HoweSound [Release date: 27.09.24]

With more than one hundred albums featuring his name in the recording credits, to offer guitarist Steve Howe the title of a truly accomplished musician should come as no surprise to anyone – still, it does feel like, apart from stating the obvious, any person willing to voice such an opinion will, unwittingly, also be making the understatement of the century!

Howe’s contribution to the evolution of the Progressive Rock genre…no, Rock music in general, is pretty undeniable. Genre-defining classics such as “Roundabout”, “Siberian Khatru” and the “Gates Of Delirium” are available for us to enjoy simply because he was involved in their creative process – the very process that the seventy seven year old musician has been following, non-stop, since he first joined the mighty Yes in June 1970.

I assume that one of the main benefits of being a successful recording artist for the best part of sixty years is the ability to make career decisions without really caring what other people will make of them. That would most certainly explain the creative process and direction that the guitar virtuoso has opted for in his latest solo effort entitled “Guitarscape”.

By utilizing the services of a three-oscillator-per-voice, 16-voice keyboard synth named Novation Summit and having his son Dylan Howe handling drum and percussion duties, the Holloway-born legend has put together a collection of fourteen seemingly simply sounding compositions which are, nevertheless, of varied nature and style. This ‘musical kaleidoscope’ of sorts coupled with Howe’s unique skills on the guitar should undoubtedly guarantee the album success, correct?

Well, things are not that simple here I am afraid. If I were to name the one issue I have with “Guitarscape” I would not mention either the unique sounding Novation Summit or the thematic/stylistic variety of the material on offer, as this is exactly what one would expect of Steve How at this moment in his career.

The album’s ‘Achilles heel’ is the duration of the compositions on offer. When the average composition is two and a half minutes long, one feels that all those beautiful melodies and themes on offer are not given the amount of space needed to enable them to truly flourish!

Take the opening track “Hail Storm” for instance; what we have here is a magnificent lead melody that is perfectly supported by Dylan Howe’s clever drum parts…well, two minutes and twenty two seconds later you are left with the feeling that the song was finished just as things were starting to get really interesting.

This ‘approach’ is sadly being repeated throughout the album, so rather than me continue complaining about all the things that I feel went wrong, I will instead focus on all the things I really enjoyed about “Guitarscape” which were quite a few indeed.

I may end up being the only person saying this but listening to the opening theme of “Spring Board” for the first time brought back memories from watching “Close Encounters Of The Third Kind” as a kid in the early 80’s and that feeling alone was enough to make me choose this song as the absolute highlight of the album.

“Distillations” is an interesting mixture of Spanish style guitar (“Innuendo” anyone) with futuristic-style keys and I am fairly convinced that the average Yes fan will most likely appreciate the moody theme and colourful guitar passages in “Up-Stream” – a three minute composition which finds Howe going properly solo (no drum parts included).

More ‘Latin’ influences are featured in the expertly performed “Passing Thoughts” – a composition which together with “Spring Rhyme” and “Equinox” picture Howe at his moodiest/expressive best! Another composition that would have truly benefited from a slightly longer ‘lease of life’ is the oriental-sounding “Suma” – a thing that could also be said for the duet “Spring Tide”/ “Steele Breeze” which bring the album to a colourful conclusion.

Writing a review for “Guitarscape” has proven to be a more difficult task than I originally anticipated and I am being very honest in stating that listening to the album has left me with pretty mixed feelings indeed.

Did I expect Howe to indulge in twenty five minute Prog Rock opuses? Of course not, as this was never the case in any of his past solo albums. What I would have personally preferred, however, was to be exposed to fully formed compositions rather than what feels as a collection of musical ideas which, great as they might sound, leave you with a feeling of ‘unfinished business’ in the end. ***1/2

Review by Ioannis (John) Stefanis

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