Although Peter Banks sadly died in 2013, this new studio album features some of his work which has never been released until now. On 10th August 2010 he and David Cross got together for an afternoon of improvisation and all guitar and violin parts are from that time. Banks had expressed his desire for this music to one day be made available, so over the last few years Cross asked some friends to become involved and help in making this album a reality. Included here are some musicians who had worked with Peter during his lengthy musical career, as well as other notable names, Pat Mastelotto, Tony Kaye, Billy Sherwood, Randy Raine-Reusch, Andy Jackson, Oliver Wakeman, Jay Schellen, Jeremy Stacey and Geoff Downes. David Cross says “The response from the guest musicians was truly wonderful in the way that they gave their time and talent to this project and I would like to thank them on behalf of Pete and myself. They were asked to ‘interpret the music as freely and creatively as you wish’ and they have turned in incredibly skilled and inspiring performances which were not easy given the improvised nature of the starting material and the spontaneity of the structures.”
Due to the nature of the album, in being that it was improvised to begin with, and then other musicians have added other parts later, it is somewhat surprising in that it feels as cohesive as it does. Although it does have that improvised feel, it doesn’t sound as if it was recorded by musicians who weren’t at least in the same room as each other, even if they had no idea where the music was going to take them. However, apart from Cross and Banks everyone else did have the luxury of playing the music multiple times to work out where they could fit in their parts, and I expect some judicious editing has also taken place. That being said it is an enjoyable album, with plenty of light, with fluidity from both Banks and Cross, exactly as one would expect. One gets the impression this has been a labour of love for Cross to get this finished to a standard where he felt happy releasing this to the public. It is worthy of investigation for progheads who enjoy their music to be somewhat relaxing yet always moving in new directions. I’ll leave the final words to David, ““When I recall the original recording session with Pete I remember his fresh almost naïve approach, his positive energy and his constant and restless search for something new. It was a joy to know Pete Banks and an honour and a privilege to play with him: I think he would be pleased with the way our album turned out.”
