Yes’ Jon Anderson Joins Prog Rock Vet Roine Stolt

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Roine Stolt and Jon Anderson (Photo: Meg Loyal via FB)

Longtime Yes lead vocalist/songwriter Jon Anderson is having a very busy year. Anderson/Stolt, his brand new duo with progressive rock veteran Roine Stolt (The Flower Kings, Transatlantic), have announced the release of their collaborative album The Invention Of Knowledge for July 8 (via InsideOut Music).

Says Anderson, the voice behind such prog rock classics as “Roundabout,” “Yours Is No Disgrace” and “Close To The Edge,”: “Music is always the driving force in my life…working with such a wonderful musician as Roine Stolt made the creation of this album very unique.”

Stolt adds: “It is not aiming at being new Yes music; just new music, modern and classical, rock and ethno, tribal and orchestrated, grooving and floating. Hopefully in the true spirit of ‘progressive’ – leaning forward, surprising and also comforting with familiar run-arounds [wink, wink]. We’ve been ‘inventing’ as we go along – Jon is an endless source of new ideas. We’ve been bouncing ideas back and forth for months and as a result there are probably dozens of versions of these songs. It’s been a very interesting and rewarding time and the result is just insanely detailed.”

Here’s a brief clip of the title track…

The idea came to life swiftly off the back of a 2014 performance from Roine’s band Transatlantic and Anderson. The duo set about crafting new music in the spirit of early epic works such as Yes’ Tales From Topographic Oceans and Awaken and Anderson’s 1976 solo debut LP, Olias Of Sunhillow, but giving it a modern twist. Stolt and Anderson swapped and refined ideas by sending tracks to each other via the Internet. In March 2015, Stolt put together an ensemble to realize the music live in the studio. Joining him there was Tom Brislin (who played on the Yes Symphonic tour), Lalle Larsson on keys, Jonas Reingold and Michael Stolt on bass and Felix Lehrmann on drums. The sessions were also bolstered by appearances from Daniel Gildenlöw, Nad Sylvan, Anja Obermayer, Maria Rerych and Kristina Westas who all provided backing vocals.

And a teaser of album closer “Know”:

As Best Classic Bands has previously reported, Anderson is also teaming with former Yes members Trevor Rabin and Rick Wakeman to re-form ARW for an upcoming album and 2016 tour.

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