Rock On! Wednesday, 5 February 2025 – Renaissance, Kaipa, Beggars Opera, Triumvirat & Harmonium

Psychedelic, heavy, prog and more innovating sounds spanning the late 60s and the early 70s – Dan’s pick of the week: Renaissance (Scheherazade and Other Stories), Kaipa (Inget Nytt Under Solen), Beggars Opera (Waters of Change), Triumvirat (Spartacus) & Harmonium (L’heptade).

Renaissance is een Engelse progressieve rockband. De groep werd in 1969 opgericht door Keith Relf en Jim McCarty, beiden ex-Yardbirds. in de loop van 1970 hadden alle oorspronkelijke leden de band verlaten en waren ze vervangen door nieuwe leden. Michael Dunford werd gevraagd de muziek te schrijven en Annie Haslam deed de zang. John Tout nam de piano en overige toetsen voor zijn rekening. Als bassist werd Jon Camp aangenomen en op de drums Terence Sullivan. In deze samenstelling zou Renaissance het meest succesvol worden en ruim 10 jaar bestaan.

Sputnik Music review: “When I first bought this, I had never heard anything from them, including this. I gave it a spin and was shocked how I started pounding my foot and rocked to and fro in tact with the music. Singing along and following the music is uncommon for prog, especially the first time around. Listen to Yes, and you will find this impossible. What Renaissance did was sort of ahead of its time. Sure, the Moody Blues made an album already in 1967 incorporating orchestra, but they did it very different. “Days of Future Past” used the orchestra only to connect songs, they didn’t base their sound around one. Renaissance took advantage of having an orchestra and used one actively, with marvelous results. (…)

Every song has something to offer. The album opens with the strong “A Trip to the Fair”. Starting with grand piano intro, the song evolves into a mystical tune with dark moods. This lasts the first few minutes, until Annie takes control and delivers the first lines of lyrics beautifully; I took a trip down to look at the fair/when I arrived I found nobody there/it seemed I was all alone/must be that they’ve all gone home.Xylophone is also used wonderfully in an unusual solo excellently placed. The weakest song on the album “The Vultures Fly High” is still very strong and is the greatest rocker on the album with high intensity and great singing from Annie and groovy bass lines. “Ocean Gypsy” is a very pleasant tune where the piano takes a step back some parts of the song, and lets guitarist Dunford shine a little. This, however, is just so Tout can return for a gorgeous piano solo in the middle of song.

The clear album highlight is saved for last, the 25 minute epic suite album titled “Song of Scheherazade”. This is the best performance they ever gave, and lets all band members shine. This is where the orchestra is used the most and they have made sure that it is used where essential, which is almost all the time. ”

Wednesday, Wednesday, 5 February 2025 12:00 noon CET Brussels – 11 a.m. GMT London. Repeated: 16:00 & 20:00 hrs CET Brussels, 3 p.m. & 7 p.m. GMT London
Ends: 12 midnight CET Brussels, 11 p.m. GMT London.