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Their debut album, Tales of Mystery and Imagination: Edgar Allan Poe (1976), presents the listener with the wide range of music they will experience in all APP albums. The first piece “A Dream within a Dream” begins with a stimulating Poe reading by Orson Wells fading into the drifting sounds of analog synthesizers. Shortly thereafter the listener is taken to yet another place as synth-laced rock presents itself. The second track, “The Raven”, although not instrumental is noteworthy because of APP’s use of the EMI vocoder. The vocoder was extremely new technology holding APP as one of its pioneers direct on the heels of Kraftwerk. This paved the way for the digital altering of vocals so readily heard in music today. The final instrumental piece on their debut album is “The Fall of the House of Usher.” The five chaptered song takes the listener on a musical adaptation of one of Poe’s more famous short stories. The orchestral elements are the primary impetus for these haunting pieces with synthesized elements adding to the brooding atmosphere. The traditional rock-influenced sound presented in many APP songs fills to complete the mastery of the piece.
APP’s second album, I Robot (1977), begins with the title track embellishing on the most traditional of analog synthesizer instrumentation (which has become recently popular again in the ‘90s) accompanied by a rock beat. The vocoder reprises its role in APP’s “The Voice,” still considered an innovation a year after its introduction to music. “Nucleus” is a track full of the swirling sounds and effects most apparent in early new instrumental music. The piece basically provides a segeway between the album’s surrounding elements and a relaxing state. In I Robot, APP truly discovered the power of vocals in the form of the orchestral choir. “Total Eclipse,” one of APP’s darkest and most melancholy songs portrays the human voice in a most disturbing fashion complete with sharp string and brass interjections. Fading in, “Genesis CH.1 V.32” takes over where “Total Eclipse” left off. The choir and horns remain as synthesized and rock elements control the song leading to the end of the album.
In 1978 APP released their third album Pyramid. As in their previous albums and albums to come, Pyramid demands an open mind and emotional response by the listener. A slight mid-eastern flavor seeps into “Voyager”, the introductory track of the album. Again, synthesized music transforms into the more conventional rock throughout the piece. “In the Lap of the Gods” is a conglomeration of unique styles. Using their orchestral, synthesizer and rock elements, the piece is constantly changing from medieval to modern and then a mixture of the two. Although produced in 1978, “Hyper-Gamma Spaces” sounds strangely modern even today, showing the timelessness of APP’s work. The driving beat and ethereal sounds are similar to much of the new instrumental music being released from Europe presently.
Eve, APP’s fourth album, was released in 1979. The dance influences become most audible in Eve and technological enhancements in synthesizers take more obvious roles. Following on the coattails of “Hyper-Gamma Spaces”, track one entitled “Lucifer” takes the listener on another beat driven song. The piece also sounds quite modern with a mid-eastern influence. “Lucifer” helped APP become known as an instrumental band expanding from rock. It was the first instrumental piece added to their first “Best of” album and has recently been covered by Michael Cretu (Enigma) in his Trance Atlantic Soundwaves side-project. The second of only two instrumentals on Eve is “Secret Garden”. A rock/disco beat moves the song with strings and a melodious muted piano control it. It progresses slightly and moves through a dreamy sequence before returning. A contrast to “Lucifer,” “Secret Garden” sounds very oriented in its year of production.
APP continued its trend of releasing a new album each year with their fifth album, The Turn of a Friendly Card (1980). Casting aside any dance sounds from EVE, APP returns to the rock-synth-orchestral sounds more apparent in the first three albums. “The Gold Bug” (named after an Edgar A. Poe short story) has a mystic feel similar to many previous instrumentals, buts adds a mix of blues/jazz as with an affinity for the saxophone. It progresses as background vocals help to fill the song. The orchestral sound of the harpsichord, soft stings, and an oboe brings us into “The Ace of Swords.” The listener is quickly swept into a mix of baroque and rock. Then, like much of APP’s work, the listener has little time to become bored as the sonic feel changes again to a more traditional rock sound with orchestral overtones. It serves as an intermission piece in the five sectioned piece entitled “The Turn of a Friendly Card.”
One of APP’s most famous songs, “Sirius” (as used by many professional sports franchises, like the Chicago Bulls, as an intro. song) was released on Eye in the Sky (1981). “Sirius” is a powerful two minute song that continually builds. With its pulsing beat and powerful percussion/guitar hits and sequenced rhythm it is no wonder it is still an instrumental favorite today as evidenced by crowds during APP’s 1998 North American tour with Yes. “Sirius” incidentally fades into another of APP’s most famous vocal songs “Eye in the Sky.” The expanded ability of synthesizers becomes even more apparent in the album's other instrumental “Mammagamma” with cross-delays and smoother fades. Its beat is reminiscent of the pre-sampled drum machine era, but centers more on its synth melodies and further electric guitar instrumentation.
After a short hiatus APP returned with Ammonia Avenue (early 1984) and Vulture Culture (end of 1984). Unfortunately, both of the albums only had one instrumental track each. Even after the hiatus and eventual build up of music, APP stayed true to its form of previous albums even improving the quality of their music. The Ammonia Avenue instrumental “Pipeline” contains similar elements to its predecessor “Mammagamma” with a steady beat, bass, and sequenced synth melody. The major differing element is the prominent saxophone and horns. The clarity of synthesizers can be clearly heard in “Hawkeye,” the one instrumental track contained on the latter album. Staying true to fans of the Project, the song brings us the same base elements with a more ethnic twist. The listener hears ethnic voices and acoustic steel drums, while the saxophone plays a major part throughout this song.
Taking no break between the two 1984 albums, APP moved on to their next studio album Stereotomy released in 1985. Stereotomy personifies the rock of the 80s at its best, while APP stays true to their musical style with a mix of synth-laden rock. Dramatic improvements in synthesizer technology are again represented throughout the album. “Urbania” brings us into APP’s world with sampled car sounds. We are moved through the piece with a heavy rock beat and sharp bass line with electric guitar. APP, however, never fails to show us their range with a dreamy, ethereal section, followed by a smooth jazz section, not unlike the saxophone driven radio genre so popular today. The piece ends with a signature rock outro. As mentioned before, APP does not fail to accommodate the listener with a pulsing beat and bass heavy song in the lengthy, but powerful, “Where’s the Walrus?” Keeping with the thematic electric guitars, hard synth sounds and upfront sax, drifting synth sounds fill out the atmosphere. A dreamy sequence is also present. The short segeway piece “Chinese Whispers” has a definite contemporary jazz flavor with acoustic guitar accompanied by soft synth sounds, ending with sampled drifting vocals.
The last of the Alan Parsons (Project) albums, Gaudi, was released in 1987. As all Project studio albums, the collection of songs is dedicated to a way of thought, philosophy or man who through his studies or art has intrigued the composers. Antonio Gaudi, a Catalan architect, inspired the album. The piece “Paseo de Gracia” gives the listener an instrumental version of track one “La Sagrada Familia” with a much heavier Spanish influence of acoustic guitar and ethnic percussion. APP, however, finds a way to incorporate the electric guitar and horns portrayed in many of their instrumentals.
After a couple lost years Alan Parsons reemerged onto the music seen, dropping the "Project" name, with Freudiana (1990). Freudiana is a true concept album, with accompanying live theatrical production, dedicated to the ideas and works of Sigmund Freud. With a sense of theater, we are introduced to the album's tone with the powerful “The Nirvana Principle.” Orchestra and synth push us into a familiar pulsing beat and bass line updated with a 90s dance flavor. No surprise--horns, electric guitar, and sax weave themselves into the awesome intro. piece ending with the samples of a jungle. “Beyond the Pleasure Principle” begins with a segeway from the previous track then turns in an entirely different direction. The song spins into a jazzy piece with a piano bass and high-hat beat complete with horns and a melody carried by sax. AP waves his producer’s wand again presenting the listener with an instrumental version of the previous track of the same title. With the electronic bass and rock beat holding the song, a wide range of orchestral instruments take center stage. AP’s use of sax hands a welcome power to the piece as it closes.
Another three years past until AP’s twelfth album Try Anything Once (1993). The first instrumental “Breakaway” gives listeners a taste of AP’s roots with a sequenced analog bass line reminiscent of I Robot. A powerfully mixed sax carries us through much of the piece with orchestral strings and electric guitar playing cameos. A touch of Irish influence comes into play in “Jigue.” Violins move us as AP transforms the piece using electric guitars and a rock beat. Even a wonderful acoustic guitar takes full center stage in another movement of the piece. The piece drifts off only after we experience a sax-filled coda. The drifting floating elements of “Dreamscape” couldn't have had a more apt title. As we are whisked about, a smooth melodious electric guitar sings a lullaby. A bit of a change for AP, this gentle piece fits nicely into the otherwise quick paced album. Another new element for AP explored in Try Anything Once is “Re-jigue” a reprise of “Jigue” in a fully symphonic setting. This piece has an epic sound on par with a silver screen spaghetti western score. AP pulls in the electric guitar for an extra kick with heavy acoustic drums toward the end.
Bringing us to the present is AP’s latest album On
Air (1996). The fullness and high quality of the synthesized
elements and recording are easily heard on this album. In a new twist,
AP also released a multimedia CD-ROM complete with songs from the album
and graphics.
In On Air AP takes a more laid back approach in much of
the music. “Cloudbreak” accompanies this theme with an echoing moving
piece with smooth ethereal sounds and electric guitars to carry the harmony.
“Apollo” moves AP to a new plateau of instrumental music. The song
begins much like “Lucifer” with sampled background tech sounds and a hard
bass line. Then we are moved into a new age of ambient techno style
music incorporating many of AP’s tried and true elements of chorus and
electric guitar.
The Alan Parsons Project could have dedicated itself
to either vocal or instrumental music throughout the past two decades and
have maintained a high standard of music. However, their range and
variance in music has been a claim to fame and is generally unseen in the
industry even today.
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