Steve Hackett - The Night Siren (2017) {Special Edition}

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Steve Hackett - The Night Siren (2017) {Special Edition}

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The Night Siren is the twenty-fifth studio album from English guitarist Steve Hackett, released on 24 March 2017 by Inside Out Music. The album was recorded within one year. Hackett explained that his writing comes from a three-person team of himself, his wife Jo, and his keyboardist and co-producer Roger King, with Hackett discussing and exchanging initial music and lyric ideas with the other two. When an idea is settled upon, music would be sent to the other performers or Hackett would travel to them and have their parts recorded on location. Hackett recorded the album by means of recording straight to a computer, rather than recording from an amplifier as he likes "to be able to have a conversation over the top of it and it can still sound very heavy". By connecting his amplifier and pedal board to the computer, Hackett experiments by "trying as many different setups and sounds as possible".

The album features numerous artists and instruments from a variety of countries, including vocalists Kobi Farhi and Mīrā ‘Awaḍ, from Israel and Palestine respectively, and a sitar from India, a tar from the Middle East, the charango from Peru, which Hackett brought home after visiting the country, and the uilleann pipes from Ireland. Hackett did not intend to incorporate such elements of middle eastern and world music at first, but his interest in such music had started in the 1960s and realised the album began to take such a direction when the songs were being developed further. Parts of the album was recorded in Sardinia and Hungary, and involved a session of musicians from Iceland, Azerbaijan, Israel and Palestine working side by side, "proving that it is possible for people not to just coexist in peace but also do something extraordinary artistically together".

Hackett describes the album as "a bird's eye view of the world of a musical migrant ignoring borders and celebrating our common ancestry with a unity of spirit, featuring musicians, singers and instruments from all over the world. From territorial frontiers to walled-up gateways, boundaries often hold back the tide. But while the night siren wails, music breaches all defences".

"Behind the Smoke" centres around the historial plight of refugees. "West to East" reflects on the effects of war and hope for a better world, and features orchestral and choral arrangements. Hackett's brother John Hackett plays the flute on some tracks. "Anything But Love" contains a mixture of styles, opening with flamenco guitar to become a rock song with an electric guitar solo to finish. The change of style and joining them together in the studio was particularly demanding.

On the composition, Hackett adds, "we've got 20 people from all around the world all working together … although it's a rock album there are some big differences." The album also contains influences from the Beatles' psychedelia phase and classic science fiction. Hackett is supporting the album with his Genesis Revisited with Classic Hackett Tour through 2017, to commemorate the album and the fortieth anniversary of Wind & Wuthering (1976), the last Genesis studio album recorded with Hackett in the band.

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Steve Hackett - The Night Siren (2017) {Special Edition}

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Steve Hackett - The Night Siren (2017) {Special Edition}

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Steve Hackett - The Night Siren (2017) {Special Edition}

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