Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe

Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe
Studio album by Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe
Released	June 1989 (1989-06)
Recorded	Air Studio Montserrat and Air Studio London 1988-1989
Genre	Progressive rock
Length	59:05
Label	Arista Records
Producer	Jon Anderson, Chris Kimsey
Professional reviews
Allmusic link Piero Scaruffi link
Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe chronology
Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe (1989) An Evening of Yes Music Plus (1993)
Back Cover
Alternate cover
Alternate gatefold cover

Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe is the self-titled album by four alumni of the progressive rock group Yes, Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe.

The project began in 1988 when Yes was in its 1980s line-up featuring Trevor Rabin. At that time vocalist Jon Anderson began to feel artistically limited in the band's current format. He then regrouped with Steve Howe, Rick Wakeman and Bill Bruford of Yes’ "classic" line-up. Bruford, who had at various times been a member of King Crimson, recruited Crimson bandmate Tony Levin as the group's bassist. The group were unable to use the name Yes for legal reasons.

The group rehearsed and composed their material in Paris and then flew directly to the island of Montserrat to record. Many of the tracks on the album (specifically "Teakbois") carry Latin and Caribbean influences. "Let's Pretend" was co-composed by Vangelis in 1986, and was a previously unreleased piece by the group Jon & Vangelis.

The artwork for the album was created by artist Roger Dean, best known for designing album covers for Yes in the 1970s. It features two paintings, the front titled "Blue Desert" and the back titled "Red Desert". These are the two largest paintings ever painted by Roger Dean, both measuring 9’ x 6’. Most releases of this album represent only a truncated version of "Blue Desert". There was, however, a special release with a gatefold cover, though "Blue Desert" was horizontally inverted in that version.

The album was one of the first original recordings to take advantage of the extended time limit on compact discs clocking at almost 60 minutes. Until then, only compilations or double albums on single discs utilized the extra time space.

The song "Birthright" concerns the British nuclear tests at Maralinga.

Track listing

1. "Themes" – 5:58
   1. "Sound"
   2. "Second Attention"
   3. "Soul Warrior"
2. "Fist of Fire" – 3:27
3. "Brother of Mine" – 10:18
   1. "The Big Dream"
   2. "Nothing can Come Between Us"
   3. "Long Lost Brother of Mine"
4. "Birthright" – 6:02
5. "The Meeting" – 4:21
6. "Quartet" – 9:22
   1. "I Wanna Learn"
   2. "She Gives Me Love"
   3. "Who Was the First"
   4. "I’m Alive"
7. "Teakbois" – 7:39
8. "Order of the Universe" – 9:02
   1. "Order Theme"
   2. "Rock Gives Courage"
   3. "It’s So Hard to Grow"
   4. "The Universe"
9. "Let’s Pretend" – 2:56

Personnel

• Jon Anderson - lead vocals, backing vocals
• Bill Bruford - drums
• Rick Wakeman - keyboards
• Steve Howe - guitar

with

• Tony Levin - bass, Chapman stick, vocals
• Matt Clifford - keyboards, programming, orchestration, vocals
• Milton McDonald - rhythm guitar
• Deborah Anderson - backing vocals
• Tessa Niles - backing vocals
• Carol Kenyon - backing vocals
• Frank Dunnery - backing vocals
• Chris Kimsey - backing vocals
• Emerald Community Singers, Montserrat - backing vocals
• Rhett Lawrence - co-writer, "Rock Gives Courage"

Produced by Jon Anderson and Chris Kimsey

See also

• Progressive rock
• Yes
• List of rock epics