On Air is the second solo release by
Alan ParsonsAlan Parsons is a British audio engineer, musician, and record producer. He was involved with the production of several successful albums, including The Beatles' Abbey Road and Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon for which Pink Floyd credit him as an important contributor...
following the split of
The Alan Parsons ProjectThe Alan Parsons Project was a British progressive rock band active between 1975 and 1990, founded by Eric Woolfson and Alan Parsons.-History:Englishman Alan Parsons met Scotsman Eric Woolfson in the canteen of Abbey Road Studios in the summer of 1974...
. However, the album's chief creative force was the Project's long-time guitarist,
Ian BairnsonIan Bairnson is a Scottish musician, famous for being one of the core members of The Alan Parsons Project...
. With their newfound independence from Arista, each decided early on that
this release would be a work of art from start to finish where neither vision nor integrity would be subverted by commercial sensibility. The album follows the history of airborne exploration, from the mythological flight of
DaedalusIn Greek mythology, Daedalus was a most skillful architect, or artificer, or craftsman, so skillful that he was said to have invented images that seemed to move about. Daedalus had two sons: Icarus and Iapyx, along with a nephew, whose name varies...
and
IcarusIcarus is a character in Greek mythology. He is the son of Daedalus and is commonly known for his attempt to escape Crete by flight, which ended in a fall to his death.-Escape from Crete:...
to escape the labyrinth of the minotaur in "Too Close To The Sun", through
Leonardo da VinciLeonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian polymath, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer....
's search to design a flying machine, or
ornithopterAn ornithopter is an aircraft that flies by flapping its wings. Designers seek to imitate the flapping-wing flight of birds, bats, and insects. Though machines may differ in form, they are usually built on the same scale as these flying creatures...
, in long-time Project drummer Stuart Elliott's "One Day To Fly", until finally mankind's aspirations for
space explorationSpace exploration is the use of astronomy and space technology to explore outer space. Physical exploration of space is conducted both by human spaceflights and by robotic spacecraft....
placed on the shoulders of a single
astronautAn astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
in "So Far Away" and the subsequent
superpowerA superpower is a state with a leading position in the international system and the ability to influence events and its own interests and project power on a worldwide scale to protect those interests; it is traditionally considered to be one step higher than a great power.Alice Lyman Miller ,...
race to put a man on the
moonThe Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is , about thirty times the diameter of the Earth. The common centre of mass of the system is located at about —a quarter the Earth's...
in "Apollo", a track backed by
John F. KennedyJohn Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
's famous speech of May 25 1961.
While the
odeOde is a lyrical verse. A classic ode is structured in three major parts: the strophe, the antistrophe, and the epode...
to
hot air balloonThe hot air balloon is the oldest successful human-carrying flight technology and is a subset of balloon aircraft.On November 21, 1783, in Paris, France, the first manned flight was made by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes in a hot air balloon created by the...
ing "Blown By The Wind" and following
instrumentalRock Instrumentals have a separate page.An instrumental is a musical composition or recording without lyrics or any other sort of vocal music; all of the music is produced by musical instruments. This term is used when referring to popular music rather than to other musical genres such as European...
"Cloudbreak" are arguably the finest guitar work Bairnson has ever recorded, the creative catalyst for this album is the beautiful, albeit melancholy, ballad "Brother Up In Heaven".
On Air is the second solo release by
Alan ParsonsAlan Parsons is a British audio engineer, musician, and record producer. He was involved with the production of several successful albums, including The Beatles' Abbey Road and Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon for which Pink Floyd credit him as an important contributor...
following the split of
The Alan Parsons ProjectThe Alan Parsons Project was a British progressive rock band active between 1975 and 1990, founded by Eric Woolfson and Alan Parsons.-History:Englishman Alan Parsons met Scotsman Eric Woolfson in the canteen of Abbey Road Studios in the summer of 1974...
. However, the album's chief creative force was the Project's long-time guitarist,
Ian BairnsonIan Bairnson is a Scottish musician, famous for being one of the core members of The Alan Parsons Project...
. With their newfound independence from Arista, each decided early on that
this release would be a work of art from start to finish where neither vision nor integrity would be subverted by commercial sensibility. The album follows the history of airborne exploration, from the mythological flight of
DaedalusIn Greek mythology, Daedalus was a most skillful architect, or artificer, or craftsman, so skillful that he was said to have invented images that seemed to move about. Daedalus had two sons: Icarus and Iapyx, along with a nephew, whose name varies...
and
IcarusIcarus is a character in Greek mythology. He is the son of Daedalus and is commonly known for his attempt to escape Crete by flight, which ended in a fall to his death.-Escape from Crete:...
to escape the labyrinth of the minotaur in "Too Close To The Sun", through
Leonardo da VinciLeonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian polymath, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer....
's search to design a flying machine, or
ornithopterAn ornithopter is an aircraft that flies by flapping its wings. Designers seek to imitate the flapping-wing flight of birds, bats, and insects. Though machines may differ in form, they are usually built on the same scale as these flying creatures...
, in long-time Project drummer Stuart Elliott's "One Day To Fly", until finally mankind's aspirations for
space explorationSpace exploration is the use of astronomy and space technology to explore outer space. Physical exploration of space is conducted both by human spaceflights and by robotic spacecraft....
placed on the shoulders of a single
astronautAn astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
in "So Far Away" and the subsequent
superpowerA superpower is a state with a leading position in the international system and the ability to influence events and its own interests and project power on a worldwide scale to protect those interests; it is traditionally considered to be one step higher than a great power.Alice Lyman Miller ,...
race to put a man on the
moonThe Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is , about thirty times the diameter of the Earth. The common centre of mass of the system is located at about —a quarter the Earth's...
in "Apollo", a track backed by
John F. KennedyJohn Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
's famous speech of May 25 1961.
While the
odeOde is a lyrical verse. A classic ode is structured in three major parts: the strophe, the antistrophe, and the epode...
to
hot air balloonThe hot air balloon is the oldest successful human-carrying flight technology and is a subset of balloon aircraft.On November 21, 1783, in Paris, France, the first manned flight was made by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes in a hot air balloon created by the...
ing "Blown By The Wind" and following
instrumentalRock Instrumentals have a separate page.An instrumental is a musical composition or recording without lyrics or any other sort of vocal music; all of the music is produced by musical instruments. This term is used when referring to popular music rather than to other musical genres such as European...
"Cloudbreak" are arguably the finest guitar work Bairnson has ever recorded, the creative catalyst for this album is the beautiful, albeit melancholy, ballad "Brother Up In Heaven". The song's lyrics remember Ian's deceased cousin Erik Mounsey who was killed in a
friendly fireFriendly fire is an expression meaning fire from one's own side or allied forces, as opposed to fire coming from enemy forces, and was a tactic originally adopted by the United States military....
incident above
IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
in 1994. The death of this young helicopter pilot is made even more haunting by the fact that he was an unarmed
peacekeeperPeacekeeper may refer to:* A person involved in peacekeeping* Peace officer* Conservator of the Peace* Peacekeepers In vehicles:* The LGM-118 Peacekeeper, a land-based nuclear ICBM...
.
On Air was issued as both a stereo CD and a 5.1 channel
dtsDTS, Inc. , is a company specialising in multichannel digital surround sound format used for both commercial/theatrical and consumer grade applications. It is used for in-movie sound on film, DVD, CD, HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc...
mix.
Included with the music CD was a CD-Rom disk exploring the On Air theme.
Track listing
- "Blue Blue Sky" (lead vocal Eric Stewart
Eric Stewart is an English musician, songwriter and record producer most known for his tenure with The Mindbenders in the 1960s, and 10cc from 1972 to 1995....
) – 1:38
- "Too Close To The Sun" (lead vocal Neil Lockwood) – 5:04
- "Blown By The Wind" (lead vocal Eric Stewart
Eric Stewart is an English musician, songwriter and record producer most known for his tenure with The Mindbenders in the 1960s, and 10cc from 1972 to 1995....
) – 5:25
- "Cloudbreak" (instrumental) – 4:39
- "I Can't Look Down" (lead vocal Neil Lockwood) – 4:37
- "Brother Up In Heaven" (lead vocal Neil Lockwood) – 4:02
- "Fall Free" dedicated to skysurfer Rob Harris (1966-1995) (lead vocal Steve Overland
Steve Overland is a British singer and was the lead vocalist and songwriter for the bands Wildlife, FM, The Ladder, Shadowman, and his own group, Overland. Overland's nearly 30 year career began in his home county of East Anglia, where he and his brother Chris formed the band Wildlife in 1980...
backing vocal Peter BeckettPeter Beckett is a English musician and songwriter who has recorded written songs for many prominent recording artists and for several films, as well as produced solo work. He is best known as the lead singer and guitarist for 1970s soft rock group Player, which scored a U.S. #1 hit in 1977 with...
) – 4:21
- "Apollo" (instrumental) – 6:06
- "So Far Away" (lead vocal Christopher Cross
Christopher Cross is an American singer-songwriter from San Antonio, Texas. His debut album earned him all of the "Big Four" Grammy Awards in one year, a feat that is yet to be equalled...
) – 4:07
- "One Day To Fly" (lead vocal Graham Dye
Graham Dye is a singer/songwriter, and guitarist, and is best known for his work with the 1980s band Scarlet Party.Dye was born in Barking, Essex, England....
) – 6:16
- "Blue Blue Sky" (lead vocal Eric Stewart
Eric Stewart is an English musician, songwriter and record producer most known for his tenure with The Mindbenders in the 1960s, and 10cc from 1972 to 1995....
) – 4:24
Personnel
- Alan Parsons
Alan Parsons is a British audio engineer, musician, and record producer. He was involved with the production of several successful albums, including The Beatles' Abbey Road and Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon for which Pink Floyd credit him as an important contributor...
– keyboardsA keyboard instrument is any musical instrument played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include various types of organs as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
, mixing, engineering
- Andrew Powell
Andrew Powell - musical composer, arranger and performer - was born 18 April 1949 in London, England of Welsh parents.- Early life :He began taking piano lessons at the age of four and later attended Kings College School, Wimbledon by which time he was also learning the viola, violin and orchestral...
– orchestral arranger and conductor
- Ian Bairnson
Ian Bairnson is a Scottish musician, famous for being one of the core members of The Alan Parsons Project...
– guitarThe guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that adapts readily to a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six strings, but four-, seven-, eight-, ten-, eleven-, twelve-, thirteen- and eighteen-string guitars also exist. The size and shape of the neck and the base of the guitar...
s, bass guitarThe electric bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a plectrum....
, synthesizerA synthesizer is an electronic instrument that is capable of producing a variety of sounds by generating and combining signals of different frequencies...
- Stuart Elliott
Stuart Elliott is a Northern Irish professional footballer currently playing for Doncaster Rovers. He joined Rovers after signing in May 2008 from Hull City...
– percussionA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound by being hit with an implement, shaken, rubbed, scraped, or by any other action which sets the object into vibration...
, drumsA drum set is a collection of drums, cymbals and sometimes other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person . The term "drum kit" first became used in the 1700s in Britain...
- Eric Stewart
Eric Stewart is an English musician, songwriter and record producer most known for his tenure with The Mindbenders in the 1960s, and 10cc from 1972 to 1995....
– lead vocals (tracks 1, 3, 11)
- Neil Lockwood – lead vocals (tracks 2, 5, 6)
- Steve Overland
Steve Overland is a British singer and was the lead vocalist and songwriter for the bands Wildlife, FM, The Ladder, Shadowman, and his own group, Overland. Overland's nearly 30 year career began in his home county of East Anglia, where he and his brother Chris formed the band Wildlife in 1980...
– lead vocals (track 7)
- Christopher Cross
Christopher Cross is an American singer-songwriter from San Antonio, Texas. His debut album earned him all of the "Big Four" Grammy Awards in one year, a feat that is yet to be equalled...
– lead vocals (track 9)
- Graham Dye
Graham Dye is a singer/songwriter, and guitarist, and is best known for his work with the 1980s band Scarlet Party.Dye was born in Barking, Essex, England....
– lead vocals (track 10)
- Peter Beckett – backing vocals (track 6)
- John Giblin
John Giblin is an internationally renowned session bassist who has worked with artists such as:-* Metro* Joan Armatrading* Peter Gabriel...
– bass guitar
- Richard Cottle – saxophone
- Gary Sanctuary
Gary Sanctuary is a British pianist, keyboard player, composer and in-demand session musician. He has recorded and toured with a number of well-known musicians, including Michael McDonald, George Benson, Chaka Khan, Maxi Priest, Aztec Camera, Beverley Craven, Terence Trent D'Arby, Jaki Graham,...
– keyboards
- Christopher Warren-Green – orchestra leader
- Storm Thorgerson
Storm Thorgerson is an English graphic designer, known for his work for rock bands like Pink Floyd, 10cc, Led Zeppelin, Dream Theater, The Mars Volta, Muse and The Cranberries.-Biography:...
– cover design
External links