Aqua (album)

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Aqua
Studio album from Asia

Publication
(s)

March 10, 1992 (Japan), June 8, 1992 (Europe), July 22, 1992 (USA)

Label (s) Music disc

Format (s)

LP, CD

Genre (s)

AOR / Progressive Rock

Title (number)

13

running time

1:00:12

occupation

production

Geoffrey Downes

Studio (s)

Advision Studios in Brighton , England

chronology
Astra
(studio album 1985),
Live in MOCKBA
(live album 1990) 		Aqua Aria
(studio album 1994)

Aqua is the fourth studio album by the English AOR / progressive rock band Asia , released in 1992.

background

After the end of the last Asia tour in April 1991, the band ( John Wetton , Geoff Downes , Carl Palmer , Pat Thrall ) fell apart. Returning to England, Geoff Downes decided, with the support of the manager Sir Henry Cowell and the ARC management, to revamp Asia with a different concept. Downes was careful not to let the band get into the nostalgia corner and therefore wanted to bring some younger musicians into the band. His goal, however, was not to make the generation change as abruptly as possible in order to alienate as few supporters of the old cast as possible. Because only Downes himself was left from the old lineup and not only had to replace singer John Wetton, but also a new drummer and a new guitarist, he was faced with the problem of being able to credibly introduce and market a new band as Asia. He therefore secured the collaboration of Carl Palmer and Steve Howe, but only as a guest musician and only for a few days. Both were not thrilled to play for Asia again as they were working on other projects at the same time ( Palmer recorded the comeback album Black Moon with the reformed Emerson, Lake and Palmer , Howe worked on the Yes album Union and on his solo album Turbulence ), but agreed to support the new Asia. Not only should this make it easier for fans to change line-up, it would also boost sales of the album.

As far as the line-up of the band was concerned, Downes initially considered recruiting the previous Asian guitarist Pat Thrall, but he had already returned to the USA, where he worked with Curtis Stigers . Downes then teamed up with bassist and singer John Payne , whom he had met in 1987/88 during the sessions for a project called Rain , on which the previous Asian musicians Michael Sturgis (drums) and Scott Gorham (guitar), as well Max Bacon , the former lead singer of Steve Howe's band GTR , had been involved.

In addition to Downes, Payne, Howe and Palmer, the new Asia album featured heavy metal guitarist Al Pitrelli (ex- Alice Cooper ), who recorded his contributions in just under a week, guitarist Anthony Glynne and drummer Simon Phillips (the was already traded as the band's drummer in the early days of Asia), Nigel Glockler (from Howe's former band GTR ) and Michael Sturgis .

Work on the new album Aqua began in June 1991. First, some songs from Downes' Rain sessions were re-recorded for Aqua , including Who will stop the Rain? , after which the project was named, and Someday . Then five or six new songs were created to complement the Rain tracks, including A far Cry and Heaven on Earth , a track that John Payne wrote with keyboardist from his previous band The Passion , Andy Nye . The rest of the songs were written by October and then recorded in the winter.

The album should first appear in England on the FM-Revolver label. But when the company refused to make a promised advance payment, the band switched to the Musidisc label, which released the album in Europe. In Japan they kept their old record company Warner Music Japan, in the USA Great Pyramid took over the album.

Track list

  1. Aqua, Pt. 1 (Downes, Howe, Payne) - 2:27
  2. Who Will Stop the Rain? (Downes, Warman , Woolfenden ) - 4:35
  3. Back in Town (Downes, Payne) - 4:09
  4. Love Under Fire (Downes, Lake ) - 5:15
  5. Someday (Downes, Warman) - 5:48
  6. Little Rich Boy (Downes, Payne) - 4:37
  7. The Voice of Reason (Downes, Payne) - 5:37
  8. Lay Down Your Arms (Downes, Hart , Payne) - 4:14
  9. Crime of the Heart (Downes, Warman) - 5:57
  10. A Far Cry (Downes, Hart, Mitchell, Payne) - 5:30
  11. Don't Call Me (Downes, Warman) - 4:55
  12. Heaven on Earth ( Nye , Payne) - 4:54
  13. Aqua, Pt. 2 (Downes, Payne) - 2:14

Remarks

  • On the tracks Who will stop the Rain? and Someday , which was left over from Downes' Rain Sessions (1987), is drummer Michael Sturgis , who briefly belonged to Asia in 1987.
  • The song Love under Fire was also reused , it came from Downes' and Greg Lakes Ride the Tiger project. The Ride the Tiger version was released on the 1997 Lake album From the Beginning .
  • In the US, the album was released without the song Little rich Boy .
  • Former Asia guitarist Steve Howe is a guest musician on Aqua Part 1 , Who will stop the Rain? , Back in Town , Someday , The Voice of Reason and Lay down your Arms .
  • Lay down your arm was in the English animation Freddie as FR 0. 7 / Freddie, the super frog used
  • Heaven on Earth is a piece that John Payne wrote with the keyboardist of his previous band The Passion , Andy Nye .
  • Some pieces from the Aqua Sessions did not appear on the album, but were released on the archive compilations Archiva 1 and Archiva 2 in 1996 : Heart of Gold (Downes / Payne), Fight against the Tide (Payne / Nye), I can't wait a Lifetime (Payne / Nye), which was later also a candidate for Arena , and Obsession (Payne / Rodford).

Cover

Through the temporary contract with FM-Revolver, the Asian musicians came into contact with the band Magnum , which was also under contract with this label. It was through her that they met the fantasy artist Rodney Matthews , who was now responsible for the record cover in place of Roger Dean . The band picked a picture that showed a futuristic underwater scene, and from that came the album's concept as well as its title: Aqua .

occupation

With

Guest musician

Annotation:

This information has been compiled from the books by Dave Gallant and the booklet for the CD. It cannot be determined which musician can be heard on which piece, with the exception of Downes, Payne and Howe.

style

The entire work of the band Asia moves within the framework of rock music . Aqua marks a break with some of the characteristics of the first three albums Asia (1982), Alpha (1983) and Astra (1985).

The stylistic devices, which were more strongly oriented towards the progressive rock of the 1970s, had already been greatly reduced by Astra , but they were completely absent on Aqua . Even if Downes made it important to emphasize the continuity to the first phase of the band with Steve Howe and Carl Palmer, Wetton's absence as a songwriter was clearly significant. The pieces, now mainly written by Downes and Payne, went more in the direction of mainstream hard rock with American influences, without the pathos typical of Wetton and the productions of Mike Stones (the band's former producer) . For the first time at Asia blues and rhythm and blues elements could be heard, albeit cautiously. The guitar was accordingly more in the foreground, it sounded significantly more distorted compared to the first three albums and was attributable to the style of hard rock.

tour

The sale of the new album was to be promoted through a tour. Downes, Payne and the manager Henry Cowell hired the guitarist Vinny Burns, who had previously played in the rock band Dare of the former Thin Lizzy musician Darren Wharton . The former Asia drummer Carl Palmer was contacted, but he was not available because of his involvement with Emerson, Lake and Palmer . Since Sturgis now played for 21 Guns , and was also not available, they hired Trevor Thornton for the tour. Steve Howe went on tour as a special guest . However, he did not play the entire concert with the band: first Asia played a few pieces by Astra and Aqua without him , then Howe performed and played the rest of the set.

On May 30, 1992, the Aqua Tour started in Worcester, England, in a hall that could hold around 1,000 people. As is to be expected with another almost completely new band, the first concerts did not go well, but the Japan concerts in June presented a much better established band. In July Asia returned to England, from where they toured Europe, the USA and Canada until February 1993.

As the tour progressed, everyone involved realized that Downes and Payne saw Asia as their only project. Then guitarist Burns left the band. He was replaced by Keith More from the progressive rock band Arena for some festival appearances in Romania , Estonia , Switzerland , Germany and Belgium . Then he and Thornton also left the band.

successes

Aqua was released on March 10, 1992 in Japan, where the album sold 60,000 times and quickly reached number 1 in the charts. However, Japan remained the only country where the album had such success. As a single, Who will stop the Rain? decoupled, for which even a video (with a Western theme) was planned. But it turned out that the record company Great Pyramid couldn't afford to shoot.

Asia's management ARC also secured the use of the play Lay down your Arms in the film Freddie as FR 0. 7 / Freddie, der Superfrosch , the most expensive British animated film to date. However, when it turned out to be a film about a frog who worked as a secret agent, Asia were not unhappy that the film was not a huge hit.

At the end of the Aqua tour it turned out that the new band phase had got off to a somewhat successful start: Aqua had sold about as well as Astra (1985) or the compilation Then and Now and the tour, although mainly in small halls, was good been visited.

literature

  • Forrester, George / Martyn Hanson / Frank Askew: Emerson, Lake & Palmer. The show that never ends. A musical biography. London 2001. ISBN 1-900924-17-X .
  • Gallant, David: Asia. The Heat Goes On. The Authorized Asia Biography. Summerside, PEI, Canada 2001. ISBN 0-9688584-0-6 .
  • Gallant, David: Asia. Heat of the moment. New York 2007. ISBN 978-0-9796881-0-2 .

Web links