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Steven Wilson

One of the most eclectic and prolific artists in rock music, Steven Wilson has been writing, recording, and producing music continuously since the age of 10. A native of Hemel Hempstead in England, Steven was first exposed to music at the age of eight, when he started hearing his father listening to Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon,” and his mother to Donna Summer’s “Love to Love You Baby,” two albums that were pivotal in the development of his musical direction. His father, an electrical engineer, built him a multi-track tape machine, and he began to experiment with overdubbing and developing a repertoire of production techniques.Early demo tapes started to emerge in the mid 80’s while Steven was still at school, and at the end of the decade he created the two projects which gained him entry to the professional music world: Porcupine Tree and No Man. Porcupine Tree, which explored psychedelia, progressive music, and his love of ambitious seventies music, was initially an imaginary “band” which, in reality, Steven overdubbed all the instruments himself. This even extended to early demo tapes coming with a fictional written history of the band, and biographical info about the fictitious performers.Around the same time, Steven formed No-Man, his long-term collaboration with singer Tim Bowness. Influenced by everything from ambient music to hip-hop, their early singles and albums were a mixture of dance beats and lush orchestrations. Signing to One Little Indian in the UK, and Epic in the US in 1990, they received tremendous accolades from the music press, with Singles Of The Week in Melody Maker, Sounds and Hot Press.

Meanwhile, things progressed with Porcupine Tree, whose increasing popularity was fast outpacing the imaginary pretext of an actual group. The second full-length album, Up the Downstair was released in 1993 and was praised by Melody Maker as “a psychedelic masterpiece… one of the albums of the year.” This was the first album to include keyboardist Richard Barbieri and bassist Colin Edwin, albeit only as guests at this point, the album was still effectively a solo project.The next album The Sky Moves Sideways was a transitional album featuring both solo SW and band pieces, but from then on it became a full band with the addition of Chris Maitland on drums. Further albums throughout the late nineties, and extensive touring resulted in a string of indie chart placings and critical acclaim, many fans hailing them as the Pink Floyd of the nineties.

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Album Review

Steven Wilson: Home Invasion: In Concert at the Royal Albert Hall

Read "Home Invasion: In Concert at the Royal Albert Hall" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


One component of progressive rock composer/vocalist/guitarist/ Steve Wilson's widespread appeal pertains to his rather boyish charm and heartfelt vocal delivery. A strong composer and supreme melody-maker, the artist seduces the audience with the notions of living and breathing the experiences and implications of a song's lyrics. And he helped pave the way for post progressive rock stylizations as the founder of the hugely successful and influential band, Porcupine Tree. Moreover, he's collaborated with several named artists and ensembles over the ...

6
Film Review

Home Invasion: In Concert at the Royal Albert Hall (2CD/Blu Ray)

Read "Home Invasion: In Concert at the Royal Albert Hall (2CD/Blu Ray)" reviewed by John Kelman


Steven Wilson Home Invasion: In Concert at the Royal Albert Hall Eagle Records 2018 In a career now early in its fourth decade, singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Steven Wilson has bucked almost every trend in the new millennium music industry. After spending over twenty years as the driving force behind Porcupine Tree, he made the seemingly risky move of going solo with 2009's Insurgentes (Kscope). In some ways it was an odd move, given that Porcupine Tree ostensibly ...

7
Live Review

Steven Wilson at Salle Wilfrid Pelletier

Read "Steven Wilson at Salle Wilfrid Pelletier" reviewed by John Kelman


Steven Wilson Salle Wilfrid Pelletier Place des Arts Montréal, Canada November 23, 2018 Singer/songwriter Steven Wilson's star has been on the ascendance since he first began releasing albums as Porcupine Tree in the early '90s, a solo project that ultimately became a band when early releases were so successful that it became necessary to form one in order to take the music on the road. When he decided to part company with the group ...

1
Live Review

Steven Wilson at the Keswick Theater

Read "Steven Wilson at the Keswick Theater" reviewed by Geno Thackara


Steven Wilson The Keswick Theater Glenside, PA April 25, 2018 If rockers are usually supposed to slow down and lose their edge as they get older, Steven Wilson obviously missed the memo. He's a little way behind the departing or retiring rock royalty of the '70s (not that they've all become dinosaurs either), but he seems to be only getting more fired up as his solo career progresses. His restless insistence on mad genre-hopping does ...

25
Album Review

Steven Wilson: To the Bone

Read "To the Bone" reviewed by John Kelman


From the moment that he decided to “go solo"--despite his previous flagship group, Porcupine Tree, beginning in the late '80s as a solo project that only evolved into a group when it became popular enough to necessitate putting together a band in order to perform live--Steven Wilson has, in many ways, defied categorization and expectation, while consistently imbuing his music with a seemingly infinite and richly diverse series of influences. Wilson is, after all, a true music geek: ...

1
Album Review

Steven Wilson: To the Bone

Read "To the Bone" reviewed by Geno Thackara


Wait long enough and everything old becomes new again. Steven Wilson's career has often seemed like one long exercise in putting that idea into practice. Through at least half a dozen different musical outfits, he's continually borrowed from and paid homage to the vast genre stew of music that's shaped his life, from progressive rock to psychedelia, house, shoegaze, noise/drone, acid folk and much more. Most albums through his solo career have tended to center around one particular niche from ...

11
Live Review

Steven Wilson at Theatre St-Denis

Read "Steven Wilson at Theatre St-Denis" reviewed by John Kelman


Steven WilsonThéâtre St-Denis Montréal, Canada March 2, 2016 Perhaps one of the biggest signs of multi-instrumentalist Steven Wilson's continued upward trajectory is this: less than nine months after selling out two nights at the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal in 2015, he brought his top- drawer band back to Montreal for another packed-to-the-rafters show, this time at Théâtre St-Denis, where Crimson delivered two stunning nights last November. Beyond the fact that, despite issuing an ...

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Recording

Prog Legends Gentle Giant’s 'Interview' Steven Wilson Remix To Be Released On CD, 5.1 Blu-ray And 180g Vinyl June 16, 2023

Prog Legends Gentle Giant’s 'Interview' Steven Wilson Remix To Be Released On CD, 5.1 Blu-ray And 180g Vinyl June 16, 2023

Source: Glass Onyon PR - William James

Interview was the eighth studio recorded album of Gentle Giant and was released April 23rd 1976. The line up on the album is Derek Shulman, Ray Shulman, Gary Green, Kerry Minnear and John Weathers. The album also has the participation of “Sounds" writer Phil Sutcliffe as the “interviewer." The band had completed a year of non stop touring throughout Europe and North America promoting the highly successful Free Hand album. Despite having no real down time the band felt inclined ...

1

Recording

Blackfield Feat. Steven Wilson Release Lyric Video For "From 44 To 48" From Forthcoming New Album "Blackfield V"

Blackfield Feat. Steven Wilson Release Lyric Video For "From 44 To 48" From Forthcoming New Album "Blackfield V"

Source: Glass Onyon PR - William James

Ahead of the release of their new studio album Blackfield V on March 17th through Kscope, Blackfield, a collaboration between Israeli songwriter and musician Aviv Geffen, and British musician and producer Steven Wilson, have released a new lyric video for the song “From 44 to 48”. Steven Wilson comments on the song “Even though I don't really write songs with specific projects in mind, as soon as I wrote this one I knew it was for Blackfield.” He continues on ...

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Recording

Chicago II The Steven Wilson Remix Available Now From Rhino

Chicago II The Steven Wilson Remix Available Now From Rhino

Source: All About Jazz

More than 40 years after its debut, Chicago II still sounds like nothing else. Released in 1970, Chicago's second album brims with confidence and inspiration as it draws on everything from orchestral music to heavy rock. Although it never affected the record's popularity—it peaked at #4 on the album chart and spawned a trio of Top Ten hits—many fans have longed for a more-nuanced mix. That wish is about to come true with a new stereo version created by British ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Home Invasion: In...

Eagle Rock Entertainment
2018

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To the Bone

Caroline International
2017

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Hand. Cannot. Erase.

Kscope Music
2015

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Hand. Cannot. Erase.

Kscope Music
2015

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Drive Home

Kscope Music
2013

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The Raven That...

Kscope Music
2013

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Sectarian

From: Catalog | Preserve | Amass
By Steven Wilson

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