Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe is the only studio album by English progressive rock band Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe, released in June 1989 on Arista Records.

Background and recording

The project began in 1988. At that time vocalist Jon Anderson had felt artistically constrained within Yes' current format, where the songwriting of Trevor Rabin had taken the band in a commercially successful but musically and lyrically different direction. Anderson regrouped with Steve Howe, Rick Wakeman and Bill Bruford. Bruford, who had at various times been a member of King Crimson, recruited his Crimson bandmate Tony Levin as their bassist. The group was unable to use the name Yes for legal reasons. However, the group did have Arista assign the catalog number of 90126 to the original releases of the CD and cassette. This was a subtle way of stamping this as the next Yes album after 90125 (1983).

Pre-production recording took place at La Frette Studios near Paris with Anderson putting down an outline of much of the album's songs with guitarist Milton McDonald, percussion programmer Joe Hammer and keyboardist/arranger Matt Clifford. Anderson notably built on several demos provided by Howe, some of which Howe released on his solo album Homebrew (1996) and subsequent releases. Recording then relocated at AIR Studios on the island of Montserrat with Wakeman, Bruford and Levin. Most of the album was recorded using C-Lab's Notator software.

Howe recorded his guitar parts separately at SARM West Studios in London. Mixing took place at Bearsville Studios in Bearsville, New York. Howe wrote in 2021 that Steve Thompson and Michael Barbiero, who supervised the mixing along with Anderson, were, while very in demand at the time, unfamiliar with the Yes sound and how the band had balanced its instruments in mixes over the years. Some songs appeared to him to have been pieced together at that stage of post-production, as writing credits did not reflect the actual input. Howe says that while "Themes", the opening track, credits him as one of the writers, he had nothing to do with it, and conversely other members share credit on compositions that were largely his. Bruford has said that though he is credited as co-writer on all of the tracks, he had nothing to do with writing or even arranging any of them, and his role was limited to re-recording parts that had already been laid down with drum machines before he became involved with the project.

Songs

The final section of "Brother of Mine", "Long Lost Brother of Mine", originated as a song written by Howe and Geoff Downes for Asia.

"Birthright" concerns the British nuclear tests at Maralinga in the 1950s and 1960s in Australia and incorporates material by Howe and Max Bacon for their band Nerotrend.

The second section of "Quartet", "She Gives Me Love", contains lyrical references to several Yes songs, including "South Side of the Sky", "Long Distance Runaround", "The Gates of Delirium", "Awaken", and "Roundabout".

"Let's Pretend" was originally written by Anderson and Vangelis as a Jon and Vangelis song, but it was rearranged as a voice and guitar duet for Anderson and Howe.

Cover

The artwork was designed and illustrated by Roger Dean, known for designing several Yes covers and stage sets in the 1970s, including their logo, the last being Classic Yes (1981). Dean was asked to design the cover in February 1989, and claimed he was not briefed on its direction and proceeded to work on "whatever seems appropriate"; his main idea was to suggest what American Indian culture might have developed if European colonists had not come to the Americas. Much of the cover depicts real landscapes and formations in the US; the clay pinnacles in the foreground are in Bryce Canyon, Utah and the background hills are based on the Vermilion Cliffs by the Colorado River.

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The album was released on 20 June 1989, and No. 30 on the US Billboard 200. Elsewhere, it reached the top 30 in Canada, Switzerland, Germany, France, Norway, and Sweden. On August 30, 1989, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for selling 500,000 copies in the US. Yes biographer Chris Welch reported that the album sold approximately 750,000 copies.

"Brother of Mine" was released as an edited single and peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. Its music video was directed by Storm Thorgerson. According to Bill Bruford, "Clive Davis, head of Arista, produced the edit. There was a fair bit of groaning as Clive master-minded what many thought was a massive missed opportunity. Everyone at radio just wanted an obvious single from this song, and Clive managed to omit the hook. The upside was we would probably have turned into Asia, which is something of a relief."

The Gazette opined that, "Yes, they are tremendous musicians—with the exception of the hinge-like singing of Jon Anderson. But virtuosity at the service of overwritten, outdated music is flatulence itself." The Times said that "everything you never liked about Yes—the endless fiddling around, the pretentious, waffling arrangements, and of course Anderson's peculiarly grating, emasculated vocals—is delivered in spades, but with little of the imaginative grandeur or inventive cut and thrust needed to keep the music buoyant." Paul Stump's 1997 History of Progressive Rock commented, "The album was calculated to appeal to diehards; sweeping orchestral bridges, episodic songs, multitudinous solos. But this, as did the 90125 project, lacks momentum, the emotional syntax of the music is still boringly rock-based; the orchestration, once pearly and luminous, sounds merely stodgy, and technology remains under-utilized; even Horn's primitive samplings of 1983 are absent here."

Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe

  • Jon Anderson – lead vocals, production
  • Bill Bruford – Tama acoustic drums, Simmons SDX electronic drums
  • Rick Wakeman – keyboards
  • Steve Howe – guitars

Additional personnel

  • Tony Levin – bass, Chapman stick, vocals
  • Matt Clifford – keyboards, programming, orchestration, vocals
  • Milton McDonald – rhythm guitar
  • The Oxford Circus Singers (Deborah Anderson, Tessa Niles, Carol Kenyon, Frank Dunnery) - backing vocals
  • J.M.C. Singers – Jon, Matt, Chris - backing vocals
  • Emerald Isle Community Singers - backing vocals
  • In Seine Singers - backing vocals

Technical personnel

  • Chris Kimsey – production, engineering
  • Chris Potter – engineering
  • Giles Sampic – engineering at La Frette Studios
  • Rupert Coulson – assistant engineering at AIR Studios, London
  • George Cowen – assistant engineering
  • Steve Orchard – assistant engineering at AIR Studios, Montserrat
  • "Texas" Joe Hammer – percussion programming at La Frette Studios
  • Chris Ranson – group tech
  • Michael Barbiero – mixing
  • Steve Thompson – mixing
  • George Cowan – assistant mixing
  • Olivier Bloch-Laine – assistant
  • Bob Ludwig – mastering at Masterdisk
  • Roger Dean – artwork, painting, design
  • Martyn Dean – stage design consultant

Charts

Album

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! scope="col"| Chart (1989)

! scope="col"| Peak<br /> position

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! scope="row"|Italian Albums (Musica e Dischi)

|15

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!scope="row"| US Billboard 200

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Singles

Brother of Mine

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

!Chart (1989)

!Peak<br />position

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!scope="row"| US Alternative Airplay

|align="center"|2

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Order of the Universe

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

!Chart (1989)

!Peak<br />position

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!scope="row"| US Alternative Airplay