The Tangent

The Tangent is a progressive rock group formed in 2002.

History

Formation

Originally formed by keyboardists Andy Tillison and Sam Baine of Parallel or 90 Degrees and The Flower Kings guitarist Roine Stolt, bassist Jonas Reingold, and drummer Zoltan Csörsz. The septet was completed by renowned saxophonist David Jackson of Van der Graaf Generator and multi-instrumentalist Guy Manning.

The Tangent has an improbable history and numerous changes in personnel. In May 1999, Andy Tillison and Sam Baine's band Parallel or 90 Degrees performed a Classic Rock Society gig at Rotherham supporting Swedish band The Flower Kings. Neither band had heard of the other.

While writing the next Parallel or 90 Degrees album, More Exotic Ways To Die, Tillison began to filter out certain ideas that were more overtly "prog" in nature and pass them over to what he called a "solo album". Inspired by the Flower Kings albums he was now listening to on an hourly basis, he decided to separate his "prog" from his rock, and the result was a Parallel or 90 Degrees album stripped of much of the flowery style of progressive music which suited that band's cause well.

This 'left over' music was put to one side until Tillison had a row with Flower Kings crew member Ian Oakley. "I made the fatal mistake of slagging Po90 off in a review of that first concert the bands played together," remembers Oakley. "I was obviously reviewing the Flower Kings, and I'd not in honesty paid that much attention to Po90's set. I guess what I wrote must have looked a bit dismissive, just a couple of lines about them. I got this mail from Andy that tore me to bits. I wrote back and told him it was the actually the very first review I'd ever written. He wrote back to me and apologised, we started to talk a lot about prog music, discovered we had a lot in common, and he sent me this CD of demos he'd been sitting on. Suffice to say I am now the Tangent's manager..."

Oakley sent Tillison's demo to Roine Stolt of the Flower Kings. Stolt liked it, offered to play on it, invited Jonas Reingold and Zoltan Csorsz to help out on drums and bass and suggested adding a saxophonist. Tillison happened to know David Jackson's telephone number.

The resulting album, The Music That Died Alone, was welcomed by the progressive rock community and the band won 'Best newcomer', 'Best artwork', 'Best debut' and 'Album of the year' in nearly every worldwide progressive rock poll.^{[citation needed]} Each subsequent album has achieved similar acclaim.^{[citation needed]}

Subsequent albums

Though the original line-up has changed significantly, Tillison remains the driving force behind the band, and they have of late branched out from the usual symphonic prog format to include jazz, funk, Canterbury scene, electronica, and a variety of other styles.

For early 2007, The Tangent released a double live CD and DVD on InsideOut Records, "Going Off On One". The material was taken from recordings of their recent UK shows and some of the ROSfest US recordings. The album features music from all three studio albums. The line up for the band featured Swedes Jonas Reingold, Krister Jonsson and Jaime Salazar and Brits Andy Tillison, Sam Baine and Theo Travis on all tracks and Guy Manning on the UK based tracks.

In 2007 a new variant line up of The Tangent was started: a trio consisting of Jonas Reingold, Andy Tillison and Jaime Salazar. Their live shows will be advertised and promoted as "The Tangent presents: Tillison, Reingold, & Salazar" and will feature new music, familiar Tangent favorites in a new arrangement, and - although no details are given - the trio are planning a full performance of a "major, well loved progressive rock classic". This could also be accompanied by a limited independent band release of a new studio version of said "progressive rock classic".

Early 2008 saw the next full blown Tangent album Not as Good as the Book released (on Insideout), featuring new guitarist Jakko Jakszyk. However, for a series of live dates in Europe in Spring 2008, the band performed as a quartet with Andy Tillison, Jonas Reingold, Jaime Salazar and the return of guitarist Krister Jonsson. Jaksyzyk and Theo Travis guested with the band on selected dates.^[1]

The Tangent + Beardfish union

A new statement issued by Andy Tillison on the Tangent Email Forum on June 30, 2008 gives the information that The Tangent will not work with the Malmö based trio (Jonsson, Reingold, Salazar) for the next tours/records. The replacement musicians will be the four members of Swedish progressive rock band Beardfish. Tillison also stated that both bands "will continue to exist, record and perform in their own right" and that the "lineup will still be variable at concerts depending on location, budget etc." This makes The Tangent being now an 8-piece band, something completely new to them.

This happened to be as The Tangent met Beardfish in their last tour together. Tillison was invited to guest in one of Beardfish performances and felt the need to work with them. At that time (and prior to that), Reingold "couldn't see a development within the band", this fact culminating with his (and the other two Swedish members) leaving the band, which was confirmed by recent statements made by him. Rikard Sjöblom from Beardfish also made statements confirming the new union band.

The new line-up debuted by headlining at the UK's Summer's End festival in September 2008

Down and Out in Paris and London

Due to the busy schedule of Beardfish, their collaboration with The Tangent had to be suspended and yet another lineup change was required for the recording of the fifth studio album, Down and Out in Paris and London. In addition, guitarist Jakko Jakszyk had decided to leave the band after the union with Beardfish.

The new lineup has seen the addition of drummer Paul Burgess and bass player Jonathan Barrett. While waiting to decide on a new guitarist, all the electric guitar parts in the album have been played by Andy Tillison.

COMM and the Departure of Jonathan Barrett

In September 2011, The Tangent released their album COMM, which received a positive reaction from fans and critics. The lineup featured on this album is Andy Tillison (keyboards, vocals), Theo Travis (flute, saxophone), Jonathan Barrett (bass, vocals, lead vocals on Shoot Them Down), Luke Machin (guitar, vocals), and Nick Rickwood (drums; filling in for Tony Latham). Theo Travis was no longer an official member of the band by this point.

In October 2011, bassist Jonathan Barrett announced his departure from the band due to a number of personal reasons, along with his frustration that fans were downloading The Tangent's music illegally on the internet. Soon afterwards, Dan Mash (bassist for Luke Machin's band "Maschine", formerly known as "Concrete Lake") was announced as the new bassist for The Tangent.

Live performances

Since 2003 the band in its various forms has played concerts and festivals in the US, UK, Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden and France. Members of the band also occasionally appear as special guests on stage with other artists. On 13 February 2012 guitarist Luke Machin joined Pain of Salvation on stage at The Garage in London, England, playing on the song Kingdom of Loss.^[2]

Cover art

The band had much of their cover art done by artist Ed Unitsky, who worked closely with the band when designing their album artwork. Ed has completed five album covers for The Tangent.

Cover artwork for the album Not as Good as the Book (2008) was created by French artist Antoine Ettori, for Down and Out in Paris and London (2009) by mbl graphics.

Personnel

Current members

Studio band

• Andy Tillison (keyboards, guitars, vocals)
• Theo Travis (saxophones, flutes, clarinet)
• Jakko Jakszyk (guitar, vocals)
• Jonas Reingold (bass guitar, vocals)
• Gavin Harrison (drums)
• David Longdon (vocals)

Live band

• Andy Tillison (keyboards, guitars, vocals)
• Lalle Larsson (keyboards)
• Luke Machin (guitar, vocals)
• Jonas Reingold (bass guitar, vodals)
• Morgan Ågren (drums)
• Goran Edman (vodals)

Former members

• Roine Stolt (guitars, vocals)
• David Jackson (saxophone, flute)
• Sam Baine (keyboards, piano, vocals)
• Zoltan Csörsz (drums)
• Krister Jonsson (guitars)
• Jaime Salazar (drums)
• Rikard Sjöblom (keyboards, vocals)
• David Zackrisson (guitars)
• Robert Hansen (bass guitar)
• Magnus Östgren (drums)
• Guy Manning (acoustic guitar, bouzouki, mandolin, keyboards, vocals)
• Paul Burgess (drums)
• Michael Gilbourne (drums)
• Jonathan Barrett (bass guitar, vocals)
• Nick Rickwood (drums)
• Tony "Funkytoe" Latham (drums)
• Dan Mash (bass guitar, vocals)
• Dave Albone (drums)
• Simon Albone (bass guitar)
• Lindsay Frost (keyboards)
• David Million (guitar)
• Dan Watts (guitar)
• Julie King (vocals)

Discography

Studio albums

• The Music That Died Alone (2003)
• The World That We Drive Through (2004)
• A Place in the Queue (2006)
• Not as Good as the Book (2008)
• Down and Out in Paris and London (2009)
• A Place On The Shelf (2009)
• COMM (2011)
• Le Sacre du Travail (2013)
• L'Etagère du Travail (2013)

Live albums

• Pyramids and Stars (2005)
• Going Off On One (2007)
• Going Off On Two (2010)
• London or Paris, Berlin or Southend-on-Sea (2012)

References

External links

• The Tangent official band site
• Beardfish official band site
• Manning official band site
• Artist Ed Unitsky official homepage
• Audio interview with Andy Tillison, June 2013.
• 2010 interview with Andy Tillison - part 1
• 2010 interview with Andy Tillison and Jonathan Barrett - part 2
• The Tangent at progressiverockbr.com