CD OFTHEWEEK

Renaissance De Lane Lea 1973 / Academy of Music 1974

(Purple Pyramid Records)

There is a direct link from the Yardbirds, which included Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton, to this entirely different offshoot band, where the guitarist never played electric lead and usually performed sitting down.

Between 1968 and 1973, Renaissance got through 22 members, and not one of this classic line-up had been in the original band. But such was the power of their performances and the strength of their songs, this five would endure for several albums and never be bettered.

The classical/rock/folk sound was dominated by singer Annie Haslam’s pure, five-octave range, and John Tout’s piano. Swapping the normal roles, bass guitarist Jon Camp shared front-of-stage duties with Haslam, while acoustic guitarist Michael Dunford sat near the back.

Those who know and love the band will probably already have their virtually perfect 1976 album Live at Carnegie Hall. The seeds of that release are already present on these freshly released albums, both of which include the magisterial tenminute “Can You Understand?,” the beautiful ballad “Carpet of the Sun” and the jazzy, piano instrumental “Prologue” (strangely sited at the end of the show).

They also trace the development of “Ashes are Burning,” 12 minutes long in 1973, a little longer in 1974, and which reached 22 minutes on Carnegie Hall.

So what do these albums offer that is not on Carnegie Hall?

Both include guest appearances from Al Stewart on backing vocals and, more noticeably, Wishbone Ash guitarist Andy Powell, making bits of “Ashes are Burning” sound like an outtake from Wishbone’s Argus. De Lane Lea, recorded in the studio with a few friends, includes three lesser-known short songs, including “At the Harbour,” based on Debussy’s La Cathedrale Engloutie.

The two-disc Academy of Music release sees them performing for a wildly enthusiastic New York crowd as a launch event for their superb Turn of the Cards album, all of which appears here, from their classic epic tribute to Alexander Solzhenitsyn (“Mother Russia”) to “Cold is Being,” which is essentially Albinoni’s

Adagio played on organ, with words added.

Particularly of note are the introduction of the excellent “Things I Don’t Understand” to the set and a rarely heard live account of “Black Flame,” which would surely have been a live staple, had their next album not been full of even greater songs.

There are downsides. Both have some suspect harmonies; in the1973 set, “Ashes are Burning” includes a three-second electronic noise; while the other catches twenty seconds of clearly present, but indistinguishable talking (a roadie picked up by the drum mics perhaps?).

But despite these few sound issues, these albums are magnificent and after waiting so long for some classic-years material, fans may well want to catch one of these releases.