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"The Human Condition" press info
For months, thousands of Saga fans have been asking themselves anxiously:
How will the band sound after vocalist
Michael Sadler’s departure? Before going into any more detail, let’s
answer the big question: On their latest album,
The Human Condition, Saga still sound unmistakably like Saga but with a
big dash freshness. The essential elements
of the sound which the band has continuously developed over decades,
their rocking attitude, haunting melodies,
virtuoso solo passages and intelligent arrangements, haven’t changed one
bit in 2009. And what is more: The band
members, Ian Crichton (guitar), Jim Crichton (bass, keyboards) and Jim
Gilmour (keyboards) have used the recent
line-up change for an artistic evolution of their expressive means. To
cut a long story short: The Human Condition is
100% Saga, and much more. Or, as Ian Crichton comments: "It’s still us,
of course with a different twist, some of
the ideas on the CD are more prog than before."
Let’s travel back in time: autumn 2007 saw founder member Michael Sadler
leave the band to set off to pastures
new. No farewell in anger, no personal or musical differences – as we
have frequently seen in other bands –, but an
extremely amicable separation from a musician who is looking for new
challenges, privately as well as artistically.
For the remaining musicians, Sadler’s departure never called into
question the group’s existence. Saga immediately
started a global search for a new frontman and struck lucky in January
2008 when they came across Rob Moratti,
until that time vocalist with the Canadian act, Final Frontier. Crichton
explains: "We found Rob after searching for a
singer for a year. As it ended up, Rob is from Toronto. There were
international singers, too, but Rob was it. Rob’s
voice is different than Michael’s, but he cuts the older tunes really
great. On the new CD you must check him out in
full Saga stereo!! He’s awesome!"
With Moratti as their new band member, Saga got together on December 8th
2008 in Orillia, Ontario, Canada, and
arranged the material they had been individually writing for six months.
The Human Condition was produced by
Saga and mixed by Pat Regan at the Sound Image studios in Van Nuys,
California, in February 2009. The result is a
spirited recording with nine versatile numbers which – as Crichton
already stressed – redefine the borderline
between rock music and progressive attitudes. The Human Condition
features vocal melodies consisting of several
voices, Crichton’s unmistakable staccato guitars and sweeping solo
passages which extend into the spheres of fusion
and jazz. Ian Crichton: "We’re proud of all of them, we like all the
tracks on this record, it sounds really refreshing
and new."
Naturally Saga have come up with another exciting subject to give their
songs a central theme. However, this time
Ian Crichton’s aim was to direct the listeners’ fantasy and attention to
the lyrics, which is why he won’t dissect the
story behind The Human Condition. Asked whether Saga’s latest offering is
a concept album, he answers succinctly:
"Yes it is. We always pick a topic when forming a record, before anything
is written. The Human Condition
explains itself."
So The Human Condition substantiates the good news about Saga’s unaltered
sound: they are continuing their great
career and are set to present many more examples of their great creative
power. “Our hope is that people like the
new Saga album as much as we do,” comments Ian Crichton, "there’s so much
music still to create, world touring,
more records." |
