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Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius
This week we spoke to Paul K Joyce who has contributed orchestrations to the new Yes album, Aurora. This is the third Yes album he has been involved with after helping the band create the wonderful aural landscapes of The Quest and Mirror to the Sky. He tells us about how the decisions came about, how many of the songs on Aurora feature orchestra and how the Czech National Symphony Orchestra went about recording the tracks, with him in the recording booth. As always, it was a fascinating conversation with someone who is both intimately connected with the newest Yes music and is also a huge Yes fan himself.
There is also time for Mark to give us some great feedback on the Record Store Day release of Tales From Topographic Tours.
- How many songs on the forthcoming album have orchestral augmentation?
- Who made the decisions on what to put where?
- What was it like working with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra?
Paul’s website – https://www.pkjmusic.com
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Yes – The Tormato Story & Tales from Topographic Oceans – Yes Album Listening Guide
Available now!
YMP Patrons:
Producers:
- Joseph Cottrell
- Wayne Hall
- Ken Fuller
- Jeffrey Crecelius
Patrons:
| Aaron Steelman | Lind |
| Al Dell’Angelo | Lobate Scarp |
| Barry Gorsky | Mark Baggs |
| Bill Whittaker | Mark James Lang |
| Bob Martilotta | Mark Slater |
| Brian Harris | Martin Kjellberg |
| Brian Sullivan | Michael Handerhan |
| Chris Bandini | Michael O’Connor |
| Craig Estenes | Miguel Falcão |
| Dave Owen | Paul Hailes |
| David | Paul Tomei |
| David Heyden | Rachel Hadaway |
| David Pannell | Robert Nasir |
| David Watkinson | Robert Vandiver |
| Declan Logue | Ronnie Neeley |
| Dem | Scott Colombo |
| Doug Curran | Simon Barrow |
| Fergus Cubbage | Stephen Lambe |
| Fred Barringer | Steve Dill |
| Gary Betts | Steve Luzietti |
| Geoff Bailie | Steve Perry |
| Geoffrey Mason | Steve Rode |
| Guy DeRome | Steve Scott |
| Henrik Antonsson | Steven Roehr |
| Hogne Bø Pettersen | Terence Sadler |
| Todd Dudley | Thomas DeVries |
| John Cowan | John Thomson |
| John Holden | John Viola |
| Jamie McQuinn | Tim Stannard |
| Douglas Caldwell | Steve Moss |
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8 replies on “In conversation with Paul K Joyce about his contributions to the new Yes album, Aurora – 718”
Excellent show and good to have you back Kevin, and well done Mark for the ones you did.
Stephen, it was such a good evening catching up, and in the best place too. Onwards to the next meeting.
Does anyone step back and think to themselves, I’ve been doing this Yes thing for fifty years, and yet there is always something happening such as releases, tours and more. Quite remarkable don’t you think?
Thanks Dave. It’s great to be back aboard the good ship YMP and, as you say, to have so much exciting, new Yes activity to talk about!
Please stop the prattling on at the beginning by the people who love to hear their own voices. Honestly talk about love themselves !
Anybody who uses the word Sonata in a song review needs help.
Thanks for the feedback. Stephen and Simon are longtime contributors to YMP and hugely knowledgeable about Yes music, having both written books about the band.
However, everyone has their own preferences, of course, and there’s always the option to fast forward parts of the show that don’t connect with our own preferred styles.
Also, please feel free to send in your own thoughts in audio format. Over the 15 years of the show, I have played all audio contributions because I think it enriches the episodes we produce.
Welcome back, Kevin! Thanks for having Paul back again to provide us details on another Yes album. Really looking forward to hearing all of the album. BTW, a 2nd song/video will be released in May to whet our appetites.
Thanks Doug. Good to hear there will be a second single. I wonder what style they will go for this time.
I appreciate the various reviews. I don’t have a good knowledge of musical terminology, but it is fun to listen. But I do know what I like; and Oliver’s album is my favorite from the last quarter century. (Since Magnification). There, I said it!:)
Welcome back Kevin and thanks for another great episode. I really enjoyed hearing the comments from Stephen and Simon and can’t wait to hear the new
album especially in the light of what Stephen said about the second half of the album being likely to split opinions.
Just wanted to pick up on what Mark said about The Remembering on Tales from Topographic Tours being different from what he recalled of the original. Sadly both The Remembering and The Revealing are truncated on this recording. The Revealing fades out after 14 minutes losing about a third of the full version sadly including Ricks moog solo. The Remembering fades in at the beginning of Ricks first solo section missing the first 3-4 verses. Sad omissions but I assume the recording quality was just not good enough in both cases.