K2

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K2 biography

A prog fan's dream album and the first REAL prog supergroup since UK!!! Line up includes Ken Jaquess, bassist for LA based Atlantis, multi-instrumentalist and Peter Gabriel sound-a-like Shaun Guerin, ex-UK guitarist Allan Holdsworth, drummer extraordinaire Doug Sanborn, keyboardist/synths player Ryo Okumoto and violinist Yvette Devereaux on a magnificent sounding album of pure progressive rock at its absolute best. K2 sound similar to and as good as anything UK ever did and not that far from cla...A prog fan's dream album and the first REAL prog supergroup since UK!!! Line up includes Ken Jaquess, bassist for LA based Atlantis, multi-instrumentalist and Peter Gabriel sound-a-like Shaun Guerin, ex-UK guitarist Allan Holdsworth, drummer extraordinaire Doug Sanborn, keyboardist/synths player Ryo Okumoto and violinist Yvette Devereaux on a magnificent sounding album of pure progressive rock at its absolute best. K2 sound similar to and as good as anything UK ever did and not that far from classic GENESIS either, with a feel that's firmly rooted in the 70's, while at the same time sounding just incredible. With 5 tracks over forty-six minutes, the band get more than their fair chance to shine, yet the sum of the parts makes a whole that is breathtakingly spectacular. The songs are the best you'll have heard since any number of vintage and classic British 70's prog albums, with a vocal that is pure GABRIEL-esque in terms of its sound, its passion, even its phrasing, and on compositions as amazingly written and arranged as this, it's as close to prog heaven as you'll get.

But that's by no means the whole story - we're talking Holdsworth's guitar work at its most prog-sounding and expressive best, melodic, fluid, flowing and it's like UK all over again. The drumming is every bit as good too, as Bruford or Bozzio, even a mix of the two, while Okumoto & Devereaux provide a sea of synthesizers, Mellotrons and violin, just soaring and flying in ways that will leave you jaw-dropped in admiration and stunned as to the brilliance of it all! The album itself is, in the fine traditions of the best 70's releases, a "concept album", written and arranged by Ken Jaquess. The opening track is a staggeringly fine twenty-three minute epic that will occupy a place by your player for years to come with its fantastic symphonic keyboards intro and many twists and turns along the way, sheer flowing construction and impassioned delivery, making it the 'Supper's Ready' of the new millennium. Everything about this track oozes pure class and quality, but, more than that, the sheer spectacle of hearing the synths, vocals, rhythm section, electric guitar and violin played like THIS, is nothing short of spine-tingling stuff! The 2nd track has an intro that will leave you swearing you've been transported back to the heady days of the 70's, while the main body of the song has a similar effect. The sound swirls all around you and it's like having classic Genesis playing in your living room at times - it's monumental and then some, nearly seven minutes of utter prog bliss. What follows is like a delicious collision of UK and GENESIS with 3 tracks running for seven, three and six minutes, and these just put the icing on the already sumptuous cake.

In short, 'Book Of The Dead' is magnificent - one of the best "seventies prog-rock" sounding albums ever made - and it's only thirty-three years late!!! So worth the wait, you'll want it yesterday! Highly Recommended !!!

K2: Book of the Dead

Book of the Dead - an old-school prog-rock concept album based on ideas and stories taken directly from the Egyptian “Book of the Dead” - would be a creepy album even if vocalist Shaun Guerin had not passed away in 2003 shortly after recording his performances for this record. Guerin, who also played drums in Rocket Scientists and handled lead vocals in the Genesis tribute band Cinema Show, possessed a dusty voice with uncanny similarities to Peter Gabriel. Indeed, K2 invokes plenty of Gabriel-era Genesis, as well as Pink Floyd, Yes, Marillion and Arena.

Pronounced “K Squared,” K2 is the brainchild of Ken Jaquess, a multi-instrumentalist for the neo-progressive outfit Atlantis, who recruited a slew of talent for the project. In addition to Guerin, guitarist Allan Holdsworth (UK, Level 42), keyboardist Ryo Okumoto (Spock's Beard), drummer Doug Sanborn and classical violinist Yvette Devereaux fill in the blanks in this Book of the Dead. Lyrically, Jaquess weaves an intricate pharaoh-based tale of death and rebirth. Packed with references to rituals, sacrifices, temples, gods, spirits and the good earth, the album demands listeners' imaginations as it captures their fancy.

The album is divided into five chapters, and purists will revel in the 23-and-a-half-minute opening chapter, “Infinite Voyage,” which boasts plenty of Moog. Those sounds get even fatter on the memorable third chapter, “The Edge of Light.” Meanwhile, the sparse instrumental fourth chapter, “Aten (Window of Appearances)," segues into the redemptive final chapter, “The Cloak of Ambiguity,” which brings Book of the Dead bouncing to a hopeful (and, considering Guerin's death, prophetic) conclusion: “As the clouds depart, I reach the deepest valley/And cross through the gates, reflected in my eyes.”

Track Listing:
Chapter 1: Infinite Voyage
Chapter 2: Mirror to the Spirits
Chapter 3: The Edge of Light
Chapter 4: Aten (Window of Appearances)
Chapter 5: Cloak of Antiquity

Added: April 12th 2005
Reviewer: Michael Popke
Score:
Related Link: Official Ken Jaquess Web Site
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Language: english