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JON ANDERSON
THE ALTERNATIVE OLIAS
Compact Disc
Item no. :ZCCD156 Barcode :0823564040738 Artist :JON ANDERSON Product type :Compact Disc Label :ZIP CITY Release Date :02 October 2026
DESCRIPTION TRACK LIST
Born and raised in Accrington in northern England, Jon Anderson gave up manual labour in the early 1960s in favour of singing in local band The Warriors with his brother. He moved to London and after several unsuccessful singles as a solo artist, he co-formed Yes in 1968 with Chris Squire. Yes rose to prominence quickly as they pioneered progressive rock in the 1970s, particularly with their critically-acclaimed albums The Yes Album, Fragile (both 1971) and Close to the Edge (1972) which display Anderson's role in crafting the group's sound as one of the main songwriters and lyricists. Known for his high tenor vocal style, Anderson was a member of Yes across three tenures: from 1968 to 1980, 1983 to 1988, and 1990 to 2008. Anderson left the band in 1980 due to growing internal friction and continued his solo career, which he had started in 1976 with his debut album, Olias of Sunhillow. He went on to collaborate with other musicians, including Greek keyboardist and composer Vangelis as Jon and Vangelis, Roine Stolt as Anderson/Stolt, Jean-Luc Ponty as the Anderson Ponty Band, and The Band Geeks as Jon Anderson and the Band Geeks, with whom he has toured repeatedly and released two albums in recent years. He has appeared too on albums by King Crimson, Toto, Lawrence Gowan, Tangerine Dream, Iron Butterfly, Milton Nascimento, Battles, Mike Oldfield and Kitaro. Anderson was a member of the offshoot Yes groups Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe and Yes Featuring Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin, Rick Wakeman.
In August 1975, Yes took an extended break for each member to release a solo-album. Anderson chose a concept album, Olias of Sunhillow, about an alien race of four tribes and their journey to a new planet as theirs is under threat from destruction. Olias, one of the three main characters, builds the Moorglade Mover, an aircraft formed of living organisms to transport everyone to their new home. Anderson gained inspiration from science fiction and fantasy novels, works by J. R. R. Tolkien, The Initiation of the World by Vera Stanley Alder, and the art work from Yes's Fragile. He recorded the music from his garage in six months, learning to play all instruments himself, including several types of drum, stringed, and percussion instruments associated with world or ethnic music, which took up as many as 120 track recordings in its original form.[26] Anderson found the experience a valuable one in learning about music. Atlantic Records released the album in July 1976, and it reached number 8 in the UK and number 47 in the US.
1 The Sky And His Shadow 37:47
2 Instrumental 1:34
3 Hear It 2:00
4 All God’s Children 1:25
5 Flower Child 2:23
6 Feel My Love Flow 1:56
7 Inside Your Eyes 2:25
8 Secrets Of The Past 3:13
9 Golden Age 3:55
10 Child Of The Lord 3:55
11 Two Old Ladies 7:53
12 Carnival 5:46