RENAISSANCE

Scheherazade And Other Stories CHERRY RED Annie Haslam and co’s magnum opus gets a welcome upgrade.

Listening to this newly reissued reboot of the 1975 album that represented arguably their creative peak, it seems a little peculiar that Renaissance aren’t more readily placed up there at the top table of 70s prog, or at least within touching distance. Perhaps their eventual drift into MOR territory accounts for that neglect – they are, after all, the band that gave us the can’t-believe-it’snot-Abba charms of Northern Lights.

Scheherazade… is a textbook example of what so much prog set out to do, something instantly encapsulated by 10-plus-minute opener A Trip To The Fair. The grandiose piano intro is accompanied by excited, scuttling timpani and choral backing, but surreal cackling in the background tells us we’re not in church anymore, and then breathless 3/4 signatures suggest again that there’s more happening here. A carousel-like piano precedes Annie Haslam’s spellbinding vocal colouring a whimsical, Alice In Wonderland dreamscape (the evocative lyrics by the late Betty Thatcher) that then ventures into lilting reverie replete with xylophone and freewheeling piano fancy, before Haslam’s narrative croons back in. If prog grew out of folk, psychedelia, classical and jazz, this is the whole dysfunctional family coming together in blissful harmony.

More ambitious still is, of course, the side-long,

Arabian Nights-inspired suite Song Of Scheherazade, which seamlessly segues from soundtrack-like orchestral territory into rock opera stylings, taking in torch songs, folk and jazz influences while also consciously nodding to Rimsky-Korsakov’s classical symphony of that name.

Impressive enough on record, but on this expanded reissue they perform all 25 minutes of it at a 1976 Nottingham live show, alongside the irresistible single Ocean Gypsy and three more tracks from the previous year’s Ashes Are Burning LP. The DVD showcases three other tracks performed amid swathes of dry ice for a promotional film. Well worth setting aside a night for – Arabian or otherwise.