace his dad and Anderson? Or Horn and Downes
coming to replace him and David?
The album made #23 in the UK Rock album chart (1 Nov 2019). (HP, 2
Nov 19; updated 17 Nov 2019)
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