"I came here searching for something, but I don't remember what that is anymore. Am I dreaming you, or are you dreaming me? As all dreams are ultimately forgotten and lost" this is the most poetic description of enlightenment Ive ever heard and I dont even know if Steven is aware of it. He is a creative GENIUS. He won my heart AGAIN with this album
Isn’t that kind of what the story that inspires the album is about? The main character is “one with the universe” and he is occasionally “brought back” by his sister’s memories/dreams about him. As her dream fades he is returned to that “one with the universe” state. At least, that’s how I interpreted it.
Just as I predicted, the songs that were released as singles were much, much more impactful within the context of the whole album. I appreciate them more now I’ve heard the whole album. His music is not typically immediate with me, it takes quite a few listens before I can wrap my head around his direction. I absolutely love his early and previous music but since he’s so restless musically that once the new influences he brings in are properly assimilated in my brain I can enjoy it. This is another winner for me…
God I love Steven Wilson. I'm a year older than him and been heavily into music since my teens. From about 2000 he's kept me interested in new music like I was when I was young. He's criminally underrated.
Two of this year's best albums, Steven's Harmony Codex and James Blake's Playing Robots Into Heaven, both came out on September and both started out with analog synths jams.
It took me a few plays but I really love most of the album now. Been a fan since Signify in 1996, not many artists keep on making great music for this long.
@@SonofHendrikIn YOUR opinion. I like them, but they are just old-school PROG (like in "Prog as a specific sounding style of music). Wilson is so, so much more than that.
Newport Rhode Island Folk Festival in 1965. Dylan came on & played Folk...but then started playing songs in Electric. Fans Jeered & Booed at the back....and Dylan just kept on playing...some say he said it's ok you'll get used to it. Steven reminds me a bit of this as he is a real shape shifter....evolving always....love it.
Thank you for the interview! I enjoyed hearing from Steven re: his process and background, and I really like the new record. I was a bit surprised to find that Steven is listening to a lot of the same things I'm listening to these days (electronic / noise and artists who create their own 'universe' like Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, etc.); maybe I shouldn't be. Steven - from a lifelong musician and listener, thank you for the music and the honesty
Lovely interview, and the last question was a real smasher, even though SW did end up rambling a bit about alternative music then. Although "engage with [the album] for a longer period of time and on a deeper level" (his closing words) is probably the exactly how I feel about all his albums after several months.
I realize that most artists don’t usually go and look at the comments section but I think Steven would get a bit out of listening to Hania Rani’s music. There are parts of the harmony codex that remind me of her and I think they would make a good mutual inspiration. Especially her live performance in France
Hmm.... I listened to the snippets on u tube and nothing jumped out at me like all his old PT stuff. I'll buy it cos I have to but think it will be in Future Bites bin. Don't get why he's so resolutely staying away from anything that sounds like PT. It might please him but methinks PT fans will swerve.
He says there was a lot of experimentation going on with the new record? Yes, I've put a question mark because having listened to it, given it time, I don't hear any experimentation. There is nothing new here, it sounds like he's just repeating himself or someone else. He talks a good talk but he's failed to find anything new once again, there is nothing fresh here. He really as run out of ideas and obviously doesn't realise it. He believes what he's saying, no doubt. He is in his own world and doesn't have anybody that will tell him when it's crap because it is crap. The last two solo albums have been awful, this one is slightly better but that's not saying much. He needs someone new to come in and tell him 'that's not new or experimental, it's not even new to you'. He's a good producer but he's not in the same league as Brian Eno who never repeats himself or David Sylvian who experimented until he knew he'd said everything he could then stopped. Wilson has done great albums but not anymore, the last two especially are mediocre. He's past his best but sadly doesn't know it because he hasn't got anyone around him to tell him 'this isn't good enough to share with the rest of the world', it's ordinary. There is already too much music that's ordinary. Please Steven, listen to yourself, to what you are saying, then listen again to what you're currently producing. What he thinks as his own universe, is just repeating himself, things he's already done before but he doesn't recognise it. I've followed him from the beginning of No Man and through it all because he's always done something different but not anymore. The last two have been repeating past things, it's beginning to sound the same. He doesn't even realise it. I wish the album was as good as he talks but sadly that's not the truth. The truth will win out eventually though. Does anyone actually still play The Future Bites already, the same will apply to this one. It's very sad.
Your opinion doesn't mean shit. What the hell do you mean by saying "he has no one around him to tell him when it's crap" He's constantly surrounded by and is good friends with some of the biggest names in the biz. He 's friends with Allan Parsons for god's sake - also Robert Fripp, and Mikael Akerfeldt. You honestly don't think he would bounce ideas off any of these people at least once in awhile? You call it ordinary because why? It's got more of a pop sound? How many pop records sound like The Harmony Codex? When was the last time Taylor Swift or Katy Perry had an album that sounded like that? When was the last time you heard an "ordinary" pop record that had a ten minute instrumental track, and a seven minute ambient track? My guess is that you probably haven't. Because that' not an ordinary thing to do...... To say the Wilson is just repeating himself is really missing the mark........The Future Bites was a new sound for him, his other records sound nothing like it. So now he's taken that and expended the idea on the Harmony Codex. Face it, you just don't like the new material so you've convinced yourself that he's not doing anything new.
i just played the first track and stopped about a minute in. what's funny is the more he has talked about experimenting and trying 'new genres' throughout his career, the more he actually keeps producing the same stuff. he can talk all he wants about pop, jazz, ambient, whatever, but a good chunk of his music always ends up sounding like the prog rock that he started off with. it's always some interesting atmospheric intro, followed by a drudging guitar solo. he can mask these guitar solos with whatever, they can be keyboards or trombones, but they still sound like pretty much like what he put out on voyage 34 - which was decades ago.
It seems like there's always someone with a negative mind set and that they want to be recognized by others of a similar mind set. What I really don't understand is that need to find others that will agree with you when you can choose to find music that is more to your liking.
@@tasoskont.6716 I cannot come up with any. There's of course artists that's not for me but I don't comment on that saying it's not for me or some other I simply just find anoher video/artist.
I’m glad he’s not trying to make The Raven again. Some artists try to make the same album over and over again, Steven Wilson has already released several prog rock masterpieces.
Curious how Steven can’t stand flashy, loud musicianship, that it does nothing for him. Then, he goes and remixes the likes of Chicago’s “25 or 6 To 4”. I suspect, in the end…Steven is like all of us. That is to say that he sometimes confuses NOSTALGIA with QUALITY. His father apparently loved POP garbage.
@@sidnew2739 - I could stand to listen to some of the great Prog songs of the past just one more time. Most of us would NOT need to hear “25 Or 6 To 4” again lest we were nostalgic or poorly educated.
@@christopherp.hitchens3902 Are you some kind of troll? It's Wilson's decision what to like and what to remix. Your arrogance will not change that. Listen to whatever music seems fitting for you and learn a little tolerance!
