SF record, and I don't mean San Francisco
From a Wikipedia article I found via a comment on Facebook by Elizabeth Schechter, in the group Friends of Mike Callahan :
Olias of Sunhillow is the debut studio album by English singer, songwriter and musician Jon Anderson, released in July 1976 on Atlantic Records. It is a concept album which tells the story of an alien race and their journey to a new world following a volcanic catastrophe. Anderson recorded all of the music and vocals himself.
The album's concept was originally inspired by the cover art by Roger Dean for the 1971 Yes album Fragile, which depicts a tiny planet breaking apart and a glider escaping into space. Anderson has also stated that prose works by painter/mystic Vera Stanley Alder (specifically The Finding of the Third Eye and The Initiation of the World) and J.R.R. Tolkien were also an influence, underlying the epic scope of the narrative compressed into the album.
Much of the story is told in fantastical terms of music, harmony, natural magic and synaesthesia. The tale begins on the planet of Sunhillow, which appears to operate on semi-magical terms relating to music and which is threatened by a catastrophic eruption of its "harnessed volcano". Olias, the title character, is the chosen architect of the glider spaceship Moorglade Mover, which will be used to fly Sunhillow's people to their new home. Ranyart is the harp-playing navigator for the glider, and Qoquaq (pronounced 'ko-quake') is the mystic who can "sing in Eastern tones" and who unites the four disparate tribes of Sunhillow (each of whom represent a different aspect of "music consciousness") to partake in the exodus.[2][3]
Olias fashions the Moorglade Mover by persuading Sunhillow's trees and fish to give up their lives and substance to form it, while Qoquaq travels across Sunhillow using trance singing to bring together the mutually suspicious tribes to come together and board the ship. With the population on board and in a collective trance, the Moorglade Mover leaves Sunhillow just before the planet "explode(s) into millions of silent teardrops." As the glider travels through deep space, the refugees succumb to the mysterious Moon Ra, a force of disorientation. Creating "an evil form" out of their panic and frustration, they are reassured and reunified by Olias via his singing of "chords of love and life". The Moorglade Mover touches down on the plains of a new planet (according to the story, possibly "Asguard" or possibly "the earth", although Anderson has stated "I didn't want to equate it with Earth, but in some respects it could be...") and the tribes disembark and go their separate ways. Olias, Ranyart and Qoquag - their mission completed - ascend the highest of Asguard's mountains in order to sleep and "become one with the universe".[2][4]
Regarding the story, Anderson has admitted "it's not that well mapped out - there's a vague interpretation of a planet and four tribes being representative of rhythm, scale and bell tones creating sound around scale, and chorale... I just thought of the story as three magicians coming out of space to take these tribes from one planet to another to save them from destruction. It's a very simple story really, it isn't so complicated. I hope it will be taken on a level without people thinking there are any hidden meanings."[4]
Click headline for story
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comments there so far.
Olias of Sunhillow is the debut studio album by English singer, songwriter and musician Jon Anderson, released in July 1976 on Atlantic Records. It is a concept album which tells the story of an alien race and their journey to a new world following a volcanic catastrophe. Anderson recorded all of the music and vocals himself.
The album's concept was originally inspired by the cover art by Roger Dean for the 1971 Yes album Fragile, which depicts a tiny planet breaking apart and a glider escaping into space. Anderson has also stated that prose works by painter/mystic Vera Stanley Alder (specifically The Finding of the Third Eye and The Initiation of the World) and J.R.R. Tolkien were also an influence, underlying the epic scope of the narrative compressed into the album.
Much of the story is told in fantastical terms of music, harmony, natural magic and synaesthesia. The tale begins on the planet of Sunhillow, which appears to operate on semi-magical terms relating to music and which is threatened by a catastrophic eruption of its "harnessed volcano". Olias, the title character, is the chosen architect of the glider spaceship Moorglade Mover, which will be used to fly Sunhillow's people to their new home. Ranyart is the harp-playing navigator for the glider, and Qoquaq (pronounced 'ko-quake') is the mystic who can "sing in Eastern tones" and who unites the four disparate tribes of Sunhillow (each of whom represent a different aspect of "music consciousness") to partake in the exodus.[2][3]
Olias fashions the Moorglade Mover by persuading Sunhillow's trees and fish to give up their lives and substance to form it, while Qoquaq travels across Sunhillow using trance singing to bring together the mutually suspicious tribes to come together and board the ship. With the population on board and in a collective trance, the Moorglade Mover leaves Sunhillow just before the planet "explode(s) into millions of silent teardrops." As the glider travels through deep space, the refugees succumb to the mysterious Moon Ra, a force of disorientation. Creating "an evil form" out of their panic and frustration, they are reassured and reunified by Olias via his singing of "chords of love and life". The Moorglade Mover touches down on the plains of a new planet (according to the story, possibly "Asguard" or possibly "the earth", although Anderson has stated "I didn't want to equate it with Earth, but in some respects it could be...") and the tribes disembark and go their separate ways. Olias, Ranyart and Qoquag - their mission completed - ascend the highest of Asguard's mountains in order to sleep and "become one with the universe".[2][4]
Regarding the story, Anderson has admitted "it's not that well mapped out - there's a vague interpretation of a planet and four tribes being representative of rhythm, scale and bell tones creating sound around scale, and chorale... I just thought of the story as three magicians coming out of space to take these tribes from one planet to another to save them from destruction. It's a very simple story really, it isn't so complicated. I hope it will be taken on a level without people thinking there are any hidden meanings."[4]
Click headline for story
This entry was originally posted at https://thnidu.dreamwidth.org/1694093.html. You can comment here, or there using OpenID or your Dreamwidth ID.
comments there so far.