An acoustic album by Saga? This is unexpected and can be seen as a small sensation - the Canadian melodic-proggers usually work fully electric, with a real synthesizer fleet and up to three keyboardists at the same time. Nevertheless, they present a convincing work with "Symmetry".
Many rock bands nowadays present their songs live in a small, fine acoustic set. Saga, too, have done this more often in recent times. After their short hiatus in 2019, the Canadians used the corona-induced forced break to record a sparking work entirely without synthesizers and electronics.
In this interview, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Michael Sadler talks about the album's musical approach and the challenges of minimalist delivery on tracks like "Wind Him Up," "Images," "The Perfectionist" and "Tired World."
The self-imposed retirement did not last long. In January 2017, the Canadian prog institution SAGA officially announced that after the upcoming "The Final Chapter" tour, the band will return to the concert arenas in spring 2020 under the motto "Out Of The Shadows", but without bassist Jim Crichton. And there are also some news concerning the music.
eclipsed: It was just a quick goodbye to live performances. Why do you return so quickly, Michael?
Forty years of Saga! At the beginning of their anniversary year, the Canadian Neoproggers announced their dissolution with their move to pop. This led to long faces, especially in Germany, where the band had celebrated their greatest successes. At the end of their current tour eclipsed asks singer Michael Sadler and keyboarder Jim Gilmour what it means for them to have opened the last chapter in their band's career.
NEIL YOUNG - The Indomitable
Even as a young singer, as a representative of the hippie generation, Neil Young didn't mince his words. And he has remained the most controversial, sometimes in the best sense of the word uninhibited spirit of rock music: The Canadian, who turns seventy on November 12, shows no signs of age-mild. In the following we show why it is so important that "the old man" is still there.
JEFF LYNNE'S ELO - Alte Schule
No risk, no fun. If Michael Sadler is to be believed, he and his band colleagues have not only followed this motto for 40 years in the music business - and not badly. Exactly 20 years ago was exactly such a moment. After the critically viewed album "Steel Umbrellas" it would have been easy for the Canadians to play it safe and record a more proggig CD with the classic Saga trademarks. But they went "all in". The choice fell on a concept album. "Generation 13" was the name of the almost 70-minute opus - no easy fare. "Of course, that was a risk back then, one hundred percent," Sadler recalls. "They screamed in horror at our record company when we came up with the idea." But the courage was rewarded: "Looking back, I would say it belongs to our classic albums. It's a milestone in our discography. And I remember with pleasure how the guys from the record company reacted when it became a success after all."
Lost Generation
THE WHO
The Story of Quadrophenia
"'Tommy' changed everything and saved us," Pete Townshend remembers in the introductory essay to the 2011 re-release of "Quadrophenia". Basically, The Who had been a singles band in the sixties; the sudden intellectualization of pop music had posed a new, unexpected challenge to its thought leader. "People suddenly wanted to hear 'serious' music from pop groups.
YES
Between heaven and earth
In 1978, the debut album of the Canadian prog formation Saga featured a golden insect that has since become a kind of band mascot. The chapters, the mosaic stones that together form a science fiction march around Albert Einstein's preserved brain, were found non-chronologically on the Saga albums from 1978 to 2003. Futuristic design and virtuoso craftsmanship characterize Saga to this day. Michael Sadler and Ian Crichton report where the band stands in 2014.
eclipsed: "Sagacity" is a nice play on words with your band name. What do you see as the wisdom of the new album?
LED ZEPPELIN
The grand finale
There is no going back: 32 years after the end of Led Zeppelin the last hopes for a comeback of the rock legend have been dashed. Page, Plant and Jones couldn't come up with a common denominator, they have an ambivalent relationship to their own past and have long since moved elsewhere mentally. So the release of their new live DVD "Celebration Day" is also a rare occasion for collective nostalgia and detailed conversations with Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, which we reproduce here in full, which eclipsed of course does not miss.
PETER GABRIEL
There you go!
BLACK SABBATH
Four for Eternity: Sabbath's "Vol. 4."
"Vol. 4" is perhaps the most underrated album of Black Sabbath by the music interested public. Fans and connoisseurs see it differently, however, because the LP with the low association title is one of the most important in the career of the band that is so decisive for the history of hard rock. The fact that the album was released in September 1972 still borders on a miracle in view of the massive cocaine consumption of the band.
THE HISTORY OF THE PROGRESSIVE ROCK,
Part 13 The great discussion on the present and future of the genre
