Rare --- Asia --- 1999 (Resurgence)
Rare indeed. Not only is it the only, to date, totally instrumental Asia album, but it's also the only one to feature only two of the band, these being John Payne on guitar and bass and the ubiquitous Geoff Downes, on of course, keyboards. The album is made up half of music written for a documentary about salmon, and half the soundtrack for a Sega videogame which was never produced. It's an interesting insight into the more playful side of this mega-band, and also notable as Payne was for twelve years the recognised voice of Asia, having taken over from original vocalist John Wetton in 1992 and remained with the band until the "classic lineup" reformed in 2008, and yet he does not sing a word on this album. As a result, we get to appreciate the more his skills on the frets, which though he played guitar on all those albums during that period tends to get a little overlooked, as he was usually supplemented by other guitarists.
Most of the tracks are quite short, though there are a lot of them. The album opens on "The waterfall", with rippling (sorry) piano and the famous trumpet fanfare from Downes on the keys, but the track lasts less than a minute and we're into "The journey begins", with another soft piano line and some nice steady bass, then some pulsing synth and higher-register keys with a piano line straight out of really any of Asia's ballads, more fanfare and then some of the only real vocals on the album, though they're probably made on synth, those choral vocals, and the song reaches an end and pulls us into "The seasons", which has a vibrating sort of synth line that then becomes somewhat industrial with a vocoder-ish sample and some sharp guitar. Lots of drama in this one.
Cool sliding guitar lines from Payne as the banks of synths swirl and eddy in the foreground, then deeper, bassy keys and some nice piano with a strings-style ominous passage which finishes the track. "The gods" then opens on swirling synth with softer strings-style keys again, and it's clear even from this early stage that this is going to be mostly a keyboard-oriented album. Some more choral vocals then a big rippling sound like a gong is taken by soft piano, and "The whales" comes in on pounding percussion (doesn't mention who does the drumming... probably synth-created I would think) with a breathy synth and a cinematic, expansive sound. A descending guitar and keys line then takes the track towards its end, with a hard cello-like ending. More choral vocals open "The journey continues", though it doesn't continue for long, the track lasting just short of a minute and a half. Basically built on a droning synth and then flowing piano line, it leads into "The reservation", one of the longer tracks at almost three minutes, which carries the same basic melody from the previous track on, adding some echoey drums but pretty much the same music, with a hard synth part leading into some sort of chanting (again, I assume, sampled on Downes's synth) and a running piano with some nice guitar from Payne.
The only real problem with these tracks is that in general they're all too short. You're just getting used to their development and seeing where they go when suddenly they're over. This is, as I say, one of the longer ones, but given that its running time is 2:58, that's not saying much. "The bears" is a big heavy orchestral sound, with thunderous drums and violin, cello and oboe sounds on the synth, another building fanfare that then goes back to the sort of tuba-like sound, very deep and heavy but trotting along at a fair pace. It's over two minutes though, which ironically is too long, as the basic idea is just used over and over again with a few embellishments here and there, like some nice flute near the end. It gets a little boring, to be honest. Much nicer is "Under the seas", with a bright, dreamy piano melody and some sound effects on the synth --- surf, thunder, that sort of thing --- and the piano gets faster and more urgent as the piece comes to a close, with something like vibes or marimba added in too.
Surprisingly for a song titled "At the graveyard", we open with sprinkling, uptempo synth but then the mood does indeed change and we have a very Mahler-esque, funereal sound with booming drums that seem in the distance, and while some crying guitar or violin I think would have fitted well in here, Payne stays relatively quiet on it. It's a short one again and takes us into the somewhat longer "Downstream" on a slow fanfare after which high-pitched choral, angelic voices rise from Downes's synth and are joined by ones even an octave higher. Solo flute then for a moment before the heavy synth returns and we get the fast piano from the ending part of "Under the seas", joined by the returning fanfare on the synth, before "The ghosts", one of the songs which almost reaches the three-minute mark, is esentially cymbal clashes and sound effects, rather like Rush's "Didacts and narapets" from "Caress of steel" before deep low synth and bass come in, then proper percussion cuts loose and carries the tune, the synth very low in the mix and finally we hear a lovely piece of guitar from Payne. it's about time! This is the twelfth track, and the first time I've been able to hear his contribution on anything other than the bass. He doesn't waste his opportunity, making sure to fire off one of those introspective, sweet solos he's known for, but too soon it's over and we're on to the next track.
Well, I say next track, but "The sun" is only half a minute long, and basically a few notes on the synth before "The moon", slightly longer at just over a minute, has some ominous clashes and sounds backing the synth, a heavy, solid synth ending and then "The sharks" almost brings this first part of the album, the documentary soundtrack, to an end with more ominous keyswork from Geoff Downes, very dramatic and with this time no percussion, until that big gong sound again comes in and Payne introduces a walking bass line against which Downes threads a warbly little synth line with some effects, pitch-bends and so forth, some breathing noises (would this not have been more appropriate on the track "The whales"?), heavy drumming now leading us to the end of the piece, and indeed there "The journey ends" on the final track of this part, a little sprightly piano run with the recognised Asia keyboard fanfare and some last choral voices.
And so into the game music we go with the opener called "The Indians", and rather expectedly starting with a Native American chant which I have to say gets really wearing after the first twenty seconds or so, boring and repetitive, and it lasts for almost a minute of the nearly three the track runs for. Luckily it then fades out and the remainder of the track is carried on
pizzicato strings and guitar --- nice to hear it --- then "The angels" comes in on an almost Jon and Vangelis bassline with sweeping synth and twinkly little piano runs from Downes, slow and measured, almost heartbeat really. Quite nice, and even nicer when Payne's guitar claws its way into proceedings, though again the tune is mostly dominated by the keyboards and synthesisers. Some nice heavy percussion near the end, and Payne gets in some nice riffs before it fades, taking us into "The horizons", a very proggy synth piece, very pastoral and relaxed, almost Genesisesque, then bringing in some nice introspective guitar which the synth backs for once, instead of the other way around.
"To the deep" is more bubbling synth with attendant sound effects as Downes reasserts his dominance, the tune very reminscent of Vangelis on his "Oceanic" album, some decent guitar from John Payne finding its way into the latter half of the piece, then "The game" sounds almost trancey, with drum machine sounds and a cantering beat, some nice rock guitar building the tension alongside some siren sounds. In fact, despite what I said just a moment ago, though it started off like a club track it's suddenly become the closest to rock on the album so far, and a real chance for Payne to shine and show us what he can do on the frets. The album closes on "The exodus", which
does sound like a dance tune this time around, with bipping keyboards, sweeping synths and a thumping drumbeat, some nice piano in fact that does remind me of Asia's sound but also puts me in mind of those old Western movies. Pretty poor ending, in my opinion. Well, pretty poor album overall really.
TRACKLISTING
1. The waterfall
2. The journey begins
3. The seasons
4. The whales
5. The gods
6. The journey continues
7. The reservation
8. The bears
9. Under the seas
10. At the graveyard
11. Downstream
12. The ghosts
13. The sun
14. The moon
15. The sharks
16. The journey ends
17. The Indians
18. The angels
19. The horizons
20. To the deep
21. The game
22. The exodus
I don't see an awful lot to get excited about here. Okay, it's a different album and a chance to see a rare (sorry) side of two of the members of Asia we normally don't get to see, but the music to be fair is adequate though not much more than that. There's no single track I can point to and say it was worth the price of this album. It's all ambient and kind of electronic, and though there are flashes of the Asia sound in there from time to time, most of the time you wouldn't know it was them if you didn't already.
Rare indeed. For completists only.