The Complete Recordings

Album: The Complete Recordings
Artist: Peter Banks's Harmony in Diversity
2018 The Peter Banks Musical Estate
CD: PBME-004-CD

Band members (note credits only given at the disc level):
Peter Banks: guitar (all)
Nick Cottam: bass (CD1, CD3-6)
Andrew Booker: acoustic drums (some of CD1 & CD3), electronic drums (CD1-5), programming (CD1), vocals (25)
Dave "Jick" Speight: electronic drums (CD6)
Bruno, Scamp: cats (40)

Produced by Booker (1-35), Cottam (36-46)
Mastered by Mike Pietrini
Art: Matt & Zoe Bishton
Photos by Cottam, Dean Finmark, Rachel Booker
Graphic design by Carl Glover

Tracks:
CD 1—Struggles Discontinued:
1. "The Number of the Beat" [Banks/Booker/Cottam] (3:37)
2. "Swing It" [Banks/Booker/Cottam] (3:08)
3. "On the Sixth Attempt They Trod on It" [Banks/Booker/Cottam] (9:52)
4. "Inversible Flaw" [Banks/Booker/Cottam] (2:53)
5. "Last Run for the Empire" [Banks/Booker/Cottam] (3:40)
6. "Harmogeny A" [Banks/Booker/Cottam] (5:11)
7. "Dregs Addiction" [Banks/Booker/Cottam] (7:33)
8. "Harmogeny B" [Banks/Booker/Cottam] (2:37)
9. "Everything Ends in Nothing" [Banks/Booker/Cottam] (7:02)

CD 2—What is This?:
10. "Lots and Lots of Disjoint Dots" [Banks/Booker] (17:12)
11. "Plenty to Hear in Orbit" [Banks/Booker] (15:44)
12. "Each to Their Own Devices" [Banks/Booker] (10:03)
13. "Procyon B" [Banks/Booker] (12:22)

CD3—Trying:
14. "No Harm" [Banks/Booker/Cottam] (11:22)
15. "After You" [Banks/Booker/Cottam] (10:01)
16. "Mind the Doors" [Banks/Booker/Cottam] (7:48)
17. "Swayed by Nothing" [Banks/Booker/Cottam] (3:05)
18. "The Klincher" [Banks/Booker/Cottam] (4:42)
19. "Sods at Odds" [Banks/Booker/Cottam] (7:25)

CD4—Try Again:
20. "Prelusion" [Banks/Booker/Cottam] (4:30)
21. "Some Things are Best Left Upside Down" [Banks/Booker/Cottam] (5:19)
22. "Everything is Green" [Banks/Booker/Cottam] (6:45)
23. "Cracking" [Banks/Booker/Cottam] (7:44)
24. "Almighty Dog" [Banks/Booker/Cottam] (13:16)
25. "Try Again" [Banks/Booker/Cottam] (9:22)
26. "Over" [Banks/Booker/Cottam] (4:00)

CD5—Hitting the Fans (Live):
27. "Tropical Moon" [Banks/Booker/Cottam] (5:25)
28. "Out of the Garage" [Banks/Booker/Cottam] (6:52)
29. "Forecasting an Indian Summer" [Banks/Booker/Cottam] (3:01)
30. "Procyon A" [Banks/Booker/Cottam] (7:45)
31. "Industrial Power Washing" [Banks/Booker/Cottam] (6:07)
32. "The Consequence of Going Nuts" [Banks/Booker/Cottam] (5:30)
33. "Dystopian Workshop" [Banks/Booker/Cottam] (5:48)
34. "Gallopsiding" [Banks/Booker/Cottam] (11:15)
35. "Not Over Yet" [Banks/Booker/Cottam] (5:19)

CD6—Spontaneous Creation:
36. "Budanopest" [Banks/Cottam/Speight] (5:19)
37. "One Night in Budapest" [Banks/Cottam/Speight] (3:45)
38. "Wizz Bang Crash" [Banks/Cottam/Speight] (3:40)
39. "Sitting on the Buffalo" [Banks/Cottam/Speight] (5:22)
40. "Bruno" [Banks/Cottam/Speight] (5:56), also referred to as "Goodbye Bruno" in the liner notes
41. "Floating World" [Banks/Cottam/Speight] (3:19)
42. "Now Now" [Banks/Cottam/Speight] (6:59)
43. "Do It Now" [Banks/Cottam/Speight] (5:01)
44. "Where's Jamie?" [Banks/Cottam/Speight] (2:46)
45. "Boing" [Banks/Cottam/Speight] (3:47)
46. "Looking Forward" [Banks/Cottam] (3:44)

Notes (****): Released 7 Sep 2018 in the UK and 14 Sep in the US, this 6CD set (but at a 1 or 2CD price) consists mostly of previously unreleased material. Harmony in Diversity was Banks' final band project, running from autumn 2004 to spring 2008, an improvisational trio with Banks, Nick Cottam (bass) and Andrew Booker (drums), and latterly Dave "Jick" Speight (drums). With this set, there is now more material released by Harmony in Diversity than by any of Banks' other projects (from his time with Yes, from Flash, from Empire, or as a solo artist). The set has been overseen and mixed by Booker and Cottam, with the additional approval of Speight. The release includes a 36-page booklet about the band, written by Booker and Cottam and including some contemporary notes by Banks and Booker, and new artwork. Andrew Booker talked to me about the release in an interview available here. Banks was in discussion with Daniel Earnshaw about a Harmony in Diversity release of the material on CD2, CD3 and CD6 shortly before his death in 2016. After his death, with Earnshaw now running the Peter Banks Musical Estate, this collection was assembled, with the other discs coming from Booker's minidisc archive, live recordings, and Cottam's ADAT collection. Thus, CD3 had a small, contemporaneous release as Trying in 2006, but is remastered here, and with an additional track (19). CD2-CD5 are largely edits of minidisc stereo recordings or direct-to-CD live recordings, but CD1 is largely based on ADAT 8-track recordings of rehearsals. CD1 is described by Booker as various "bits and pieces", with some 2018 parts added. CD2 is summer 2005 sessions with just Banks and Booker, at the time planned for a standalone release. CD4 complements CD3, and is studio recordings, mostly from one Sep 2004 session. CD5 is from a series of live shows around 2006. CD6 was also originally planned for a standalone release and comes from live recordings captured in the UK and Hungary in 2006/2007.

Booker and Cottam had a duo called Pulse Engine, which morphed into Harmony in Diversity when Banks joined. The new grouping got together for private sessions. CD4 is newly assembled by Booker from minidiscs, nearly all from a 28 Sep 2004 session in Barnet, where Banks lived. That had been only the second time the trio had got together and before the Harmony in Diversity name. The exception on CD4 is (24), an ADAT recording taken from a 22 Nov 2004 session. (25) has newly added vocal loops.

The band's first live performance, still billed as "Pulse Engine + Peter Banks", was in Islington for 40 minutes on 22 Oct 2004, half Pulse Engine, half the trio. The trio set was mostly Pulse Engine pieces with Banks playing on top, but they ended with an improvisation, released as (27). The Banks/Booker/Cottam trio only played 4 more shows: another standalone show at the Klinker Club in London, Jun 2005, and the 3 shows on the 3 of the Essence mini-tour in Mar 2006 (with Whimwise and the David Cross Band).

On CD1, with multitrack ADAT recordings available, Booker was able to construct tracks, including using new recordings or material from elsewhere (including synth, organ, bass and acoustic drums), as with (1), (4) and (9). Some other material is live-in-the-studio improvising. A small fragment of (14) appears at much greater length in (6) and (8). Uniquely for the band, CD1 also includes a rehearsed piece in (5), that Banks brought to the band. Its name references Banks' prior band, Empire.

CD2 was meant to be the band's first album. It was summer 2005: the band had only just played its second live show (Klinker Club, Jun 2005) and "not particularly enjoyed it", Booker writes in the liner notes. So, he continues, "I think it was my idea to try just a duo". In the same period, Booker and Cottam were continuing to work together as a duo in Pulse Engine, working on their second album. At the time, plans were also mooted for the third pairing, Banks and Cottam, but nothing came of that. While Booker and Banks played several sessions together, CD2 just comes from sessions on 17 and 21 Jun 2005. Booker assembled edits at the time and Banks was happy with them, apart from wanting to add more guitar. Banks came up with the title What is This?, representing the music's uncategorisable sound. (There were no track titles at the time. Those given here were Booker's recent invention.) For this 2018 release, Booker just tidied up some edits. Banks was on a Casio MIDI guitar. Booker was on Roland V-drum pads via a TD-6, augmented by a Korg 05/W triggered from the pads.

During Nov 2005, with What is This? assembled, Booker and Banks planned an appearance at RoSfest in the US, although this was never to happen. With Banks wanting to add more guitar, a release was delayed, and then Cottam got the band, back as a trio, involved in the 3 of the Essence mini-tour in Mar 2006, necessitating a trio release take precedent to have something to sell on the tour. This would be Trying (CD3). A technical hitch meant that the band could not play their existing ADAT recordings, so Booker edited minidisc recordings, mainly from Sep-Nov 2004 sessions, including using some ambient sounds planned for a now-abandoned Pulse Engine project and some traffic sounds recorded one evening outside his house. (18) was taken from the Klinker show. (19) is a new addition compared to Trying, consisting of the piece before (18) from the Klinker show, but with newly added synth and acoustic drums. Booker did the original artwork. Banks came up with the title, reflecting his uncertainty about the project. Banks was uncertain about the tour too, repeatedly threatening to pull out, a nervousness about his own work that pervaded much of his latter years.

CD5 consists of live recordings: (28-30) are again from the Klinker show. The drum theme in (30) was re-visited in (13). (31-5) are from 3 of the Essence dates. (Having met David Cross through the tour, both Banks and Booker separately went on to record duo sessions with Cross, both of which have yet to be released.) After 3 of the Essence, Banks and Booker still had the RoSfest appearance booked as a duo. Booker made it to RoSfest, but a ticket mix-up meant Banks didn't. Tensions between the two had already mounted, and having returned to the UK, Booker quit the band.

The band stalled until autumn 2006, when Cottam ran into an old friend, David Speight. He was invited to join and the band met for a session, returning to Barnet's Earthworks Studios; it is from this session that (43) comes. Unfortunately, Booker had been in charge of making and editing recordings and Cottam struggled with the new responsibilities. The new trio's first live outing was in Southend on 15 Oct 2006, with Whimwise supporting. (38) comes from the minidisc recording of the show. Another Earthworks Studio session followed on 4 Dec 2006, producing (41).

Two more shows were booked, which would turn out to be the band's last: 25 Feb 2007 in Hungary, and 23 Mar 2007 in Wales. Before these, the band had 3 rehearsals at Earthworks, 16-22 Feb. (42) was their warm up at the first rehearsal. Banks decided he wanted to include an existing piece, "Knights" from his Two Sides of Peter Banks solo album, but the band failed to finalise an arrangement, although they did play the piece at the Welsh date. No recordings of the piece are included here. The Hungary show was 75 minutes long, the longest the band ever played: (36), (37) and (40) are from the show. (39) and (44) are from the Wales show, (44) being named after Jamie Elton, Banks' guitar tech that night (the first time he had had one for a Harmony in Diversity show). (46) also uses elements from the Wales show.

Cottam, having learnt Cubase, edited material together and presented Banks with an album in spring 2008. Banks wanted an extended section from (37), using an existing composition, included, while Cottam did not. The impasse remained through a series of what Cottam describes as "tense" phone calls. The band fizzled out, not to see each other again.

Harmony in Diversity was a struggle for much of its existence, with Banks not always easy to work with. But an erratic set of rehearsals and live performances produced some magic. These are not jazz-style improvs or jam band jams, but have their own style, with similarities unsurprisingly with Banks' solo work and with other work by Booker and Cottam (e.g., the Improvizone project). Booker went on to work with Tim Bowness (in his solo band, No-Man and Henry Fool) and later Sanguine Hum. (HP, 29 Sep 18)

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