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Mirror to the Sky
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Mirror to the Sky
Mirror to the Sky is the twenty-third studio album by English progressive rock band Yes, released on 19 May 2023 by InsideOut Music and Sony Music.
It is their first studio album with American drummer Jay Schellen as a full-time member following the death of long-time Yes drummer Alan White in 2022 (and the first without White since 1972's Close to the Edge), to whom the album is dedicated; Schellen had frequently filled in as drummer for White since 2016, and had performed percussion as a guest on the band's previous album, 2021's The Quest.
Yes started work on the album shortly before the release of The Quest in October 2021. Like for its predecessor, guitarist Steve Howe resumed his role as producer, and the FAMES Orchestra in North Macedonia provided orchestral arrangements by Paul K. Joyce on some songs. The album was released on CD, LP, Blu-ray, and digital platforms, with some editions containing additional artwork by long-time Yes cover artist Roger Dean. It received positive reviews from critics, some of whom considered the album superior to its recent predecessors.
In October 2021, the Yes line-up of guitarist Steve Howe, drummer Alan White, keyboardist Geoff Downes, lead vocalist Jon Davison, and bassist Billy Sherwood, with Jay Schellen guesting on percussion, released The Quest. In the same month Downes revealed that the group had already discussed ideas for a follow-up album, to which Sherwood confirmed in May 2022 that work on it was underway. Later in May 2022, Yes announced that White would sit out of the upcoming 2022 world tour to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Close to the Edge (1972), due to illness. White died three days later and Schellen, who had been handling most of the band's live work since 2016, took over on the drums. In February 2023, Yes announced that Schellen had become a full-time member.
When work on the album began the band still had a lot of potential musical ideas to develop, partly due to the amount of time spent away from recording during the COVID-19 pandemic. Howe said the group were in a strong "creative zone" at the time, and approached Mirror to the Sky in a similar way to The Quest, but wanted the new album not to be a mere repeat of the last. They started with two ideas for songs that they wanted to turn into longer pieces, which became the 13-minute track "Mirror to the Sky" and the 9-minute "Luminosity". Yes recorded the album in 2022, with Sherwood and Schellen recording their respective parts in California. Like its predecessor, Howe resumed his role as producer and the FAMES Orchestra in North Macedonia provide orchestral arrangements by Paul K. Joyce on some songs. The band also continued to work with engineer and mixer Curtis Schwartz at his studio in Ardingly, West Sussex.
The artwork was produced by the band's longtime cover artist Roger Dean. His design was inspired by a story that video game designer Henk Rogers had told him, which involved Rogers paddling to the middle of a lake at night during a camping trip. When the ripples of the water had settled, Dean said that "the lake became a perfect mirror to a very brilliant night sky", an experience that Rogers said was like being in space. The idea caught Dean's imagination and wanted to portray such a concept into one of his designs. He added: "I started with a horizon low down with a lot of sky but then I realised, no, I'll show with ocean in the main area with a sky just a sliver, enough to show it is mirrored. Then I decided to put in a rock formation–a viewing point for the sky." An early design of the band's logo for the cover featured a colour scheme and texture based on the Nebra sky disc, an artefact from the Early Bronze Age discovered in Germany in 1999 that Howe had suggested to Dean. It was not used as the colours did not complement the rest of the design. Dean was able to visit the group in Ardingly several times as he lives nearby.
"Cut from the Stars" was primarily inspired by Davison's first visit to a dark-sky preserve at Joshua Tree National Park with his brother and father, who encouraged him to appreciate nature. Davison praised Sherwood's instrumental ideas he had for the song, and the "twinkling" sound it portrayed to Davison made him write words relating to the sky. Davison took Sherwood's initial parts and rearranged them using audio editing software to make a new arrangement, after which the band built on it and reproduced their respective parts. Howe took what was the song's bridge and made it an instrumental outro. Howe said the track is the most different of all the album's tracks in terms of guitar styles, using an analogue pedal board that had an automatic double wah-wah effect.
The 9-minute "All Connected" was co-written by Davison, Howe, and Sherwood. Davison credited ideas from Howe that were used for the introduction and ending, and for Sherwood's vocal and lyrical contributions. The pair approached the song's lyrical themes in different ways; Davison said Sherwood took on a more "technological and physical" aspect, whereby he looked at it from a metaphysical view.
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Mirror to the Sky
Mirror to the Sky is the twenty-third studio album by English progressive rock band Yes, released on 19 May 2023 by InsideOut Music and Sony Music.
It is their first studio album with American drummer Jay Schellen as a full-time member following the death of long-time Yes drummer Alan White in 2022 (and the first without White since 1972's Close to the Edge), to whom the album is dedicated; Schellen had frequently filled in as drummer for White since 2016, and had performed percussion as a guest on the band's previous album, 2021's The Quest.
Yes started work on the album shortly before the release of The Quest in October 2021. Like for its predecessor, guitarist Steve Howe resumed his role as producer, and the FAMES Orchestra in North Macedonia provided orchestral arrangements by Paul K. Joyce on some songs. The album was released on CD, LP, Blu-ray, and digital platforms, with some editions containing additional artwork by long-time Yes cover artist Roger Dean. It received positive reviews from critics, some of whom considered the album superior to its recent predecessors.
In October 2021, the Yes line-up of guitarist Steve Howe, drummer Alan White, keyboardist Geoff Downes, lead vocalist Jon Davison, and bassist Billy Sherwood, with Jay Schellen guesting on percussion, released The Quest. In the same month Downes revealed that the group had already discussed ideas for a follow-up album, to which Sherwood confirmed in May 2022 that work on it was underway. Later in May 2022, Yes announced that White would sit out of the upcoming 2022 world tour to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Close to the Edge (1972), due to illness. White died three days later and Schellen, who had been handling most of the band's live work since 2016, took over on the drums. In February 2023, Yes announced that Schellen had become a full-time member.
When work on the album began the band still had a lot of potential musical ideas to develop, partly due to the amount of time spent away from recording during the COVID-19 pandemic. Howe said the group were in a strong "creative zone" at the time, and approached Mirror to the Sky in a similar way to The Quest, but wanted the new album not to be a mere repeat of the last. They started with two ideas for songs that they wanted to turn into longer pieces, which became the 13-minute track "Mirror to the Sky" and the 9-minute "Luminosity". Yes recorded the album in 2022, with Sherwood and Schellen recording their respective parts in California. Like its predecessor, Howe resumed his role as producer and the FAMES Orchestra in North Macedonia provide orchestral arrangements by Paul K. Joyce on some songs. The band also continued to work with engineer and mixer Curtis Schwartz at his studio in Ardingly, West Sussex.
The artwork was produced by the band's longtime cover artist Roger Dean. His design was inspired by a story that video game designer Henk Rogers had told him, which involved Rogers paddling to the middle of a lake at night during a camping trip. When the ripples of the water had settled, Dean said that "the lake became a perfect mirror to a very brilliant night sky", an experience that Rogers said was like being in space. The idea caught Dean's imagination and wanted to portray such a concept into one of his designs. He added: "I started with a horizon low down with a lot of sky but then I realised, no, I'll show with ocean in the main area with a sky just a sliver, enough to show it is mirrored. Then I decided to put in a rock formation–a viewing point for the sky." An early design of the band's logo for the cover featured a colour scheme and texture based on the Nebra sky disc, an artefact from the Early Bronze Age discovered in Germany in 1999 that Howe had suggested to Dean. It was not used as the colours did not complement the rest of the design. Dean was able to visit the group in Ardingly several times as he lives nearby.
"Cut from the Stars" was primarily inspired by Davison's first visit to a dark-sky preserve at Joshua Tree National Park with his brother and father, who encouraged him to appreciate nature. Davison praised Sherwood's instrumental ideas he had for the song, and the "twinkling" sound it portrayed to Davison made him write words relating to the sky. Davison took Sherwood's initial parts and rearranged them using audio editing software to make a new arrangement, after which the band built on it and reproduced their respective parts. Howe took what was the song's bridge and made it an instrumental outro. Howe said the track is the most different of all the album's tracks in terms of guitar styles, using an analogue pedal board that had an automatic double wah-wah effect.
The 9-minute "All Connected" was co-written by Davison, Howe, and Sherwood. Davison credited ideas from Howe that were used for the introduction and ending, and for Sherwood's vocal and lyrical contributions. The pair approached the song's lyrical themes in different ways; Davison said Sherwood took on a more "technological and physical" aspect, whereby he looked at it from a metaphysical view.