''Invention of Knowledge'' is a studio album by Anderson/Stolt, a musical collaboration formed by singer-songwriters and musicians

Jon Anderson Jon Anderson (born John Roy Anderson, 25 October 1944) is a British, and latterly American, singer, songwriter and musician, best known as the former lead singer of the progressive rock band Yes (band), Yes, which he formed in 1968 with bassis ...

and

Roine Stolt Roine Stolt (born 5 September 1956) is a Swedish guitarist, vocalist and composer. A major figure in Sweden's rock history, Stolt led two of his country's most successful progressive rock bands: Kaipa in the 1970s and The Flower Kings in the ...

. It was released on 24 June 2016 by InsideOutMusic. The project originated in 2014 after Anderson had performed with Stolt on a

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

-themed cruise, and the two decided to record an album. The recording process involved Anderson recording ideas in demo form in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

and sending them online to Stolt in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, who would develop music based on them. ''Invention of Knowledge'' was recorded in Sweden by several musicians, including

Tom Brislin Tom Brislin (born October 5, 1973) is an American keyboardist, songwriter, singer, producer, and author. In December 2018, American progressive rock band Kansas announced Brislin as the group’s keyboardist; his playing, vocals, and prominent song ...

Daniel Gildenlöw Daniel Gildenlöw (born 5 June 1973) is a Swedish musician and songwriter. He is best known as a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist for the progressive rock band Pain of Salvation. In the band, he is the main songwriter, lead singer, guitarist, p ...

, and members of Stolt's band

The Flower Kings The Flower Kings are a Swedish progressive rock band formed in 1994 by guitarist and singer-songwriter Roine Stolt. The group began as Stolt's touring band to support his third solo album ''The Flower King''. They continued performing after the ...

. ''Invention of Knowledge'' received some positive reviews from critics. It charted in several countries, and reached number 58 on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

. Anderson and Stolt discussed the idea of performing the album live on tour, but no tour for the album was mounted. As of 2023, the collaboration between the two artists appears to have concluded and no further releases are planned.

Background

Anderson is an English singer-songwriter and musician, formerly of the

band

Yes Yes or YES may refer to: * An affirmative particle in the English language; see yes and no Education * YES Prep Public Schools, Houston, Texas, US * Young Eisner Scholars, in Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, and Appalachia, US * Young Ep ...

, and Stolt is a Swedish guitarist and songwriter of

and

Transatlantic Transatlantic, Trans-Atlantic or TransAtlantic may refer to: Film * Transatlantic Pictures, a film production company from 1948 to 1950 * Transatlantic Enterprises, an American production company in the late 1970s * ''Transatlantic'' (1931 film) ...

. Stolt's record company owner, Thomas Waber of InsideOutMusic, a German independent record label, suggested that he work with Anderson roughly "four or five years ago", but it did not materialise. Stolt was a fan of Yes music, and Anderson had been one of his long time favourite musicians. The two first met in February 2014 when Anderson performed at Progressive Nation at Sea, a progressive rock-themed cruise voyage, with Stolt and members of Transatlantic as Anderson's backing band performing several Yes songs. The following day, Waber talked to Stolt and felt it was the right time to collaborate with Anderson. Said Stolt, "So it just went from there." Around a month after the cruise, InsideOutMusic got in touch with Anderson with the proposal of a "progressive rock type of project" with Stolt and financed by the label. Both musicians then agreed to collaborate and record an album; Stolt recalled a formal contract was not ironed out until around "six or seven months" into the project when the two felt they had a substantial amount of good material. "After a couple of weeks, of months, you could see that this could actually be something", said Stolt, and signed, with Anderson, a two-album record deal.

Writing and recording

In the summer of 2014, Anderson and Stolt began writing and recording ''Invention of Knowledge'' on an "off and on" basis, a process that lasted for around eighteen months. Both would take time away to work on other projects, and resume work on the album fresh. Following their initial meeting on the cruise, Anderson only met Stolt once more in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

for a promotional photo shoot for the album. He added: "We spoke over the phone a bit, but we knew what we wanted without speaking about it". Anderson had a particular interest to produce "long-form music" for the album, to take the listener on a musical "journey". He suggested to Stolt that they try and make "progressive music", a term that Stolt saw as music that did not sound like it was made in the 1970s, the peak of the progressive rock genre. He had plentiful amount of material written, some of it dating from a decade earlier, that he wished to use for an album, with "certain ones that stand together very well". Stolt wished the album to present music he described as "modern and classical, rock, tribal and orchestrated, grooving and floating ... leaning forward, surprising and also comforting with familiar run-arounds." Much of the album's recording process involved Anderson recording a lyrical and music idea in demo form from his home in

and sending the music files online to Stolt in

, who then "rejuvenated the music" with his contributions while keeping the idea behind each piece "intact". By the time Anderson sent his first set of ideas, around twenty minutes of music had been outlined. Anderson added: "It was the music that was in between the songs that captivated me because it gave me the chance to add more song lyrical, vocalising ideas". The two used

Logic Pro Logic Pro is a proprietary digital audio workstation (DAW) and MIDI sequencer software application for the macOS platform developed by Apple Inc. It was originally created in the early 1990s as Notator Logic, or Logic, by German software devel ...

to record their parts that were converted and worked on in the studio using

Pro Tools Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and released by Avid Technology (formerly Digidesign) for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is used for music creation and production, sound for picture (sound design, audio post-productio ...

. Stolt constructed the tracks using sequencers and programmed drums and "laying all the instruments" to form a demo version of the album that was more detailed than a usual demo recording. To him it sounded "almost" like a completed album, but it required musicians to play the already written material in real time within a studio. He intentionally left specific areas in the music open to allow the musicians to incorporate their own ideas into the arrangements. When Stolt had formed an outline of the bass, drums, keyboard and guitar parts, he sent the mix to Anderson, who could then mix some of the tracks on his computer, a process which at times lead to him writing new vocal melodies or lyrics and sending his changes back to Stolt. After the writing process, Stolt hand picked ten additional musicians to record the additional parts at Fenix Studios in Varnhem, Sweden. American musician

, who played keyboards on Yes' 2001 tour, flew to Sweden from the United States to record his sections on piano, synthesiser, and

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...

. Swedish musicians, bassist

Jonas Reingold Jonas Reingold (born 22 April 1969) is a Swedish bass guitarist from Malmö. Biography Reingold started to play bass in 1986 when he subbed for a friend in the locally-famous act WIRE. The band was happy with his performance and offered him t ...

, bassist Michael Stolt (Roine's brother) and drummer Felix Lehrmann are past or current members of Stolt's progressive rock band

. Swedish keyboardist Lalle Larsson plays the piano and synthesiser, and five people sing the backing vocals, recorded in March 2015: Daniel Gildenlöw, Nad Sylvan, Anja Obermayer, Maria Rerych and Kristina Westas. Stolt also contributed to some of the backing vocals. At the end of recording, Stolt prepared the album's final mix in February and March 2016. He summarised the recording experience as "a very interesting and rewarding time and the result is just insanely detailed." ''Invention of Knowledge'' is formed of three extended suites: "Invention of Knowledge", "Knowing" and "Everybody Heals", and a single track, "Know...". The first part of "Invention of Knowledge", titled "Invention", was the first piece of music written exchanged between Anderson and Stolt for the project. It originated from Anderson, who had a piece featuring a

string section The string section of an orchestra is composed of bowed instruments belonging to the violin family. It normally consists of first and second violins, violas, cellos, and double basses. It is the most numerous group in the standard orchestra. In ...

, a "very sort of

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before Presidency of John Adams, his presidency, he was a leader of ...

, rhythmic strings, cellos" idea, combined with several ideas by English musician Neil Campbell of the Bulbs, who Anderson befriended and also contributed to the writing of "Everybody Heals" and Golden Light". The album's lyrics were penned by Anderson, who spoke of its general idea: "The invention of our understanding of the world around us". Several themes are addressed, such as

ley lines Ley lines () are straight alignments drawn between various historic structures, prehistoric sites and prominent landmarks. The idea was developed in early 20th-century Europe, with ley line believers arguing that these alignments were recognis ...

Release and reception

After its official announcement on 17 March 2016, ''Invention of Knowledge'' was first released for CD and digital download on 24 June. Its release for CD in North America followed on 8 July 2016. ''Invention of Knowledge'' received several positive reviews from critics. In his positive review for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

, Thom Jurek gave the album four stars out of five. He called the musicians involved a "prog dream team" and praised Anderson's and Stolt's use of their musical abilities and production. The interlocking pieces, he thought, are "brightly orchestrated and lushly illustrated with keyboards and choral vocals". In summary, he cited the album added to the "depth, dimension, and legacy" that Yes established, "but also make plain that the result is forward-thinking 21st century prog, free of overwrought nostalgia or self-indulgence". Chris Roberts reviewed the album for '' Prog'' magazine, a division of TeamRock. He thought the collaboration between Anderson and Stolt seemed to be "one of those inspired ideas which is almost so obviously bound to work that you fear there's going to be a catch". He nonetheless praised the record, "a beautiful album that's effectively the best of both worlds. There's no sense of cagey compromise or polite deference, and both artists extend themselves freely, exploring and expressing vast swathes of musical terrain". He compared the music to the 1970s era of Yes music with Anderson's first solo album, '' Olias of Sunhillow'', "without mimicking them". Anderson and Stolt discussed the idea of performing the album live on tour "many times" during its recording, though ultimately no such tour materialized. ''Invention of Knowledge'' was nominated for a Progressive Music Award for Album of the Year at the 2016 awards. About the album, Anderson stated: Stolt added:

Track listing

All lyrics by

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the CD's liner notes. ;Anderson/Stolt *

– lead and backing vocals, synthesiser, percussion *

– electric guitar, acoustic guitars, Dobro, Portuguese guitar, lap steel guitar, keyboards, percussion, backing vocals ;Additional musicians *

– Yamaha C7 grand piano, Fender Rhodes piano, Hammond B-3 organ, synthesizers * Lalle Larsson – grand piano, synthesizer *

– bass guitar, backing vocals * Michael Stolt – bass guitar, Moog bass * Felix Lehrmann – drums *

– backing vocals * Nad Sylvan – backing vocals * Anja Obermayer – backing vocals * Maria Rerych – backing vocals * Kristina Westas – backing vocals ;Production * Roine Stolt – production, mixing at Cosmic Lodge, February–March 2016 * Jon Anderson – co-production * Lars Hallbäck – backing vocals recording * Jonas Reingold – mastering * Silas Toball – artwork * Eva Toball – artwork assistant * Johnny Taxen – photographs * Per Kristianssen – photographs * Lilian Westin – photographs * Anders Olsson – photographs * Hans Froberg – photographs * Erik Edlund – photographs

Charts

References

External links

* Jon Anderson a
JonAnderson.com
* Roine Stolt a
FlowerKings.se
{{DEFAULTSORT:Invention of Knowledge Jon Anderson albums Roine Stolt albums 2016 collaborative albums Progressive rock albums by British artists