On Air (Alan Parsons album)
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On Air is the second solo release by Alan Parsons following the split of The Alan Parsons Project, however the album's chief creative force was the Project's long-time guitarist, Ian Bairnson. Its concept revolves around the history of airborne exploration.
Album's concept
With their newfound independence from Arista, Parsons and Bairnson decided early on that this release would be a work of art from start to finish where neither vision nor integrity would be subverted by commercial sensibility.
The album follows the history of airborne exploration, from the mythological flight of Daedalus and Icarus to escape the labyrinth of the Minotaur in "Too Close To The Sun", through Leonardo da Vinci's search to design a flying machine, or ornithopter, in long-time Project drummer Stuart Elliott's "One Day To Fly", until finally mankind's aspirations for space exploration placed on the shoulders of a single astronaut in "So Far Away" and the subsequent superpower race to put a man on the moon in "Apollo", a track backed by John F. Kennedy's famous speech of May 25, 1961.
While the ode to hot air ballooning "Blown By The Wind" and following instrumental "Cloudbreak" are arguably the finest guitar work Bairnson has ever recorded, the creative catalyst for this album is the beautiful, albeit melancholy, ballad "Brother Up In Heaven". The song's lyrics remember Ian's deceased cousin Erik Mounsey who was killed in a friendly fire incident above Iraq in 1994. The death of this young helicopter pilot is made even more haunting by the fact that he was an unarmed peacekeeper.
Release
On Air was issued as both a stereo CD and a 5.1 channel dts mix. Included with the music CD was a CD-Rom disk exploring the On Air theme.
Track listing
- "Blue Blue Sky" - (Bairnson) Lead Vocals Eric Stewart – 1:38
- "Too Close To The Sun" - (Parsons, Bairnson, Elliott) Lead Vocals Neil Lockwood – 5:04
- "Blown By The Wind" - (Bairnson) Lead Vocals Eric Stewart – 5:25
- "Cloudbreak" - (Bairnson, Parsons, Elliott) Instrumental – 4:39
- "I Can't Look Down" - (Bairnson) Lead vocals Neil Lockwood – 4:37
- "Brother Up In Heaven" dedicated to Erik Mounsey 1965-1994 - (Bairnson) Lead Vocals Neil Lockwood – 4:02
- "Fall Free" inspired by skysurfer Rob Harris 1966-1995 - (Bairnson, Elliott, Parsons) Lead Vocals Steve Overland – 4:21
- "Apollo" - (Elliott, Parsons, Bairnson) Instrumental with John F. Kennedy audio clips – 6:06
- "So Far Away" - (Bairnson) Lead Vocals Christopher Cross – 4:07
- "One Day To Fly" - (Elliott, English) Lead Vocals Graham Dye – 6:16
- "Blue Blue Sky" - (Bairnson) Lead Vocals Eric Stewart – 4:24
Personnel
- Alan Parsons – keyboards, mixing, engineering
- Andrew Powell – orchestral arranger and conductor
- Ian Bairnson – guitars, bass guitar, synthesizer
- Stuart Elliott – percussion, drums
- Eric Stewart – lead vocals (tracks 1, 3, 11)
- Neil Lockwood – lead vocals (tracks 2, 5, 6)
- Steve Overland – lead vocals (track 7)
- Christopher Cross – lead vocals (track 9)
- Graham Dye – lead vocals (track 10)
- Peter Beckett – backing vocals (track 6)
- John Giblin – bass guitar
- Richard Cottle – saxophone
- Gary Sanctuary – keyboards
- Christopher Warren-Green – orchestra leader
- Storm Thorgerson – cover design