SACD Yes – Close To The Edge

Close To The Edge as a hybrid stereo SACD from the Atlantic 75 Series: Yes in 1972 with just three compositions – the long title suite, “And You And I” and “Siberian Khatru” – in one uninterrupted programme.

Three compositions make an album

Close To The Edge contains just three compositions – and according to the publisher, the title suite alone runs around 18 minutes. Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Rick Wakeman and Bill Bruford worked with Eddy Offord at London’s Advision Studios, and the extended forms grew out of countless smaller decisions about transitions, instrumentation and recurring material.

The title composition in particular was developed in sections and assembled on tape. That is a wonderful key to its changing states: a long piece doesn’t have to begin as one uninterrupted performance – here, working with the recorded material is part of how Yes build musical relationships across a long span of time.

A church organ enters the recording

Wakeman’s pipe-organ part for the title track was recorded at St Giles-without-Cripplegate in London – the instrument really stood in a church, and its recording then had to be woven into the piece. Next to electronic keyboards and piano comes an instrument with its own physical space and acoustic character.

At the transition to the organ, listen for more than a change of colour: how are voice, dynamics and the sense of time organised around its entrance? It’s a perfect reason to hear instrumentation as part of the musical form – a new instrument can shift the weight of an entire section, not just its sound.

Guitars, voices and a farewell

Steve Howe’s instruments include guitars and pedal steel, Wakeman’s keyboards include Mellotron and Minimoog, and “And You And I” and “Siberian Khatru” give these combinations very different settings. Chris Squire’s bass and the supporting voices are as much part of the arrangements as the eye-catching solo instruments.

After the sessions, Bill Bruford left Yes for King Crimson, and Alan White took over for the tour that followed. So the album captures one line-up at its endpoint – while the music’s life on stage continued with a different drummer.

The Atlantic 75 hybrid stereo SACD

CAPA 044 SA is a hybrid stereo SACD from the Analogue Productions Atlantic 75 Series. According to the publisher, Close To The Edge reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200 – the highest position Yes ever reached on that chart. The SACD layer plays on SACD-capable players, the CD layer on any conventional CD player. The disc contains the complete album: the four-part title suite, the four-part “And You And I” and “Siberian Khatru”.

You order from Michael 45 in Germany. We arrange the US import and ship from Hilden.

More from the series: Atlantic 75 Series

Also in another edition: Close To The Edge

More SACDs by Yes: Fragile · The Yes Album · 90125

Artist page: All titles by Yes

Customer question: Buying Analogue Productions records in Europe

Musicians

Documented selection of participating musicians. Personnel may vary by track; this list does not claim to be complete.