SKYLINE IS STEVE HOWE'S DEBUT FOR INSIDEOUT MUSIC

Press Release for SKYLINE

The never-ending musical evolution of master guitarist Steve Howe continues with the release of SKYLINE on InsideOut Music on November 5, 2002. Howe's latest solo endeavor is his first recording for InsideOut Music.

Howe, of course, is rightfully known for his impressive body of work with groups like Yes, Asia and GTR, but he has kept active as a solo artist as well. SKYLINE is Howe's eighth fully realized solo studio album, and over the course of those albums he's explored everything from electric rock 'n' roll to acoustic music with folk and classical elements.

SKYLINE is an ambient, yet melodically intense instrumental album with progressive rock, new age, classical and jazz flavors. The album features keyboardist/percussionist and longtime Howe collaborator Paul Sutin as special guest.

The 12 songs on SKYLINE are: "Small Acts of Human Kindness," "Meridian Strings," "Secret Arrow," "Moon Song," "Shifting Sands," "Avenue De Bel Air," "Resonance," "The Anchor," "Moment in Time," "Simplification," "Camera Obscura" and "Small Acts."

"I like to keep moving around and not stay in one sort of musical pattern. My last album (2001's 'Natural Timbre') was more acoustic-oriented and I felt I had exhausted that kind of playing for a time. When I went through my own tapes and tapes I'd worked on with Paul, I discovered pieces that all fit together. SKYLINE represents a more ambient, laid-back side of my playing and it allowed me to improvise in a different sort of way," Howe says.

"With this album, improvisation is more a part of the music. We have melodies and structures, but the album kind of floats and relies on the expansive idea of me developing my improvisations. I don't think I've ever done quite anything like SKYLINE myself before. Personally, I enjoy records that are relaxed, so I really wanted to venture into something that was atmospheric."

Howe visualized meanings for the songs on SKYLINE and, musically speaking, they are appropriate for their "plots." For example, he says "Small Acts of Human Kindness" matches the emotions inherent in an action like a kiss or a hug.

"At the moment we're very caught up in the down side of humanity, and I thought with this record I'd start out with raising the ante a little bit and examine what's keeping us going," he says.

It's not surprising that Howe enjoys the experimental freedom that a solo album provides, and with SKYLINE, he found himself eager to blend guitar and bass guitar parts. "Avenue de Bel Air" is one of Howe's favorites in that regard.

Sutin joins Howe on all but four songs, for which Howe played all the instruments. Howe says Sutin's percussion work, which does not include drums, is crucial to the overall tone of SKYLINE.

"I realized the music I was doing here wasn't really drum-oriented, it was more percussive. I really love working with drummers like my son Dylan, Bill Bruford and Alan White so I'm very drum-oriented, but SKYLINE is a break from that. I find that quite refreshing," explains Howe.

Howe is a tireless musician, but until the dawn of the 1990s, he'd only released two solo albums, 1976's 'Beginnings' and 1979's 'The Steve Howe Album.' He says that his attention to solo albums really began to surge after 1986's GTR project with former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett ended. 'Turbulence,' his first solo album in 12 years, was the result, and it started a period of creativity that remains uninterrupted to this day.

"By the time GTR fell apart, I was pretty disgruntled with group problems. I'd starting working on 'Turbulence' in about 1988 and finished in 1989, but it didn't come out until around when Yes released 'Union' in 1991. 'Turbulence' wasn't something that everybody was looking for, but I thought, 'They're going to get it anyway,' " laughs Howe.

He likes to pursue different directions with each solo album, but Howe is not afraid to look to his own past for ideas and ways to base new music on what already worked. It's all about discovery for him. He does archive his musical ideas -- melodies, riffs and arrangements categorized by everything from keys to tempos -- and draws upon them as he writes fresh pieces and begins fusing it all together for a new album.

"I have all these colors in my head, and I want to use these colors," Howe says. "Everything I write starts as an improvisation because that's the only way I know how to write -- capturing an improvisation and developing it. On SKYLINE, every track has a theme or melody, yet some move more continuously through some songs than others. 'Camera Obscura' has a consistent melody in it, although I modify it occasionally."

Some SKYLINE songs became jazz-like in Howe's mind because they took a couple of run-throughs before they came together, whereas others retained their original form, which he says is similar to the way some Yes pieces like "Close to the Edge" were created.

Opening himself up to different creative processes and investigating many diverse kinds of music was, in many ways, a challenge for Howe because he believes guitarists are often cornered and forced stay within a certain style.

"I never wanted to be pinned down, and guitarists are dreadfully typecast in the same way actors sometimes are for certain roles. You were viewed as a rock guitarist or a jazz guitarist, and there didn't seem to be any middle until I heard Chet Atkins. I kind of mixed my goals because I always wanted to be a performing guitarist but I wanted to write music as well," says Howe.

One obstacle musicians who maintain simultaneous group and solo careers must face is deciding where the material they write belongs. Howe says oftentimes the style of the music he's written dictates where it fits best, but that his schedules can be the determining factor. For example, 2001 saw not only the release of 'Natural Timbre,' but he had just four days off after Yes' tour with local orchestras before the band began recording of 'Magnification,' which was released late in the year. He said that even the pressure of extreme circumstances like these can be surprisingly exciting and stimulating creatively. 2002 hasn't been much slower since the release of SKYLINE comes on the heels of an enormously successful summer and fall tour by the "classic Yes" lineup.

SKYLINE will also include Howe's photography in the album artwork. It's the first time Howe has featured his photographs as part of the packaging of his own album, but he says the moods of the photographs and songs complement each other perfectly.

With SKYLINE, Howe has produced a hypnotic listening experience that will thrill and surprise his longtime fans and generate legions of new ones.

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