Olias of Sunhillow

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Professional reviews
Olias of Sunhillow

Studio album by Jon Anderson
Released	June 1976
Recorded	1976
Genre	Progressive rock
Length	44:10
Label	Atlantic Records
Producer(s)	Jon Anderson
All Music Guide link
Jon Anderson chronology
	Olias of Sunhillow (1976)	Song of Seven (1980)

Olias of Sunhillow is a progressive rock concept album by Jon Anderson, the lead singer of the band Yes. It was his first solo album.

The album tells the story of an alien race and their journey to a new world due to catastrophe. Olias, the title character, is the chosen architect of the glider Moorglade, which will be used to fly his people to their new home. Ranyart is the navigator for the glider, and QoQuaQ is the leader who unites the four tribes of Sunhillow to partake in the exodus.

The album's concept may have been partly inspired by the cover art for the 1972 Yes album Fragile, which depicts a tiny planet breaking apart and a glider escaping into space. Another link to Fragile lies in the fact that both albums have pieces (Fragile's "We Have Heaven") consisting of multiple vocal parts, with Anderson singing all of them. Anderson has stated that works by J.R.R. Tolkien were also an influence, underlying the epic scope of the narrative compressed into the album.

The album is considered to be one of Anderson's better works, being acclaimed both by critics and fans, and possibly the best solo effort by any member of Yes. Anderson heavily relied on the Moog synthesizer to create the soundscapes of the album, and through months of effort achieved arrangements of musical virtuosity that he has been unable to match in later solo works. (Many later works, such as Animation, relied on session players.) Since Anderson produced Olias soon after Vangelis had auditioned to be a part of Yes, there has been widespread speculation that Vangelis contributed to the album, with some fans going so far as to say that Olias represents the kind of sound that Yes would have created if Vangelis had in fact joined the band. However, both Vangelis and Anderson have denied that they collaborated on the album, and it must be noted that Olias sounds markedly different to the five albums that Jon and Vangelis did actually produce together in the late 70s and early 80s.

The album has been re-released several times, most recently with a US CD release by Wounded Bird Records on February 28, 2006.