Category: Steven Wilson

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Steven Wilson’s Space Songs Part II: The Solo Years

Steven Wilson. Image copyright Kevin Westenberg

Steven Wilson’s latest album, The Overview, is inspired by the emotional and sometimes spiritual experience that astronauts have described when they look back at the Earth from space, known as ‘The Overview Effect’. This article reflects on Wilson’s space songs from his previous solo work. For an analysis of the space songs he wrote for his band Porcupine Tree, click here.

The Cover of Hand. Cannot. Erase.
The cover of Hand. Cannot. Erase. (2015)

Happy Returns (Hand. Cannot. Erase. 2015)

Hand. Cannot. Erase, Wilson’s fourth solo album, was released in 2015. The concept is based on the true story of the life of Joyce Carol Vincent and the grim circumstances of her death. Joyce was found in her London flat in January 2006. She had been dead for nearly three years. Her body was only discovered when bailiffs broke in to recover rent arrears.

As the protagonist for his album, Wilson created an isolated character, who is never named, loosely based on the story. For the Deluxe Edition of the album, he created a whole back story for his character. The book provides unique and realistic artefacts from the protagonist’s life, beautifully recreated, including a sketchbook, newspaper cuttings, a postcard, a birth certificate, a letter, a handwritten mixtape cover and her diary. The book also contains entries from her Blog. In her Blog, the protagonist mentions ‘the Visitors’ several times. It’s unclear whether they are real, or figments of her imagination. They may be aliens from outer space.

The words of the song, the penultimate track on the album, come from a letter the protagonist wrote to her brother, dated 22 December 2014, a physical copy of which can be found in the Deluxe Edition book, handwritten in blue ink on lined paper. In a blog dated the day before, she describes her relationship with him, ‘I barely know my brother. I know he has a wife and two children, but I have no idea if he’s happy or what is important to him.’ Poignantly, she refers to the annual Christmas card she has just received from him and the invitation to visit that she knows she won’t take up, ‘for some reason this time it made me cry.’ Perhaps this is because she now realises she will never see him again. 

The end of the album is ambiguous. The letter and the song both end with the words, ‘I’m feeling kind of drowsy now/So I’ll finish this tomorrow.’ This could be a note of hope, a suggestion that her life will continue the next day. Her words, ‘I bet you thought that I was dead but I’m still here’ contrast with Joyce Carol Vincent’s tragic death. But on Twitter Wilson said, ‘Just like Joyce wrapping Christmas presents on the evening she died, things left unfinished.’  

So what happens next? In contrast with the words in the letter, in her final blog dated 28 February 2015 her last words are, ‘I told them I’m ready, it’s time to leave now.’ Presumably, ‘they’ are the visitors, and she is leaving with them. The photos in the blog show strange lights in the sky, like those from an alien spacecraft. As Wilson said cryptically on Twitter, ‘You can make up your own mind where the character goes.’ 

Wilson’s wordless vocalising at the start is haunting. Although the song is seen entirely from the protagonist’s point of view – it’s her letter – Wilson sings the words rather than using a female vocalist. The song begins with a simple, singer-songwriter feel which matches the thoughtful approach of the letter. Wilson sings like a contemporary folk singer, his voice close-miked and honest, with more wordless vocalising at the end of the vocal section, ‘doo doo doo…’ The song becomes subtly epic, as instruments surround Wilson’s voice, ending with a lovely but relatively subdued guitar solo from Guthrie Govan. The contrast between the relatively epic instrumentation and the raw solo voice continues the feeling of ambiguity; are we witnessing the tragic ending of a human story, or a new beginning? The song ends with an unfinished feel, like the letter itself. 

‘Ascendant Here On…’ (Hand. Cannot. Erase. 2015)

On Twitter, Wilson said ‘Ascendant Here On…’ is an almost anagram of Hand Cannot Erase.’ He’s right – there’s a missing letter ‘A’ but the rest of the letters are all used. It’s strange to end the album with an instrumental, but as Wilson said, ‘It’s a reprise of the theme from Happy Returns arranged for piano and the boy choristers.’ The title of this instrumental seems to refer to the protagonist ascending into another dimension, or it could be a metaphor for a new, happier state (death?) into which she is passing. Cleverly, Wilson doesn’t divide his listeners.

Those who like stories of aliens from space can follow that story, and those who prefer poetic metaphors will also be satisfied. Some may like to enjoy the ambiguity and hold both options in their mind at the same time. 

The Cover of to the Bone (2017)
The Cover of To the Bone (2017)

Nowhere Now (To the Bone, 2017)

The song’s title echoes the Porcupine Tree song Arriving Somewhere But Not Here (Deadwing, 2005). 

We begin the song ‘six feet underground’; humankind has lost its way, so we might as well be dead and buried. On Earth (or under it) we are moving backwards at the speed of sound, wasting our lives, failing to learn. Love no longer has any meaning. This contrasts with the chorus in which the protagonist (a single individual rather than the collective ‘we’ of the verses) floats in space feeling a ‘rush’ of the love that no longer exists on Earth. Looking down at Planet Earth, it now appears ‘luminous’, the same joyous adjective that is used to describe the moon in the song Permanating, which appears later on the album.

‘Here above the clouds, I am free of all the crowds
And I float above the stars, and I feel the rush of love
Looking down at Earth, it is luminous observed‘

Ken Grady of Upside Adelaide perceptively suggested to Wilson that there was a possible link between this song and David Bowie’s Space Oddity (1969), which Wilson played live as a tribute to Bowie, who died in January 2016. Wilson reacted initially with slight surprise to Grady’s suggestion, but soon accepted that he was right, as both songs share ‘a sense of someone drifting high above the Earth, and seeing it as a beautiful thing far removed from all the politics and terrorism.’ 

The video was filmed by Lasse Hoile at the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, a collection of over 60 radio telescopes in the Atacama Desert in Chile. Earlier in 2025, Wilson visited the site where the European Southern Observatory is building the ELT (Extremely Large Telescope).

The Cover of The Harmony Codex by Steven Wilson
The Cover of The Harmony Codex (2023)

The Harmony Codex (The Harmony Codex, 2023)

The album is based on Wilson’s short story, The Harmony Codex, which was published in his 2022 book Limited Edition of One. The story describes a visit made by Harmony (a 12-year-old girl) and her brother Jamie (16) to visit their father in the tower block where he works in Whitechapel, East London. They ascend the skyscraper to the 38th floor, but before they can meet their father there’s an explosion. They try to escape the building and get trapped on an apparently endless staircase.  At the end of the story, Jamie is in space, looking back down on the Earth towards London, but also across endless stars and galaxies.

On the album’s title track, Wilson takes Jamie’s thoughts, which are seen from a third-person point of view in the story, and puts them in the first person, spoken on the track by his wife, Rotem,

‘It seems I’m miles above the surface of the Earth
I can see across the whole of London and beyond
Lights from a thousand cities…
A trillion stars in a billion galaxies‘

The theme of the enormity of space is picked up again by Rotem’s spoken words at the beginning of the title track of The Overview, which describe the relative sizes of objects in space,

‘Size beyond one megametre
Ten to the power of six
Ganymede, Callisto
Wolf 359…’

Them No. 1 (Tape Experiments 1985/1986, 2010)

This begins with an electronic recreation of the sound of a helicopter or an alien spaceship (perhaps referred to by the word ‘Them’ in the title). With its eerie, slow synths, it could be the theme tune to a horror film. It’s given a touch of the avant-garde with ‘random radio transmissions.’ 

Collecting Space (Insurgentes Deluxe Edition, 2008)

A lovely instrumental, featuring koto playing from Michiyo Yagi, who also plays on the title track of Insurgentes, and lively bass-playing from Tony Levin. The melody at about 1:00 is a pre-echo of the opening of the verse melody of Dignity on Porcupine Tree’s 2022 album Closure/Continuation. The guitar solos, probably played on a PRS (Paul Reed Smith) guitar, have a warm, honeyed sound. 

Space Oddity (B side to Happiness III single, 2016)

Like most people of his generation (he was born in 1967), Wilson grew up listening to David Bowie. He first heard Bowie’s music in 1973, when he was given a copy of Bowie’s novelty single The Laughing Gnome. Bowie died on Sunday 10 January 2016, at the age of 69, just after the release of his final album Blackstar. Wilson and the rest of the world woke up the following morning to hear the sad news.

It felt very surreal to wake up this morning into a world that no longer has David Bowie in it. I can’t imagine there is any rock or pop musician on earth that hasn’t been influenced by Bowie, either directly or indirectly, and I’m no exception.

Steven Wilson, 11th January 2016

Bowie wrote several songs on a space theme, including Life on Mars, Starman, Ashes to Ashes, Moonage Daydream and Hallo Spaceboy. As a tribute to Bowie, Steven Wilson performed Space Oddity at the Hammersmith Apollo on 27 January 2016. Wilson was joined on stage by Ninet Tayeb, who duetted with him on the vocals. It’s a simple, heartfelt version of one of the greatest space songs ever. The live recording was released as the B-side of the 7-inch single Happiness III on 14 October 2016.

How Big the Space (Single, 2018)

This song was released as a 12-inch single for Record Store Day on 21 April 2018. In 2017, Wilson told Anil Prasad of Innerviews.org it didn’t fit the To The Bone album because it’s a ‘60s psychedelic-sounding song.’ The lyrics are by Andy Partridge of the English rock band XTC, who also wrote the words for the title track of To The Bone.

Partridge contributed lyrics to Objects Outlive Us on The Overview, which contrast the mundane nature of life here on Earth with what is happening in space, such as,

And there, in an ordinary street
A car isn’t where it would normally be
The driver in tears, ’bout his payment arrears
Still, nobody hears whеn a sun disappears
In a galaxy afar

The lyrics of How Big the Space are a beautifully poetic description of the end of a relationship, superbly contrasting the mundane, ‘I think I’ll change the locks’, with the existential, using a cleverly-worked space metaphor,

How big the space inside an empty heart
How brave the face when orbits pull apart
How black the hole where universes fade
How vast the bed where both of us once laid 

NB not all songs mentioned are availabe on streaming services

Sources

Twitter (now X)
Ken Grady, INTERVIEW: STEVEN WILSON, PROGRESSIVE ROCK’S BIGGEST STAR TALKS ABOUT TRUTH, TOURING AND ‘TO THE BONE’ (Upside Adelaide September 2018)  
Anil Prasad, Perceptions of Reality (Innerviews.org 2017) 

For Part I of Steven Wilson’s Space Songs: The Procupine Tree Years, click here

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Steven Wilson’s Space Songs Part I: The Porcupine Tree Years

Steven Wilson 2025: CREDIT: Kevin Westenberg
Steven Wilson 2025: CREDIT: Kevin Westenberg
Steven Wilson. Image credit: Kevin Westenberg

Lyrically I arrived at a point where I was no longer interested in writing about abstract concepts, like war, religion, space… etc. These are very personal and emotionally raw songs.

Steven Wilson, on Porcupine Tree’s Lightbulb Sun (2000)

Steven Wilson’s latest album, The Overview, is inspired by the emotional and sometimes spiritual experience that astronauts have described when they look back at the Earth from space, known as ‘The Overview Effect’. Wilson often used space as a theme, particularly in the early years of Porcupine Tree, when the band was essentially a solo project. But on later Porcupine Tree albums, from Lightbulb Sun (2000) onwards, Wilson’s lyrical preoccupations turned first towards the profoundly personal on that album, and then to his broader concerns about modern society on later albums from In Absentia (2002) to The Incident (2009). The band then went on hiatus for over ten years while Wilson launched his successful solo career. This article reflects on Porcupine Tree’s space songs, album by album, and track by track. For Part II: The solo years, click here.

The cover of On the Sunday of Life (1992)

Space Transmission (On the Sunday of Life, 1992)

This is not really a song, but more a message from outer space. It’s a genuinely creepy monologue, uttered by a creature that’s been trapped on another planet, ‘for many eons’ by ‘You know who’, in complete darkness since going blind or ‘since the sun exploded fourteen centuries ago’. It could have come from a Doctor Who episode – it’s not difficult to imagine the song’s monster causing children to hide behind the sofa. We know nothing about ‘He who keeps me here’, but he regards himself as a competitor to God, so is apparently a supreme being. The protagonist appears to be a creature with ‘scales’, whose threats of revenge upon returning to Earth are as dark as the black liquid that seeps uncontrollably from its mouth.

It Will Rain for a Million Years (On the Sunday of Life, 1992)

This track is mainly instrumental; the lyrics are spoken, rather than sung. The protagonist is leaving Earth, presumably because a war or natural disaster has left the planet in such a dystopian state that the rain will never stop. He’s leaving in a spaceship, and in the opening lines, there are echoes of the David Bowie persona, Major Tom (from Space Oddity and others),

‘I locked myself inside the capsule
And watched the planet slowly turning blue.’

Bowie’s song describes the lonely Major Tom as being in a ‘capsule’, and the protagonists of both songs observe that planet Earth looks ‘blue’. The two songs share a sense of melancholy due to the inability to return to Earth, though for different reasons. The protagonist in the Porcupine Tree song will visit ‘worlds of crystal beauty’ but will never find answers, suggesting that his quest is existential rather than simply an escape from a ruined planet,

‘I’ve seen the past, I’ve seen the future
Beyond dimension and into empty space
Finding questions, never answers
Living time behind another face.’

The cover of The Sky Moves Sideways 1994

The Sky Moves Sideways Phase 1: II. I Find That I’m Not There (The Sky Moves Sideways 1993)

This is the only section of the largely instrumental track The Sky Moves Sideways (from the 19994 album of the same name) that includes lyrics. It has a lovely, desolate feel, as the protagonist seems to disappear; first going off the map, before not being there at all. The lyrics blend the surreal and the poetic, suggesting space travel while evoking a journey to the inner consciousness. The vocals possess a contemplative introspection, enhanced by the use of echo, and a desperate, almost angry tone of despair.

‘We lost the skyline
We stepped right off the map
Drifted into blank space
And let the clocks relapse.’

Moonloop (The Sky Moves Sideways 1993)

Wilson was inspired to record a song about the Moon when, in an Oxfam shop, he found a vinyl copy of the spoken word recording, Man On The Moon, narrated by Walter Cronkite, the American broadcaster who anchored CBS Evening News for nearly twenty years. This instrumental track was recorded in July 1995, 26 years after the Apollo 11 Moon landing. In July 1969, as the Moon landing took place, Pink Floyd were in a television studio, improvising another Moon-themed piece. Floyd guitarist, David Gilmour, wrote in The Guardian in July 2009,

‘They were broadcasting the Moon landing, and they thought that to provide a bit of a break, they would show us jamming. It was only about five minutes long. The song was called ‘Moonhead’ – it’s a nice, atmospheric, spacey, 12-bar blues’.

The sample near the end of Moonloop is a NASA recording of the Apollo 11 Astronauts, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, at Tranquility [sic] Base on the Moon, communicating by radio with Bruce McCandless, an astronaut at Mission Control in Houston. In a heavily edited recording, Neil Armstrong can be heard climbing down the Lunar Module ladder, describing the Moon’s surface as he sets foot on it. It was at this point that he made his most famous quote, which is not present in the sample, ‘That’s one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind’

The track begins with what could be the sound of an ocean on the Moon. Early astronomers thought the sea of tranquillity, or Mare Tranquillitatis, was actually a sea, though closer inspection revealed it to be a dry plain created by ancient volcanic eruptions. Wilson’s distorted guitar provides space-rock stylings until around fifteen minutes in, when the song reaches a stasis point, and the above-quoted samples appear. The song has a trance-like, hypnotic feel, making it part of the space rock that began in the 1960s, with bands like Gong and Hawkwind, and resurfaced in the 1990s.

The cover of the Moonloop EP by Porcupine Tree
The cover of the Moonloop EP (1994)

Stars Die (Moonloop EP 1994)

The concept of stars dying suggests that, in the long term, everything dies; that humanity is fragile and ephemeral, and that the Earth itself will eventually perish,

‘Tree cracked
And mountain cried
Bridges broke
And window sighed.’

The sample at around 2:30 is of President Richard Nixon speaking from the White House Oval Office to the Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin when they were on the Moon. In what he describes as ‘the most historic telephone call ever made’, the President says the astronauts’ achievements have inspired mankind to ‘redouble our efforts to bring peace and tranquillity to Earth’. Perhaps the Moon mission brought hope. But the song itself doesn’t suggest peace and tranquillity will come to Earth. It ends with an image of humanity blasting off into space – astronauts in ‘hypersleep’, the deep coma-like sleep that’s essential for long-distance space travel.

The cover of Stupid Dream (1999)

A Smart Kid (Stupid Dream, 1999)

A quietly melancholy song about the infinite loneliness suffered by the protagonist, the last remaining human being stranded on planet Earth after what seems to have been a five-year nuclear winter. After ‘a chemical harvest was sown’, nuclear clouds obscure the sun. It appears there was a nuclear war, which the protagonist ‘must have won’: making the song title profoundly ironic. He has won an empty victory.

The nuclear war theme is related to Radioactive Toy (from On the Sunday of Life), in which the ‘toy’ grants ‘the freedom to destroy’. It would perhaps be foolish to describe Robert Oppenheimer – credited as the ‘father of the atomic bomb’ – as merely a ‘smart kid’ like the song’s protagonist. The reality is much more subtle, but Oppenheimer later did express regret about the ‘sin’ that he and other physicists had committed: that once the knowledge that created the atomic bomb had been gained, it could never be lost again.

In A Smart Kid, the protagonist is waiting for an alien spaceship to arrive to rescue him from Earth. He will wait ‘until the sky is blue’. The implication is that it will never be blue again.

‘A spaceship from another star
They ask me where all the people are
What can I tell them?
I tell them I’m the only one
There was a war but I must’ve won
Please, take me with you.’

The Cover of Lightbulb Sun (2000)

Last Chance To Evacuate Planet Earth Before It Is Recycled (Lightbulb Sun, 2000)

The first part of this song is called ‘Winding Shot (Summer 1981)’, part of the more personal lyrical themes Wilson began writing songs about on Lightbulb Sun. It refers to the time when childhood turns into adolescence. In the summer of 1981, Wilson was thirteen and living in Hemel Hempstead, an English town about 24 miles northwest of London. Winding Shot is the name of a small cul-de-sac off Spring Lane in Hemel Hempstead. The nostalgia in the song is tinged with regret as summer comes to an end,

‘Summer went away
And we just weren’t the same.’

This part of the song ends with his childhood friend kissing him on the lips, as they reach that strange limbo of adolescence, suspended between childhood and adulthood; ‘Not grown-ups but not kids’. A rhythmic acoustic riff drives a short bridge, leading to an instrumental passage from which the song title is derived.

The title could convey an environmental message, something that’s become even more critical in the two decades since the song was written. But Wilson told Joakim Jahlmar of DPRP.net in March 2001 that, Last Chance To Evacuate Planet Earth Before It Is Recycled is not about ecology. It takes its title from the edited transcript of a videotape dated 29 September 1996, from the leader of the Heaven’s Gate religious cult, who called himself Do (real name: Marshall Applewhite).

‘This planet is about to be recycled, refurbished, started over. That doesn’t mean it’s going to be destroyed; it doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world. And whether or not you believe that this civilization is going to be recycled or refurbished is up to you. Now, the purpose of this tape is to warn you that this is about to happen and that it’s going to happen very soon. At the End of the Age, the planet is wiped clean… refurbished… rejuvenated.‘

 On 22 March 1997, Heaven’s Gate published a macabre press release,

‘HEAVEN’S GATE ‘Away Team’ Returns to Level Above Human in Distant Space

By the time you receive this, we’ll be gone – several dozen of us. We came from the Level Above Human in distant space, and we have now exited the bodies that we were wearing for our earthly task, to return to the world from whence we came – task completed.‘

Applewhite told his followers that they could leave Earth on a spaceship that would accompany the comet Hale-Bopp, which was due to approach the planet in early 1997. Tragically, despite a claim on the Heaven’s Gate website that the group was strongly against suicide, 39 cult members (including Applewhite) were found dead in a San Diego house on 26 March 1997. The track ends with the song title’s chilling words, spoken by Applewhite before he joined his followers in a mass suicide, achieved by consuming a mixture of apple sauce, vodka and barbiturates.

The Cover of Closure Continuation by Porcupine Tree
The cover of Closure/Continuation (2022)

Herd Culling (Closure/Continuation 2022)

This track opens with the visceral lines,

‘Son, go fetch the rifle now,
There’s something in the yard.’

These words throw us immediately into a compelling psychodrama. Wilson has the ability of a poet or scriptwriter to enter a story halfway through – the narrative gradually unfolds as the song progresses, teasing the listener to extract the meaning of the song, wondering who the ‘strange gods’ are,

‘Did you fall to earth to cull a herd?
Strange gods above the earth
These are things you just won’t believe.

In the shackles of the night
There are lights up in the sky…’

Wilson revealed the song’s meaning to Anil Prasad of Innerviews before he later retracted, saying he would prefer listeners to make up their own minds. Those who prefer not to have their views influenced by Wilson’s thoughts should skip the next paragraph.

Wilson told Prasad that the story of Skinwalker Ranch, near Ballard, Utah, inspired the song. Several accounts suggest that the ranch has been plagued by paranormal activity and UFO sightings, and several books, films, and documentaries have been published about it. The song describes the family’s attempts to defend themselves against aliens, ‘strange gods above the earth’ who may have landed to ‘cull a herd’ of cattle on the ranch. He told Prasad: ‘I remain sceptical when it comes to the UFO stuff and government coverups. But I love the stories.’ His scepticism is echoed in the chorus of the song, which consists of the single word ‘liar’, resentfully muttered at first, then viciously spat out as his venom increases.

Sources

Gilmour, D., My moon-landing jam session (The Guardian, 2 July 2009)
Press release, HEAVEN’S GATE “Away Team” Returns to Level Above Human in Distant Space (22 March 1997)
Applewhite, M., Last Chance to Evacuate Earth Before It’s Recycled; Edited Transcript of Videotape (Heaven’s Gate website, 29 September 1996)
Jahlmar, J., An Interview with Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree (DPRP.net, March 2001)
Prasad, A., Porcupine Tree Collective Action (Innerviews, 2022)

For Steven Wilson’s Space Songs Part II: The Solo Years, click here

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Steven Wilson – The Overview – Album and Film Launch with Q & A Session – Review

Tuesday 25 February 2005

BFI IMAX, London

“It’s about death… in the nicest possible sense of the word.”

*****

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon, the album has been touring the UK’s planetariums, reaching Jodrell Bank in Cheshire late last year. The showings have been immersive, with surround sound and visuals of scenes from outer space, replicating the original album launch in 1973 when it was played to journalists at the London Planetarium.

This evening, Steven Wilson launched his eighth solo album, The Overview, in another immersive experience. He launched his last solo album, The Harmony Codex, at EartH in London, but tonight’s show was very different. His previous album was ‘cinema for the ears’; we listened in reverential darkness.

The new album is cinema for the eyes as well as the ears. There’s a remarkable new film from Miles Skarin, who worked on the visuals for the most recent Porcupine Tree album Closure/Continuation and the accompanying tour, as well as Wilson’s solo albums The Future Bites and The Harmony Codex.

Skarin’s film looked pristine on the massive IMAX screen, and the sound matched the quality of the visuals. The drums were particularly impressive, and Wilson’s voice sounded incredibly intimate.

The opening scene depicts an alien who asks, ‘Did you forget about us?’ As Wilson later admitted, he was slightly tongue-in-cheek when he wrote those words. But there is a serious point here; he is concerned that rather than looking up at the stars in wonder, we have become so obsessed with technology and with ourselves—particularly with smartphones and social media—that we have forgotten to look up at the sky and marvel at the universe.

Wilson says that his lifetime has seen the most rapid evolution of the human race during the 300,000 years of our life on earth due to the development of technology. He has been concerned about the possible adverse effects of this for a long time, dating back to ‘Every Home is Wired’, a song he wrote for the Porcupine Tree album Signify nearly 30 years ago. In 2007 he wrote a whole album about it, Porcupine Tree’s Fear of a Blank Planet. But as he said in the discussion, this is the first time he has looked at the problem ‘in a cosmic way.’

Wilson was keen for the images of space that accompany his new album not to replicate those that we have already seen in films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey or Interstellar, impressive as those images are. His brief to Skarin was to create something new, and Skarin has met the brief and even exceeded it. Sometimes, the imagery was concrete, as in the climate change imagery in the first half of the album, Objects Will Outlive Us. At other times, it was abstract and pattern-based, as when it accompanied the electronica at the start of the album’s second half, which forms the title track. On the IMAX screen, it appeared to have a depth to match the soundtrack, even though it was in 2D.

Musically, this could be Wilson’s strongest album since Hand. Cannot. Erase. from 2016 although further listens may change that view, The Overview has been described as Wilson’s return to prog rock, as it only has two long tracks and a powerful concept – the perspective that space travel gives on our lives. Wilson hasn’t denied that the album could fit into that genre, but it seems very accessible on first listen, and although the musicianship and production are  superb it doesn’t feel self-indulgent in any way. It says what it needs to say – and the concept is possibly the most existential subject Wilson has ever tackled – and then ends. Highlights include the drumming of Russell Holzman (son of Wilson’s regular keyboard player Adam Holzman), the guitar solos of Randy McStine and Niko Tsonev, Adam Holzman’s keyboard solo, Wilson’s acoustic bass solo and Theo Travis’s soprano sax at the very end.

The album playback and film were followed by a fascinating discussion about the concept of The Overview, the Overview Effect – the cognitive change that many of those who left the Earth to travel into space often report. This can be positive or negative – William Shatner of Star Trek fame only saw death when he travelled into space, but others have had a spiritual experience seeing the ‘small blue dot’ of our planet from a distance that provides perspective.

Alex Milas, founder of Space Rocks, an organisation that promotes collaboration between space scientists and artists, chaired the panel discussion. Wilson explained that when the two of them had lunch together, and Milas explained the Overview Effect to him, he saw the album’s concept and heard the music ‘in a split second.’

Miho Janvier wowed us with her research into the sun – a spacecraft is about to provide us with views of the sun’s poles, which have never been seen before. She showed us a massive image of the sun and a tiny image of the Earth, which showed how insignificant our planet is. Mark McCaughrean baffled and delighted us with statistics about how big space is and how we have now seen images from only 290 million years after the Big Bang! The images we can now see are 13.5 billion years in the past, or 50 billion light years away. Miles Skarin said that when he put those numbers into his computer software to create scientific accuracy, the computer said ‘no.’

Wilson said the album is ultimately about human beings rather than science fiction. His wife Rotem’s voiceover provides incomprehensible statistics about the vastness of space, but the abiding image from the film is of Wilson as an astronaut, a lonely human floating in space. As Wilson says, our insignificance – the universe doesn’t care about us – means that we may as well at least ‘enjoy the ride.’  And if space is scary, it’s also beautiful. Wilson concluded that space gives us a sense of perspective: “It’s about death… in the nicest possible sense of the word.”

Panel members

Steven Wilson musician and producer

Alex Milas Space Rocks founder,

Miho Janvier astrophysicist and solar physicist at The European Space Agency,

Mark McCaughrean; senior scientific advisor for human and robotic exploration at the European Space Agency (retired), and James Webb Space Telescope mission scientist & professor at the Max Planck institute.

Miles Skarin filmmaker

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Review of the Year – 2024 – Prog Rock

2024 was a stunning year for Prog Rock new and old

The Cover of Living and Alive by Beatrix Players
The Cover of  Living & Alive by Beatrix Players

The Return of Beatrix Players

Beatrix Players, led by Ms Amy Birks, made a welcome return to the progressive rock scene in late 2023 with the release of their album Living and Alive. In 2024, they brought the complete album to Manchester’s Band on the Wall and then to a triumphant home gig in the village of Barlaston, near Stoke-on-Trent. Birks was heavily pregnant and jokingly complained of ‘baby brain’; she has since given birth to a baby daughter. In the meantime, Birks and her band were superb live. Birks was a charismatic leader, her wonderfully expressive voice ranging from a warm, low mezzo to a high soprano, sometimes urgent in her delivery and at other times quietly intimate – often in the same song. She was a powerful stage presence, drawing the audience in, as their enthusiastic response showed. 

Myrkur - image by Gobinder Jhitta
Amalie Bruun (Myrkur)

Myrkur – Danish Black Metal and Scandinavian folk music

The Danish composer, vocalist, and classically trained multi-instrumentalist Amalie Bruun released her debut album under her own name in 2006. In 2011, she formed the indie pop duo Ex Cops with Brian Harding. The band split in 2014, and she started releasing music under the name Myrkur, Icelandic for darkness. In late 2023, she released Spine, which combines many of the styles of previous albums into a sophisticated whole, graced by her remarkably versatile voice. The album was partly based on her experience of being pregnant with her son Otto, who was born in 2019.

But the song My Blood is Gold, reviewed here in the ongoing Off the Beaten Track series, is a product of another significant life event: the death of her beloved father, Michael Bruun, in 2021. This profoundly moving track perfectly describes Bruun’s despair at her father’s death and her resolve for his memory to live on through her music.

Bruun brought her music to London in April 2024, demonstrating her versatility as a singer and songwriter in an eclectic set. Over the course of four albums and various EPs and singles, she has combined black metal with Scandinavian folk music, sometimes on the same album. Her latest album, Spine, her most eclectic yet, formed the bulk of the setlist, including a run of six songs at the start of the show. Bruun was joined on stage by Swedish folk singer Jonathan Hultén, the support act, in a gorgeous version of House Carpenter, a traditional Nordic folk song, attracting the most excited applause of the evening.

The front cover of SIRIN by Marjana Semkina
Marjana Semkina on the cover of her second solo album, SIRIN

Marjana Semkina and iamthemorning – a difficult but artistically successful year

Marjana Semkina is a member of the prog rock group iamthemorning with her Russian-born compatriot, the pianist Gleb Kolyadin, both of whom are now resident in the UK. The duo have released several records, the most recent being The Bell (2019) and the EP Counting The Ghosts (2020).

Semkina has recently pursued a parallel solo career, releasing her first solo LP, Sleepwalking, in 2020 and her EP, Disillusioned, in 2021. In 2024 she sang on the Moonflower EP with Zora Cock of Blackbriar, and released SIRIN, her second solo album. Semkina created this album without the support of a record label, raising tens of thousands of pounds for the project via crowd funding. She is an exceptional talent, as a singer and a songwriter, and a passionate promoter of her poetic and profound vision of the world through her music.

Semkina had a challenging year. Her bandmate Kolyadin was arrested and imprisoned in Thailand while on tour as a session musician with the Russian dissident rock band Bi-2. He faced deportation to Russia, where the band could have been persecuted for anti-war sentiments. Semkina highlighted the story via social media and an online petition.

Kolyadin was released after a week in prison and returned to England via Israel. A few days after his release, the duo performed an emotional comeback show at Piano Smithfield in London. Later in the year, the duo were joined by a full band to perform iamthemorning songs at St. Matthias Church in Stoke Newington, London. Semkina began with an evocative selection of her solo material, and Kolyadin demonstrated his supreme skill as an improviser in a solo piano set before the iamthemorning band played a superb band set.

The Cover of Harmonic Divergence by Steven Wilson

An Overview of Steven Wilson’s Year

While fans of Steven Wilson eagerly await his new album The Overview due in March, in 2024 he released a Record Store Day album Harmonic Divergence based on his 2023 album The Harmony Codex. Producer Ewan Pearson also remixed ‘Inclination’ from that album. Alexis Petridis of The Guardian wrote, ‘Ewan Pearson sprinkles sunlit Balearic euphoria’, and Wilson described the remix as ‘a hypnotic cosmic disco odyssey.’

The year also saw the re-release of Storm Corrosion, the collaboration between Wilson and Mikael Åkerfeldt of Swedish progressive metal band Opeth, in a new Dolby Atmos remix. Wilson has been making surround mixes of his own and other bands’ albums for so long now that he has been asked to do a surround sound mix of King Crimson’s Red for the second time after he did his first surround mix of the album in 2009. He decided to teach himself the art of surround sound mixing after Elliot Scheiner created 5.1 mixes of the Porcupine Tree albums In Absentia and Deadwing.

As Mikael Åkerfeldt admitted, Storm Corrosion isn’t an easy listen. However, it is certainly not as challenging to listen to as the albums Wilson has produced for his Bass Communion project, such as Ghosts on Magnetic Tape. Both albums take a while to give up their secrets and bring joy to the listener. In the Dolby Atmos mix of Storm Corrosion, the opening track makes the most startling use of the new technology. On other tracks, the effect is more muted, but when surround sound is used, it’s more effective as it is used sparingly.

Finally, in 2024, Wilson brought festive greetings to his fans with a physical release of his 2023 Christmas song, December Skies, complete with two Wilson-themed Christmas cards. The year also marked the fifth anniversary of the release of love you to bits, Wilson’s album with his no-man bandmate Tim Bowness, a melancholy disco masterpiece.                                        

Cover of Perpetual Motions by Gavin Harrison and Antoine Fafard
Perpetual Motions by Gavin Harrison and Antoine Fafard

Perpetual Change with Gavin Harrison and Antoine Fafard

Gavin Harrison, the drummer in Steven Wilson’s band Porcupine Tree, released Perpetual Motions, his second album with bass player Antoine Fafard, a collection of inventive musical explorations and collaborations from the virtuosic duo and several friends. The album’s title describes the perpetual change of musical arrangement from one of Fafard’s compositions to the next, the only constant being the playing of Fafard and Harrison on every piece. Remarkably, Fafard presented Harrison with complete recordings to add drums and percussion later; Harrison’s playing perfectly matches the pieces so it’s impossible to tell that his recordings were done separately. 

Malcolm Galloway and Mark Gatland
Malcolm Galloway and Mark Gatland of Hats Off Gentlemen It’s Adequate

Malcolm Galloway had a more than Adequate Year

Malcolm Galloway of Hats Off Gentlemen It’s Adequate provided deep insights into his health condition and his writing process in a fascinating two-part interview: Part One and Part Two are here. Galloway and his bandmate Mark Gatland have a new album out in March, The Uncertainty Principle. In the meantime, One Word That Means The World (Arkhipov), one of the singles from the album, was released in 2024. It’s a compelling snapshot of a moral dilemma in which one man’s brave decision probably averted World War III. Hats Off shared the bill in Camden, London with a new discovery for me, the band EBB, who have a wonderful stage presence.

Prog the Forest at the Fiddler’s Elbow

Malcolm Galloway and Mark Gatland, with the promoter London Prog Gigs, hosted a charity prog festival, Prog the Forest, at the Fiddler’s Elbow in Camden. All performers gave their services for free to support the rainforest and wildlife conservation charity, World Land Trust, which ‘protects the world’s most biologically significant and threatened habitats.’ This was the sixth year of Prog the Forest and the most successful to date, raising £2750 to protect nearly 26 acres of rainforest and other threatened habitats.

The eclectic line-up was made up of: Spriggan Mist, a ‘pagan progressive rock band’; singer-songwriter Leoni Jane Kennedy, who was hand-picked by members of Queen for the Freddie Mercury Scholarship and plays acoustic Rush covers as well as her own songs; The Mighty Handful who include a ‘former music director of Strictly; Mountainscape who play instrumental post-metal; Theo Travis of Soft Machine, who has played saxophone and flute with numerous jazz and prog bands; Tim Bowness and Butterfly Mind; and Hats Off Gentlemen It’s Adequate.

Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets at Manchester Apollo
Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets

Prog History Brought to Life

The late 1960s to the mid-1970s were arguably the golden era of Prog Rock, particularly in the UK, but as can be seen from the reviews above, the genre continues to thrive, with superb new music being produced both on record and live.

New life has also been breathed into prog rock classics, with the return of Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets with live interpretations of early Pink Floyd songs. Robin A Smith continued to tour Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells – the 50th anniversary, with a stunning new arrangement of the classic album; 2024 was also the 50th anniversary of the release of Peter Hammill’s solo album The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage, from which the epic track ‘A Louse is not a Home‘ is taken.

Special Thanks

With thanks to Jerry Ewing and Prog magazine for keeping the prog flag flying, and to Chris Parkins of London Prog Gigs for his tireless contribution to the live scene in London.

For an overview of the year in classical music in 2024, click here.

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Off the Beaten Track # 13: Drown With Me by Porcupine Tree

The Deluxe Edition of In Absentia by Porcupine Tree
The Deluxe Edition of In Absentia by Porcupine Tree
The Deluxe Edition of In Absentia (Image from Burning Shed)

What happens when the music and lyrics to a song give out conflicting messages? The singer songwriter Marjana Semkina told Jeremy Allen in the July 2024 issue of Prog magazine that she likes writing songs, such as ‘The Storm’ from her new album Sirin, which sound hopeful but have lyrics that are the complete opposite,

“I do like a juxtaposition and I think it contrasts really well in art. If there’s darkness, the light will shine brighter”

Semkina said one of the bands that most influenced her to write in this style is the prog rock band Porcupine Tree, and the songwriting of band leader Steven Wilson. She said ‘Drown With Me’ by Porcupine Tree is, ‘an exceptionally happy-sounding song about someone who’s drowning.’ On the TV Tropes website, the effect on the listener is described as ‘lyrical dissonance’, presumably referencing on the psychological theory of cognitive dissonance.

‘Drown With Me’ has an interesting history. In 2020, Steven Wilson told Lasse Hoile that he thought the song was going to be ‘one of the highlights’ of the Porcupine Tree album In Absentia (2002). He replaced it with ‘Prodigal’ which he said, ‘is one of the weaker songs’, although he stressed this was his personal opinion and others might disagree. The reason for the substitution was that he felt ‘Prodigal’ was a better recording, although he regretted the decision later.

‘Drown With Me’ is a gorgeous, upbeat song in which the music contrasts sharply with the lyrics. The song takes one of the themes of In Absentia, the world of serial killers and murderers. The protagonist’s plan is to drown the song’s addressee and her family. As in ‘Blackest Eyes’, the first track on In Absentia, the victim is enticed into the killer’s violent world. Compare ‘Swim with me into your blackest eyes’ with ‘You should drown with me’. Both songs feature rich, multi-layered backing vocals in the chorus, which help to disguise the grim message.

Although it was available on a special edition of the album released on DVD in 2003, the song remained relatively hidden for years. Fortunately, when Porcupine Tree released the deluxe edition of In Absentia in 2020 the track finally appeared on streaming services in a remastered version. Live versions are also available on the live album/DVD Closure/Continuation.Live. released in December 2023, and Atlanta, released in June 2010.

Porcupine Tree – Drown With Me (CLOSURE/CONTINUATION.LIVE – Official Visualiser)

Sources

Allen, J. A Light in the Darkness (Prog magazine, July 2024)
Hoile, L. The Making of In Absentia (Documentary film from In Absentia deluxe edition 2020)
Parts of the above article are adapted from Porcupine Tree On Track (Sonicbond 2021) by Nick Holmes

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Off the Beaten Track #12: Ghosts on Magnetic Tape by Bass Communion

Ghosts on Magnetic Tape by Bass Communion
Ghosts on Magnetic Tape by Bass Communion

Going through my late mother-in-law’s personal effects recently, we found a pile of old 78s that belonged to her husband, who died many years ago. We decided to buy a turntable to play them, and the decades rolled back. Steven Wilson found a similar collection in his parents’ loft and used them to create Ghosts on Magnetic Tape, the fourth Bass Communion album.

Steven Wilson is best known as the leader of prog rock band Porcupine Tree, and for his extensive solo career. Recent releases include Closure/Continuation and The Harmony Codex respectively. One of Wilson’s first loves was electronic music by Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze. He and his teenage friend Simon Vockings made electronic music under the name Altamont, formed in 1983, recording direct to tape. The band had only limited success. Fifteen years later, having released four albums under the Porcupine Tree name, Wilson released the first Bass Communion album as a solo project. Wilson has experimented with synthesisers and sequencers, particularly on his most recent solo albums The Harmony Codex and its remixed offshoots Harmonic Distortion and Harmonic Divergence. But Bass Communion is a different kind of music, less electronic and more about sounds sourced from analogue instruments and samples, often field recordings or samples. In his book, Limited Edition of One, Wilson says the work of Bass Communion owes a great deal to Brian Eno’s definition of ambient music, which has its origins in French composer Erik Satie’s Furniture music. Where Wilson differs from Eno and Satie is they both created music which is, ‘almost there in the background to be ignored, musical wallpaper, which I don’t totally subscribe to.’

A question arises; how is music defined? Most dictionary definitions include references to rhythm, melody and harmony, but Wilson enjoys challenging his listeners – and himself. His work under the name Bass Communion can be a difficult listen, as it lacks the musical conventions and structures and signposts that usually help listeners on their journey. But it can ultimately be a rewarding journey. In his book, Wilson describes the early music of Tangerine Dream, and also Nurse with Wound’s 1998 album Soliloquy for Lilith, in words that could also apply to Bass Communion,

“You don’t need melody, rhythm or harmony; you just need the right thing to work as an emotional trigger, and even a single sound has the power to do that. A sensory experience, a particular taste or a smell, can set off a chain of memories”

Wilson recorded Bass Communion’s Ghosts on Magnetic Tape at his No Man’s Land home studio between May and August 2003. It’s the fourth Bass Communion album, following on from the albums Bass Communion I – III. It was re-released in its fifth pressing in January 2024, described as, ‘the best selling Bass Communion release… rated by some people (including Steven Wilson himself) to be one of his best albums, becoming quietly influential in the experimental music scene.’

A pile of 78 rpm records
Wilson found a pile of 78 rpm records in his parents’ loft

In a fascinating interview with Geoff Kieffer of the Porcupine Tree fanzine Carbon Nation in 2004, Wilson revealed many details about the album that don’t seem to be available elsewhere. He told Kieffer that he found some old 78s in his parents’ attic, and it was recordings from those that he used as around 80% of the source material for his album. As he didn’t have a record player that could play the records at the correct speed, he had to play them much slower, at 45 rpm. Behind the crackles and surface noise from the old, heavily scratched records, he heard,

“…the ghostly sound of music coming through…[which] created something in my mind. It almost felt like the dead trying to communicate through the noise…”

This formed a link in Wilson’s mind to the phenomenon which has been described by Dr Konstantin Raudive as Electronic Voice Projection; (EVP). According to him, voices of the dead can be heard on thousands of tapes that he recorded in a silent room. Through the tape hiss, he said voices of famous 20th century politicians could be heard, including Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini. Jolyon Jenkins wrote an article for the BBC website about this in 2013.

Wilson added some piano to the recordings, and the result can be described as electronic music as it is heavily processed, but the source material means that the album retains a human, organic quality. This gives it a spiritual quality, an ability to touch the soul rather than move the feet – it’s ironic that one of the major streaming services categorises the album as ‘dance’; it’s difficult to find any rhythm to dance to on this record.

Wilson said that the album is unusual as a Bass communion recording in two respects: he wrote the album fairly quickly over a period of a few months, and it has an overriding concept – expressed by the title – rather than being a collection of unrelated songs. It consists of five tracks, numbered I to V, which suggests that the whole album is a continuous suite of pieces, just as ‘Shine on You Crazy Diamond’ from Pink Floyd’s 1975 album Wish You Were here is actually a nine-part suite which bookends the album.

Part I

The opening track begins with unearthly drones, and a distant birdcall. A restless piano motif, consisting of only four notes with an occasional passing note, has no clear rhythm. It’s haunting, like a tentative message from another world. Spectral music, like very early Tangerine Dream, seems to be a faint impression of melodies from beyond the grave. Some listeners may be reminded of the ghostly music in the bar scenes in the Overlook Hotel in Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film The Shining. The music disappears into static from a 78 record, and the track abruptly ends as if communication from the other world has suddenly been cut off.

Part II

Female voices rise in a huge, cathedral-like acoustic, singing unintelligible words. A simple rising phrase is repeated. The track has a haunting, ghostly quality, spiritual in a broad sense but not linked to any specific religion despite the cathedral atmosphere. One of the most affecting, emotional tracks on the album, perhaps because the voices give a deep sense of humanity.

Part III

This could be the soundtrack to a horror film. Wilson told Geoff Kieffer that Bass Communion is strongly influenced by the soundtracks to David Lynch films like Eraserhead (1977) and The Elephant Man (1980). The track features an industrial, ominous drone, full of dread. There’s what sounds like the clicking of a Geiger counter, a device that detects radioactivity, perhaps presaging a nuclear war. The track ends with ghostly noises, which leads to a crescendo of impending doom, then suddenly stops.

An AI-generated image created from the words ‘Ghosts on Magnetic Tape’

Part IV

If the previous track is about approaching nuclear war, in this track the war seems to have arrived as the Geiger counter speeds up. A single, desolate high note is soon joined by other, equally bleak tones, ineffably sad, depicting a post nuclear landscape. The track feels like music from a film – Wilson has often said he would love to create a movie soundtrack, and his Porcupine Tree album Deadwing is based on a film script that he and director Mike Bennion wrote. There’s a touch of Tangerine Dream at the end, but without the rhythmic pulse of their later albums. This is the most recognisably ‘musical’ of the tracks, so would perhaps be a good starting point for a new listener. The slowly drifting chords gradually resolve, gently swelling with a subtle moving bass, before it disappears into 78 rpm silence.

Part V

This is the longest track on the album. It begins with low-voiced ghostly music beamed from another dimension. Distant thunder and rain appear, sometimes obliterating the rest of the track. Theo Travis, who has played sax, flute and duduk on some of Wilson’s solo albums is the only other musician who appears on the album. The flute he plays here sounds like whistling, or wind through a fence; something human, or a creature pretending to be human? This could be another film soundtrack. The persistent rattling noise of a machine adds to the feeling that this could be the soundtrack to another David Lynch movie. The track ends with the sound of a shimmering bright light hovering above, whilst ambiguous notes appear below, creating a feeling of infinite sadness, drifting despairingly downwards.

This is a challenging album, which may only unfold its secrets after repeated listening, but it can then become a rewarding and even spiritual experience. It’s perhaps best enjoyed late at night on headphones, with eyes closed… and ears and mind open.

Sources

Kieffer. G. A interview with Steven Wilson regarding Bass Communion (Carbon Nation, October 2004, retrieved 6 August 2024; archived here)

Wilson, S., Wall, M., Limited Edition Of One – How To Succeed In The Music Industry Without Being Part of The Mainstream (Constable, an imprint of Little, Brown April 2022) 

Jenkins, J. The people who think they tune into dead voices (BBC News 25 March 2013)

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NSRGNTS RMXS (Insurgentes Remixes) by Steven Wilson – Album Review

The cover of Nsrgnts Rmxs (Insurgentes Remixes) by Stvn Wlsn (Steven Wilson)

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Eclectic remixes of Steven Wilson’s first solo album from 2009

The cover of Nsrgnts Rmxs (Insurgentes Remixes) by Stvn Wlsn (Steven Wilson)

Steven Wilson has recently issued two remix albums based on The Harmony Codex, his seventh solo album – Harmonic Distortion and Harmonic Divergence. It’s fifteen years since the release of Nsrgnts Rmxs, a remixed version of Steven Wilson’s first solo album Insurgentes (2008). The vowels were removed from ‘Steven Wilson – Insurgentes Remixes’ to create the title, rendered on the front cover of the CD as STVN WILSON NSRGNTS ↑ RMXS. Sensibly, the CD spine provided the full title including vowels.

A remix competition was launched in January 2009 for the track ‘Abandoner’. Wilson chose eight of the resulting mixes and the winner, Łukasz Langa, was selected in a public vote that ended in May 2009. A 12-inch single featured the first track from the CD, ‘Harmony Korine (David A. Sitek Magnetized Nebula Mix)’ and two remixes of ‘Only Child’ by Pat Mastelotto (drummer from King Crimson) that don’t appear on the CD but did appear on the digital download that was released later. Mastelotto also remixed ‘Abandoner’ which was available to download to inspire entrants to the remix competition. 

Harmony Korine (David A. Sitek Magnetized Nebula Mix)

Harmony Korine is the first track on Insurgentes, remixed by David Andrew Sitek (from American rock band TV on the Radio) and Jneiro Jarel (American producer and DJ Omar Jarel Gilyard). This remix replaces the loose-limbed, relaxed drumming of Gavin Harrison from Porcupine Tree in the verse with trip hop rhythms and rasping tenor sax (Stuart Bogie) and trumpet (Todd Smith). In the second verse, the level of distortion on the backing track is pushed to the limit so that the sound almost breaks up, giving the song a more intense feel. But the most radical change is in the chorus, where the chord structure beneath the vocals is completely changed, giving it a more optimistic feel. Towards the end of the track, there’s an additional resonant synth line which drifts downwards to mark the end of the song. A subtle but satisfying remix. 

Get All You Deserve (Dälek Mix)

Get All You Deserve is track nine on Insurgentes, remixed by MC Dälek and Mike Manteca from American hip hop band dälek. This is the first of two remixes of this song, the second being by Fear Falls Burning (see below). This mix strips out the piano part from the first couple of minutes, and replaces it with mesmerising vocal samples, reminiscent of the multilayered backing vocals on the 1974 single I’m Not in Love by English art rock band 10cc. At around 2.00, Harrison’s drums are replaced by a resolute hip hop beat. In the chorus, Wilson’s voice, drenched in echo, is almost lost beneath the beat. From around 4.00, the song is largely instrumental, reaching a climax with military snare drums and heavy percussion flourishes. It continues in this style until near the end, unlike the original which features an unrelenting descent into noise. The song ends with a brief fade, with some of the piano motif from the original song. An evocative remix. 

Abandoner (Engineers Mix)

Abandoner is track two on Insurgentes, remixed by British pop band Engineers, who were described on the record company website as ‘Kscope’s newest act’ at the time. This is the first of two remixes of the song, the second being the Danse Macabre mix by Łukasz Langa (see below). The most significant change is the addition of piano chords in the opening section, and an extra piano motif at around 2:50 which can be heard again later in the track but much lower in the mix. This has the effect of grounding the track, as does the extra guitar in the rhythmic instrumental section from around 2.10. The vocals are given much clearer definition, starting on the left-hand side of the mix with an added hi-hat pattern, then moving to the right, giving a more intimate but less dream-like feel to the track. 

Salvaging (Pat Mastelotto Mix)

Salvaging is track three on Insurgentes, remixed by drummers Pat Mastelotto (King Crimson) and Pat Manske (Rhythmic Statues). On his website, Mastelotto says that he changed the time signature of the song (which he refers to as ‘Salvager’) from 4/4 to 5/4 and slowed it down so that he could bring the vocals closer together; in his view, ‘the lyrics were too far apart in Steven’s version.’ Mastelotto has fun with this mix, as he does with the others (see below). His version begins with eerie electronic noises, played on the theremin by Pamelia Kurstin, which gradual resolve into the opening chord of the original. Thunderously funky bass parts, played by Markus Reuter on ‘an abundance of basses’, soon appear. As promised, the vocals are much closer together than on the original. From 1.30 there are brief additional string flourishes and some wayward bass lines. The instrumental break from around 2.50 adds ‘Turkish Strings’, provided by Cenk Eroglu. As the instrumental section morphs into the quieter section with orchestral strings, Mastelotto adds additional vocals, and an energetic percussion part which completely changes the contemplative nature of the original. A high melody is added by what sounds like a theremin. Unlike some other remixers on this album, he embraces the ‘noise’ section at the end, removing the heavy drums from the original and replacing them with a bass line that spirals upwards forever. A suitably dystopian ending to a richly fascinating version. 

Not content with one version, in 2012 on his double CD Recidivate, Mastelotto released a five-minute version called Salvaging Remix Mash under his own name, a hybrid of the Mixes 2 and 3. 

Abandoner (Danse Macabre Mix)

Remixed by Polish musician and software engineer Łukasz Langa. As a classically trained pianist, Langa may well have taken the title of his mix from Danse Macabre (1874) an orchestral piece by French composer Camille Saint-Saëns. Wilson himself listened to all 200 or so entries to the remix competition, of which this was the winner. The mini website, hosted by Wilson’s record label Kscope, allowed entrants to download individual parts (or ‘stems’) from the original song, including ‘behemoth guitars’ and ‘evil piano.’ 

Langa brings his classical piano skills to this mix, completely transforming the track into an epic piano ballad. It begins with a lovely deep synth intro, soon joined by insistent piano chords and complex percussion rhythms. Wilson’s introverted vocals work well with the completely different mix, sounding more confident in this context. The track builds to a magnificent climax until at around 3.00 there’s a lovely contemplative piano passage with syncopated, rolling drums and a free-flowing bass line, and at 4.15 a melodic string part is added. The distinctive sound of a vibraslap (a percussion instrument) at around 4.30 announces the final, climactic section. A lovely, powerful remix – it’s easy to see why it won the competition.

Get All You Deserve (Fear Falls Burning Mix)

Remixed by Dirk Serries (aka ambient musician Fear Falls Burning). The first two minutes of the song are only subtly different from the original. There is more echo on the piano, and processing is applied to Wilson’s voice to make it feel less intimate, as if heard in a distant dream. At around 3.00, the track seems to be ending, as what sounds like a final chord is restated several times. Unlike the Dälek Mix, the descent into noise from the original track is retained, but without Harrison’s powerful drumming. This ambient version contrasts with the other tracks of this album but retains the essence of the original.

Only Child (Pat Mastelotto Mix 3 and Mix 1)

Pat Mastelotto
Pat Mastelotto. Image from Wikimedia credit Avraham Bank used w permission

Only Child is track seven on Insurgentes. These two remixes appear on the B side of the 12-inch single, with Harmony Korine (David A. Sitek Magnetized Nebula Mix) on the A-side. On his website, Mastelotto quotes an email from Wilson asking him to keep the original vocals from the song and to,

‘reinterpret the song [as] if you’d been producing it. And keep it twisted!’

Mastelotto’s response was ‘to really go nuts’ and, with the help of bassist Markus Reuter, superimpose a new meter on the track by breaking it down into its smallest rhythmic elements. So, a song in 4/4 at 100 bpm would become a song in 6/8 at 75 bpm. Mastelotto originally planned to do three remixes for every song on the album, hence the fact that there were three versions of the song. 

Despite Wilson asking him not to remove his vocals, Mastelotto did exactly that on Mix 3. The only thing that the original track and Mix 3 appear to have in common is that both have a prominent bassline. But whereas the original has a smooth, majestic bassline that gives the song a sense of inevitability (as many of The Cure’s basslines do) the remix has a series of jerky frenetic lines which don’t use the same notes as the original. Mix 3 has a fractured structure, with several brief breaks that add to the unsettling feel. At around 4.00, there’s an interesting rhythmic effect, sometimes described as an ‘auditory illusion,’ where it is playing at half speed. Mastelotto used similar auditory illusions when playing drums for King Crimson, as on the track ‘Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream’ from Thrak (1995) in which he and the band’s other drummer, Bill Bruford at one point play in two different time signatures at the same time, as Bruford explained to Trevor Cox in the BBC Radio 4 documentary Auditory Illusions in September 2019 (full disclosure: the author of this Blog produced the programme while still working for the BBC.)    

Mastelotto’s Mix 1 is equally radical and disjointed. It begins with what sounds like an ending, a very low bass note (similar in timbre to the low note that ends ‘Happy’ from Storm Corrosion’s 2012 album of the same name, a collaboration between Wilson and Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth). In the Radio 4 documentary, Bruford told Cox that in King Crimson’s music, there was always ‘a sense of a threat of impending doom’, and Mastelotto creates that mood here. The original track appears at 0.25 but it is destroyed after a few seconds by an explosion. There’s another explosion at around 1.05 and the track falls apart on another few occasions until finally we hear a snatch of a human voice which is sampled and used as a human beatbox. Wilson used the same technique on ‘Actual Brutal Facts’ (The Harmony Codex). The track ends with a Floydian guitar solo. Although the track is very dark and dystopian, there’s a strong impression that Mastelotto is having fun being so subversive. 

Abandoner – Pat Mastelotto Mix  

The mini website set up for the remix competition included free downloads of the Engineers’ remix and the Pat Mastelotto mix of ‘Abandoner’ to inspire entrants. The Engineers’ remix is track three on Nsrgnts Rmxs (see above), but the Mastelotto mix was never released elsewhere. It opens with shimmering guitar, and a new guitar part. The rhythmic breathing that appears at 0.40 is another technique that Wilson used on The Harmony Codex, on the opening track, ‘Inclination.’ At 1.00 a new, dirty-sounding bassline appears. At 1.20, the original Steven Wilson vocal tries to break into the track. The grungy, King Crimson-like backing track continues regardless of Wilson’s attempts, and for a while the two elements seem to exist in completely different musical universes, resolutely ignoring each other. Then at 3.00, the high synth parts of the original finally succeed in breaking into the song. Of the eight lines of lyrics of the original song, five appear in the remix. It’s significant that the words, ‘I am restless, I am lost’ are left out as they are an apt description of the remix – Mastelotto appears to be having fun again! The track ends with a fairground organ that seems to come from a fever dream. Many years later, in his short story The Harmony Codex on which the album of the same name is loosely based, Wilson describes his protagonist Jamie imagining he sees a ‘magnificent fairground carousel’ which plays ‘queasy pipe-organ music.’ Could there be an unconscious link in Wilson’s mind? 

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Off the Beaten track #9 – Inclination by Steven Wilson (Ewan Pearson Remix)

The cover of Inclination by Steven Wilson - Ewan Pearson Remix
The cover of Inclination by Steven Wilson - Ewan Pearson Remix

‘Inclination’, the first track on Steven Wilson’s seventh solo album, The Harmony Codex was released in a limited edition 12 inch single, remixed by Ewan Pearson, on 19 January 2024. Pearson describes himself on his website as a ‘Producer, Mixer and Remixer.’ Pearson previously remixed Wilson’s upbeat pop song ‘Permanating’ (from 2017’s To the Bone) in a dance version.

Pearson has had a lengthy career as a remixer, having worked with Tracey Thorn, Goldfrapp, Pet Shop Boys and Depeche Mode among many others. His dance version of ‘Inclination’ couldn’t be described as prog rock. As Jerry Ewing of Prog wrote in January 2024,

‘Gatekeepers and those of a sensitive disposition look away now!‘

Alexis Petridis of The Guardian wrote,

‘Ewan Pearson sprinkles sunlit Balearic euphoria‘

And Wilson himself describes the remix as,

‘A hypnotic cosmic disco odyssey‘

Pearson’s version is reminiscent of dance music pioneers New Order at their most electronic, in tracks like ‘Tutti Frutti’ (from Music Complete, 2015). Pearson’s mix begins with the chorus that appears much later in the original song, with the original beautifully mixed harmonies; but the sparkling synth loops suggest we are heading in a different direction. This soon happens, with the introduction of a heavy disco beat with added hand laps and a chunky disco bassline. The handclaps are an example of the ‘disco double clap’, two claps in very quick succession described by Hugh Morris of The Guardian in July 2023 as, ‘The infectious disco rhythm heard from Barbie to Kylie…cheeky, silly and faintly magical.’ Pearson’s remix achieves the difficult feat of taking Wilson’s contemplative song and driving it along with a propulsive beat, even in the parts of the song that were originally downbeat, to create a joyous new version that moves the feet in the way that the original moves the soul.

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Harmonic Divergence by Steven Wilson – Album Review

The cover of Harmonic Divergence by Steven Wilson

Record Store Day exclusive remix album completes the Harmony Codex trilogy

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The cover of Harmonic Divergence by Steven Wilson

Steven Wilson’s Harmony Codex trilogy is complete. The original album was released in September 2023. The Deluxe Edition of The Harmony Codex included a remix album, Harmonic Distortion. The new remix album, Harmonic Divergence was released on 20 April 2024 as a limited-edition Record Store Day exclusive on vinyl only. According to the Discogs website, only 2200 copies were released, and purchasers in England had to queue up on an unseasonably cold Saturday morning to buy it from their local record store, or hope that it would be available to buy online a few days later. As Wilson said on his website,

One of the most fun and rewarding aspects of The Harmony Codex has been the opportunity to have the music remixed by so many other artists and musicians I admire. The material seemed to lend itself so well to reinterpretation. 

Wilson adds a small amount of his own material, in the form of the short Codex Themes #10, #4 and #13, just as he does on the previous remix album.

Time Is Running Out Remix – Ewan Pearson Remix (9:20) 

Ewan Pearson is an English producer, mixer and remixer. His remix of ‘Inclination’, another track from the original album, was released as a single on 19 January 2024. In January 2024, Alexis Petridis wrote in The Guardian that Pearson’s joyful remix ‘sprinkles sunlit Balearic euphoria’ on the original.

Wilson describes Pearson’s remix of ‘Time Is Running Out’ as a, ‘euphoric and propulsive reworking.’ It begins with bells, like the opening of ‘High Hopes’ from Pink Floyd’s The Division Bell (1994). The bells in both songs are metaphors for the passing of time, and the ephemeral nature of human life. The Pink Floyd song describes nostalgia for childhood, a common theme in Wilson’s work, a time when ‘the grass was greener’ before, ‘ a life consumed by slow decay.’ On his Harmonic Distortion remix, Mikael Åkerfeldt, lead singer of Opeth, replaces Wilson’s vocals with his own yearning, nostalgic vocals, but Pearson’s remix retains the original vocals.

An electronic voice at the start and the end of the track gives a time and date; the date appears to be 4/29/92, or April 29th 1992. It’s easy to fall down an internet rabbit hole trying to find out the significance of the date, but it was the day when the Los Angeles riots began following the acquittal of four LAPD officers who were charged with using excessive force in the arrest of Rodney King. The American rock band Sublime wrote a song about the riots called ‘April 29, 1992 (Miami)’ from their album Sublime (1996). The lyrics refer to 26th of April but apparently when the band realised their mistake, they decided to keep the take as it was so good. In April 1992, Pearson was 20 years old (he was born on 1 April 1972), and Wilson released the first ‘official’ Porcupine Tree album, On the Sunday of Life around that time (12 May 1992), but although these were important times in both men’s lives the dates don’t seem precise enough.

Pearson develops the clattering rhythm track of the original song and turns it into a joyous dance song. He completely abandons the piano introduction and adds rich synths, followed by a hefty kick drum and a pulsating single-note bass line. An ethereal synth melody floats above, giving the track a hopeful feel as additional percussion is added. A delicious percussion breakdown features Wilson’s voice tuned down to create a human beatbox, which appears a couple of times on the original track. Pearson makes the beatbox theme much more of a feature, tuning it up and down and massively extending it. It’s unclear whether there are any decipherable words here, but the heavily processed voice is still strangely moving. Pearson’s remix is almost twice as long as Wilson’s original, giving it a 12- inch single extended remix feel; it’s not until five minutes in that the first verse arrives, accompanied by metallic keyboards rather than the original piano. Pearson sensibly retains the complete guitar solo by Niko Tsonev, a highlight of the original track.

The Harmony Codex Remix – David Kollar & Arve Henriksen Remix (5:10) 

This is the first of two remixes of the title track, by Norwegian jazz trumpeter Arve Henriksen and the Slovakian guitarist David Kollar, who provides guitar solos on ‘Inclination’, and ‘Actual Brutal Facts’ on the main album. It’s not so much a remix as a complete rewriting or radical re-imagining; all that remains of the original track is the voice over by Wilson’s wife Rotem. It becomes a contemplative duet between trumpet and acoustic guitar, with what sounds like Kollar on bowed mandolin about half way through. Henriksen’s trumpet is soft-grained, similar in style to the playing of Norwegian trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær on the opening track of the main album, ‘Inclination.’ As Nate Chinen said in an article in The New York Times on 18 June 2009, the two trumpeters, ‘share a fondness for fragile lyricism and rippling atmosphere, building on a 40-year tradition that began with the Miles Davis album In a Silent Way [1969]’, although he goes on to say that their live performances are very different. The remix provides a very different perspective on Rotem’s spoken words. Whereas on the original track it appears that the music is beamed from a distant galaxy, here we sit much closer, and the words feel much more intimate as if we are sitting with the protagonist rather than hearing her from afar.

Actual Brutal Facts Remix – Craig Blundell Remix (5:09) 

Craig Blundell plays drums on most of tracks on the original album. He was also Wilson’s drummer on the To the Bone tour in 2018 and 2019. This was Wilson’s most recent solo tour as the tour to support the 2020 album The Future Bites was cancelled due to Covid. Blundell is also a member of Trifecta, which was formed with two other Steven Wilson band members, Nick Beggs and Adam Holzman (who has remixed ‘What Life Brings’ – see below) were sound checking during the tour. They have released two albums to date – Fragments in 2021 and The New Normal earlier this year.

Blundell’s remix is fairly subtle, more of a reworking than a complete re-imagining like some of the other tracks on the two remix albums. It retains the structure of the original song, although the introduction is slightly longer.

The track begins with the original guitar introduction, but the surrounding instruments are distorted and manipulated to create a sense of dread. There’s a disturbing added bass drum, like an irregular heartbeat, and creepy whispering voices as if from a nightmare or a horror film. A slightly eerie synth or mellotron sound hovers above, like something from the soundtrack of a 1950s sci-fi movie. When Wilson’s voice enters, Blundell adds very heavy compression, a vocal effect Wilson often uses on earlier Porcupine Tree tracks.

At one minute in, the track suddenly opens out and Wilson’s vocals return to normal. The original bass line is replaced by a heavy dubstep bass throughout the rest of the song. The use of dubstep in a prog rock song is reminiscent of ‘Unsustainable’ by Muse from their 2012 album The Second Law, which combines elements of classical music, dubstep and prog rock. The overall effect is to increase the already aggressive feel of the track, and Blundell sensibly retains the brutal guitar solo from David Kollar to enhance this feel.

Economies Of Scale – Manic Street Preachers Remix (4:03) 

The Manic Street Preachers’ remix of ‘Economies of Scale’ was released as a single on 24 November 2023. It also appears on the first remix album, Harmonic Distortion, released as part of the Deluxe Edition of The Harmony Codex. It’s the only track from Harmonic Divergence which is currently available to stream.

The Manics’ lead singer/guitarist, James Dean Bradfield, quoted by Jerry Ewing of Prog, said the original track reminded him of The Police in the early 80s – the ‘bareness of the vocals, the steely percussion and slight detachment’ of tracks like ‘Walking in Your Footsteps’ and ‘Murder by Numbers’ from Synchronicity (1983), and Police drummer Stewart Copeland’s soundtrack to Rumble Fish (1983) released in the same year. He said that the Manics’ bass player, Nicky Wire, ‘immediately sought to push the second half of the track in more of a Holy Bible [the Manics’ 1994 album] direction.’ 

Wilson told Graham Fuller of the arts desk in December 2023 the original song is an ‘electronic soul ballad’, whereas the Manics’ version is a ‘rock guitar anthem.’ It’s fascinating to compare the two versions, particularly as they both use the same vocal melody and the complete set of lyrics (unlike some of the other tracks on this album) showing what a huge difference the chords and instruments used beneath a melody can make. The Manics’ version adds a lovely extra set of guitar chords at 1.50 and a driving earworm of a riff in the chorus, effectively creating a new track which stands up very well on its own. 

Rock Bottom – Adam Holzman Remix (5:01) 

Adam Holzman has been Steven Wilson’s regular keyboard player since he joined the Grace for Drowning tour in late 2011 in support of Wilson’s second solo album. He has his own band, Brave New World who released a live album The Last Gig (2021). Holzman played with Miles Davis’ band from 1985 to 1989, eventually becoming Davis’ musical director. He can be heard on Davis’ Tutu (1986) and Live Around the World (1996), and the live DVD That’s What Happened: Live in Germany 1987 (2009).

Miles Davis died in 1991 when Wilson was in his mid-twenties and just finding his musical feet with Porcupine Tree, so the prospect of the two artists working together was always extremely remote. But Holzman convincingly channels the keyboard sounds of Davis’ backing band, from the late 1960s onwards when he moved from an acoustic band to an electric band, beginning with A Silent Way in 1969.

The track begins with a jazzy hi-hat rhythm, spacey electric piano and syncopated bass. Holzman retains the original vocals sung by Ninet Tayeb which still soar above, but the track has much more laid-back feel than the cinematic epic on the main album. The demo version that Tayeb first sent to Wilson was much more downbeat, so this version gives us some sense of what a low-key version of the song might have sounded like.

The original track develops into an epic power ballad, and Holzman’s remix also has a sense of movement towards a climax. A pulsating bass line is added, with full drums, and towards the end of the track fiercely rhythmic, driving synths add to the momentum. Appropriately, the guitar solo by Niko Tsonev is replaced with a sparkling synth solo.

The Harmony Codex – Mogwai Remix (9.51) 

On his website, Wilson described this remix by Stuart Braithwaite, guitarist of Scottish post-rock band Mogwai, as a ‘claustrophobic treatment of the title track.’ The remix retains most of the original elements, but it has a very different feel. As Wilson says the mix, ‘adds layers of sheet noise to the original.’ The pristine clarity of the original synth chords is gradually buried beneath a sea of noise and feedback, plunging us into a dark and disconcerting world of storms at sea rather distant stars. The track begins with a juddering sound which continues as the original track fades in. A guitar wails nervously in the background. Mournful, ponderous drums are added. The only respite comes at the end with a gentle piano theme. The overall effect is as if Mogwai have taken one their atmospheric pieces written for a film score such as ‘Ghost Nets’ from the soundtrack for Before the Flood (2016) and overlaid it on top of Wilson’s song. Wilson himself has previously flooded his crystalline sound worlds with noise, particularly on his first solo album Insurgentes (2008) on tracks such as ‘Salvaging.’

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Harmonic Distortion by Steven Wilson – Album Review

The Cover of Harmonic Distortion by Steven Wilson

More a re-imagining than a remix

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Harmonic Distortion is the second disc on the Deluxe Edition of Steven Wilson’s seventh solo studio album The Harmony Codex (full review here) and is a separate, full-length album in its own right.

The Title of the Album

Harmony is the name of one of the two central characters in the short story on which The Harmony Codex album is based, written by Wilson and published in his 2022 book Limited Edition of One, so the word ‘harmonic’ in the title is a play on her name.

In physics, harmonics are what differentiate the sound of a violin from an oboe when they are playing the same note; different frequencies, or overtones, create the distinctive timbre of the sound. 

According to sweetwater.com  

Harmonic distortion is the result of a device subtly, or not so subtly, changing the shape of the waveform which alters the relative levels of various harmonics associated with that sound. 

On Harmonic Distortion, tracks from the original album are subtly – or not so subtly – reimagined. Talking to Stephen Humphries of Under the Radar, Wilson stressed that Harmonic Distortion isn’t a remix album, ‘there’s some really creative approaches to reworking and reimagining the material.’ He told Katherine Yeske Taylor of Rock And Roll Globe that rather than going to ‘very experienced remixers’ he asked artists who had collaborated with him on the main album to do whatever they wanted with the song they had chosen, including recording their own versions if they wished. He admitted to Anil Prasad of Innerviews that sometimes it was a way of being ‘very diplomatic’ to artists whose collaborations didn’t appear on the main album, using their work on the bonus disc instead. He didn’t specify which artists he was referring to here.

Individual Tracks

1 Codex Theme #7 (0.49) 

This track is one of several short ‘Codex themes’ scattered across the album, acting as bridge passages between the longer tracks, sometimes foreshadowing the next track. They give the album a lovely sense of flow, and sometimes divide up tracks of very different styles.

It features Atmospheric sound-scaping with Rotem Wilson’s (Steven’s wife) spoken words that feature on The Harmony Codex track on the main album, ‘It seems I’m miles above the surface of the earth…’ They are drenched in echo, until the final words ‘and breathe’ when the voice is suddenly in the room with us when the echo is cut, a very effective device.

2 Economies of Scale – Manic Street Preachers remix (4.05) 

Produced and engineered by Loz Williams and Manic Street Preachers; remixed by Dave Eringa

The Manic Street Preachers’ remix of Economies of Scale was released as a single on 24 November 2023. The Manics’ lead singer/guitarist, James Dean Bradfield, quoted by Jerry Ewing of Prog, said the original track reminded him of The Police in the early 80s – the ‘bareness of the vocals, the steely percussion and slight detachment’ of tracks like ‘Walking in Your Footsteps’ and ‘Murder by Numbers’ from Synchronicity (1983), and Police drummer Stewart Copeland’s soundtrack to Rumble Fish (1983) released in the same year. He said that the Manics’ bass player, Nicky Wire, ‘immediately sought to push the second half of the track in more of a Holy Bible [the Manics’ 1994 album] direction.’ 

Wilson told Graham Fuller of the arts desk in December 2023 the original song is an ‘electronic soul ballad’, whereas the Manics’ version is a ‘rock guitar anthem.’ It’s fascinating to compare the two versions, particularly as they both use the same vocal melody and the complete set of lyrics (unlike some of the other tracks on this album) showing what a huge difference the chords and instruments used beneath a melody can make. The Manics’ version adds a lovely extra set of guitar chords at 1.50 and a driving earworm of a riff in the chorus, effectively creating a new track which stands up very well on its own. 

3 Codex Theme #9 (0.33) 

A lovely short excerpt, with flowing piano and acoustic guitar, based on the chords for What Life Brings from the main album. 

4 Inclination – Faultline remix (7.30) 

Faultline is the musical alter ego of producer David Kosten who worked on Wilson’s sixth studio album The Future Bites. Kosten helped Wilson bring a new, more electronic and radical sound world to that album, and his innovative approach is evident here as well. Kosten captures the aggressive atmosphere of the original track but with a quiet menace that is very different. The track begins with a haunting out of tune piano, disarmingly simple but ominous, like music for a horror film. Sampled breathing sounds like a feral beast.

The track revolves around the repeated piano motif, without the martial percussion of the original. When the percussion does appear at around three minutes in it’s absolutely brutal, in a drum and bass style. The melody is reduced to two lines only, ‘Come see the fool/He’ll swindle you out of the game.’ The vocals are heavily manipulated, with a ghostly, grotesque voice lurking below the main vocal. The melody itself is manipulated too, so that the leap to the word ‘fool’ changes from an interval of a minor third on the original track to a fourth then a fifth. A superbly evocative re-working of one of the finest tracks on the original album. 

5 Impossible Tightrope – alternate version (10.11) 

This is slightly shorter than the final version on the main album, omitting a section from around eight minutes in. The main difference is that Nate Navarro, who joined the Porcupine Tree tour in 2022, plays bass whereas Wilson plays the bass part on the main album. As mentioned in the chapter on the main album, Wilson’s version is much simpler than Navarro’s virtuosic playing, which can be viewed on his YouTube channel, Steven Wilson – Impossible Tightrope – BASS PLAYTHROUGH.

6 Codex Theme #6 (1.07) 

Brutal low synth drones followed by evocative, plaintive solo duduk playing from ‘Beautiful Scarecrow.’ 

7 Beautiful Scarecrow – Meat Beat Manifesto Excursion 1 (6.05) 

This version of the track is remixed by Jack Dangers of electronic group Meat Beat Manifesto who provides ‘additional sounds and beats’ on the original album track. Dangers takes the brutal aspects of the original track to an exhilarating extreme. He adds very heavy drum and bass beats and glittering keyboards. At around 2.40 the beats become even more extreme, clattering agitatedly. At around 3.05 the bass line drops even lower than on the original track, taking us into the heart of darkness. A simple but highly effective re-imagining.  

8 Codex Theme #8 (1.03) 

A gorgeous solo piano improvisation by Adam Holzman on the themes from ‘Time is Running Out.’ 

9 Time is Running Out – Mikael Åkerfeldt version (3.47) 

This is the only track on this album which is sung by someone other than Wilson, his close friend and collaborator, Mikael Åkerfeldt. The two have worked together on music by Opeth, Storm Corrosion and Porcupine Tree. Åkerfeldt was born in 1974 so is about seven years younger than Wilson, but he delivers the lyrics to this song about ageing with great passion and authority and a sense of drama as the song develops. It’s a much simpler version than on the main album, giving prominence to Adam Holzman’s gorgeous, flowing piano part. At around 2.30, Wilson provides rich synthesised strings and theremin, playing notes from the whole tone scale often used by French composer Claude Debussy in his piano works (such as ‘Voiles’ from his first book of Préludes), to give a sense of hope and mystery which is missing from the original track. 

10 Staircase – Interpol Remix (6.47) 

The first of two very different versions of the song, the second one being the final track, re-versioned by The Radiophonic Workshop. This version is by the American rock band Interpol. A radical re-imagining, it drops all the original vocals, and retains only the words ‘I close my eyes’ which are taken from the spoken word section at the end of the original track. It’s also in a different key and a different time signature (six beats in a bar as opposed to four). It uses the same piano loop throughout, with some added guitar. The effect is claustrophobic, evoking the sensation of being trapped in an infinite staircase like the characters in Wilson’s short story on which the original album is based. 

11 Codex Theme #3 (1.03) 

Gentle ambient synth patches, and trumpet from Nils Petter Molvær, from ‘Inclination’, the opening track on the main album. 

12 What Life Brings – Aug 22 mix by Roland Orzabal (4.16) 

Roland Orzabal of Tears For Fears plays keyboards on this track and is joined by Aaron Sterling on drums and Doug Petty on keyboards and string arrangements. Both worked on the 2022 Tears for Fears album The Tipping Point. Wilson remixed the Tears for Fears albums The Hurting (1983), Songs From the Big Chair (1985) and The Seeds Of Love (1989). Orzabal brings a completely different feel to the song, turning it from a rock ballad into a majestic synth epic which sets the original vocal line in a completely different context. The synth parts have a similar feel to the work of the master of the sequenced synthesiser, Giorgio Moroder, particularly tracks like ‘Leopard Tree Dream’ from his score for the 1982 film Cat People which featured David Bowie on vocals. The track also features synth motifs that fall like electronic rain, and towards the end the heavily echoed, almost acapella voices of Wilson and Ninet Tayeb. 

13 The Harmony Codex – long take (17.02) 

This extended version of the title track of the album somehow lacks the mesmerising, spell-binding majesty of the album version, feeling like a work in progress, but still stands on its own as a good track. What is interesting is that as the track develops it takes on the sound of a fairground organ of the type heard on ‘Being For The Benefit of Mr Kite’ from The Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967). This relates to the Harmony Codex short story. Harmony appears to her brother Jamie in a vision or dream, riding a horse on a ‘magnificent fairground carousel’, accompanied by music from a pipe-organ (page 357 of the hardback edition of the book). 

14 Staircase – Radiophonic Workshop remix (12.36) 

The second version of the track, the first being by Interpol (see above). The BBC Radiophonic Workshop was founded in 1958 by Daphne Oram and Desmond Briscoe to create sound effects and electronic music for radio and television. Its most famous composition was the theme for the original Doctor Who TV series, written in 1963 by the Australian composer Ron Grainer and painstakingly turned into a piece of musique concrète by Delia Derbyshire. The BBC closed the Workshop in 1998, but its legacy continues under the Radiophonic Workshop name, with original members including Peter Howell, Roger Limb, Dr Dick Mills and Paddy Kingsland working together on recorded and live music, together with producer and archivist Mark Ayres who produced this version of ‘Staircase.’ 

Appropriately for a creative team that was originally set up to create sound effects as well as music, Ayres’ version includes sound effects that relate to the Harmony Codex short story more closely than anything written by Wilson for the main album. We hear the lift going up in the tower where Harmony’s father works; the explosion that rips through the skyscraper; footsteps as Jamie and Harmony climb the stairs; the wind swirling through the empty offices through the broken windows. There are also more electronic effects and noises which seem to reflect the more dreamlike aspects of the story, and the Earth seen from space. Then, in a remarkable and highly imaginative alternative ending, we hear the lines sung by Ninet Tayeb from ‘Rock Bottom’,

I feel it, I feel it in my bones
New life, the unknown, new life, I will return

An uplifting end to one of the strongest tracks on the album. 

Conclusion

Harmonic Distortion is a valuable addition to the main Harmony Codex album. Whereas some remixes of songs or albums by other artists don’t really add anything, and come sometimes even detract from the originals, the songs on this album create a satisfying whole, a genuine bonus for those lucky enough to have been able to obtain a copy before the Deluxe Box Set sold out.

Sources

Humphries, S., Steven Wilson on “The Harmony Codex” (Under the Radar 20/09/2023) 

Yeske Taylor, K., Steven Wilson Goes Solo Again With The Harmony Codex (Rock and Roll Globe 4/10/2023) 

Prasad, A., Steven Wilson The Never-Ending Staircase (Innerviews September 2023) 

Ewing, J., Manic Street Preachers remix Steven Wilson’s Economies of Scale (Prog 27/11/2023) 

Fuller, G., The arts desk Q&A: Steven Wilson on Porcupine Tree, ‘The Harmony Codex’ and electro-dominance (the arts desk 12/12/2023)