THREE ALBUMS DUE FROM ROBERT REED
Magenta man ‘reimagines’ early project and adds a two-parter to Sanctuary catalogue.
Robert Reed has three more albums on the way this year. He will release the latest in his solo Sanctuary series, The Ringmaster, Part One on October 11 , with Part Two due on December 5. These will follow the September 24 issue of For King And Country, a completely reworked version of the 1993 debut album by his early band, Cyan. All three albums will be released on Reed’s own Tigermoth Records.
Reed formed Cyan in the mid-80s when he was 18 and studying for his A-Levels at school. In the 90s they made two records for Dutch label SI Music and one for F2, but in ’99 Reed ditched the project to form Magenta with his Trippa bandmate, Christina Booth. “The songs on For King And Country were written on our school assembly piano,” says Reed. “I was young and wanted to be in It Bites or Genesis, and so there’s an innocence and positivity to the music that I wish I still had!”
Over the years he tinkered with the debut album but could never find the right singer for it, until he met Tiger Moth Tales’ Peter Jones: “Pete gave it a go and it sounded amazing, and I threw everything I’d learned in the last 20 years at the project. I reimagined it, rewrote loads of the lyrics and melodies, rearranged the whole thing. It’s seven tracks, 65 minutes long, and prog with a capital ‘P’.”
Joining Reed and Jones in Cyan are guitar maestro Luke Machin and Magenta bassist Dan Nelson. Drummer Tim Robinson played on the record but Magenta’s Jiffy Griffiths will step in for live work. The band will perform For King And Country in its entirety at their first show, at Summer’s End Festival on October 3.
The Ringmaster: Part One was again made with Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells producer Tom Newman. “The first three were called I, II and III,” says Reed, “but that meant the music became almost faceless. I’ve had people say, ‘I love that bit 11 minutes into Sanctuary II, Part 2!’ So this time the tracks have names and are split up.”
The album’s story was conceived by Oldfield’s other regular collaborator, Les Penning, with the titular character representing ‘the muse on the artist’s shoulder’. “One day he’ll give you everything you ever wanted,” Reed explains, “the next he won’t and you can’t play or write anything. It’s a great story about how all artists are slaves to the muse.”
“It’s a great story about how all artists are slaves to the muse.”
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