Lifting the lid (Hogarth + Barbieri) (LP 2765 - 2766)

Steve Hogarth + Richard Barbieri  Not the Weapon but the Hand (CD, KScope Records, 2012) ***  

Steve Hogarth + Richard Barbieri  Arc Light (CD, KScope Records, 2013) ***

Genre: Prog rock

Places I remember: Fopp (London)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: A Cat With Seven Souls

Gear costume: Oil

Active compensatory factors: Steve Hogarth is the lead singer in the prog rock band Marillion, while Richard Barbieri was the keyboard player in Japan, and more recently - Porcupine Tree.

Together they produce some unique music outside of those other bands. It's a perfect combo in many ways - Hogarth sings and provides lyrics while Barbieri provides the music. So they work with each other's strengths.

It's a textured series of soundscapes on Not The Weapon but the Hand and Arc Light (the first and second of three albums with Barbieri) which float by without leaving a lasting impression. Perfect late-night music!

Where do they all belong? A nice sidebar to their day jobs.

I haul you in a sea of silence (Rain Tree Crow)

Moods.  Music and mood sometimes match perfectly in a synergistic way.

Today is Saturday (I know it says Friday in the post title bar - I have no idea why it does, but trust me - it's Saturday). A beautiful sunny day. Jacky and I have just returned from a long walk into the shops at Oneroa to get an engagement card for Samantha and Jesse. We are now back home, Jacky's having a nap and I have Rain Tree Crow (by Rain Tree Crow) playing on the p-pod dock.

It's a perfect match - languid, spacious, thoughtful, atmospheric, ambient music for a languid, sunny afternoon on Waiheke Island. 

Rain Tree Crow (released 1991) is really Japan's last album before David Sylvian closed up shop and went solo, so it's got elements of Japan style pop but leans towards a proggy ambient sound scape. Actually, I couldn't help thinking about Porcupine Tree while I listened to it. Richard Barbieri is common to both endeavours after all and Steven Wilson's vocals could easily be substituted for Sylvian's.

Blackwater was the album's only single.