on-air

On Air
Studio album by Alan Parsons
Released	September 24, 1996
Recorded	December 1995 - June 1996
Genre	Progressive rock
Length	49:36
Label	Digital Sound
Producer	Alan Parsons
Professional reviews
Allmusic link The test for your surround system
Alan Parsons chronology
Try Anything Once (1993) On Air (1996) The Time Machine (1999)

On Air is the second solo release by Alan Parsons following the split of The Alan Parsons Project. However, the album's chief creative force was the Project's long-time guitarist, Ian Bairnson. With their newfound independence from Arista, each decided early on that this release would be a work of art from start to finish where neither vision nor integrity would be subverted by commercial sensibility. The album follows the history of airborne exploration, from the mythological flight of Daedalus and Icarus to escape the labyrinth of the minotaur in "Too Close To The Sun", through Leonardo da Vinci's search to design a flying machine, or ornithopter, in long-time Project drummer Stuart Elliott's "One Day To Fly", until finally mankind's aspirations for space exploration placed on the shoulders of a single astronaut in "So Far Away" and the subsequent superpower race to put a man on the moon in "Apollo", a track backed by John F. Kennedy's famous speech of May 25, 1961.

While the ode to hot air ballooning "Blown By The Wind" and following instrumental "Cloudbreak" are arguably the finest guitar work Bairnson has ever recorded, the creative catalyst for this album is the beautiful, albeit melancholy, ballad "Brother Up In Heaven". The song's lyrics remember Ian's deceased cousin Erik Mounsey who was killed in a friendly fire incident above Iraq in 1994. The death of this young helicopter pilot is made even more haunting by the fact that he was an unarmed peacekeeper.

On Air was issued as both a stereo CD and a 5.1 channel dts mix. Included with the music CD was a CD-Rom disk exploring the On Air theme.

Track listing

1. "Blue Blue Sky" (lead vocal Eric Stewart) – 1:38
2. "Too Close To The Sun" (lead vocal Neil Lockwood) – 5:04
3. "Blown By The Wind" (lead vocal Eric Stewart) – 5:25
4. "Cloudbreak" (instrumental) – 4:39
5. "I Can't Look Down" (lead vocal Neil Lockwood) – 4:37
6. "Brother Up In Heaven" (lead vocal Neil Lockwood) – 4:02
7. "Fall Free" dedicated to skysurfer Rob Harris (1966-1995) (lead vocal Steve Overland backing vocal Peter Beckett) – 4:21
8. "Apollo" (instrumental) – 6:06
9. "So Far Away" (lead vocal Christopher Cross) – 4:07
10. "One Day To Fly" (lead vocal Graham Dye) – 6:16
11. "Blue Blue Sky" (lead vocal Eric Stewart) – 4:24

Personnel

• Alan Parsons – keyboards, mixing, engineering
• Andrew Powell – orchestral arranger and conductor
• Ian Bairnson – guitars, bass guitar, synthesizer
• Stuart Elliott – percussion, drums
• Eric Stewart – lead vocals (tracks 1, 3, 11)
• Neil Lockwood – lead vocals (tracks 2, 5, 6)
• Steve Overland – lead vocals (track 7)
• Christopher Cross – lead vocals (track 9)
• Graham Dye – lead vocals (track 10)
• Peter Beckett – backing vocals (track 6)
• John Giblin – bass guitar
• Richard Cottle – saxophone
• Gary Sanctuary – keyboards
• Christopher Warren-Green – orchestra leader
• Storm Thorgerson – cover design

External links

• Official Ian Bairnson Website
• Eagle Flight Memorial
• The Military Verdict