Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

Keys to Ascension

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Released
  
28 October 1996

Label
  
Essential

Release date
  
28 October 1996

Producer
  
Tom Fletcher

Length
  
116:12

Artist
  
Yes

Movie
  
Keys to Ascension

Genre
  
Progressive rock

Keys to Ascension httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediaenthumb5

Recorded
  
March 4-6, 1996 at the Fremont Theatre, San Luis Obispo, CA (live) Fall 1995–Spring 1996 (studio)

Studio
  
Yesworld Studio, San Luis Obispo

Similar
  
Yes albums, Progressive rock albums

Yes awaken keys to ascension i


Keys to Ascension is a double album by the English rock band Yes, released in October 1996. Following the return of guitarist Steve Howe and keyboardist Rick Wakeman into the band's line-up in 1995, the group performed three concerts in San Luis Obispo, California in March 1996, recording seven tracks. Two tracks were recorded in a studio.

Contents

Keys to Ascension received a mostly positive reception and reached No. 48 in the UK and No. 99 in the US. Following a short media tour to promote the album, Wakeman left the group over several issues, leaving Billy Sherwood to join Yes as a full-time member.

Yes keys to ascension 01 siberian khatru


Production and release

The first seven of the album's nine tracks were recorded live in San Luis Obispo, California's Fremont Theatre during three nights in March 1996. These performances were also filmed and released as a live video under the same title.

All three concerts were instantly available as bootlegs. Comparison of the bootleg recordings and the official release demonstrate beyond doubt that the "live" songs were heavily overdubbed in the studio before being released. Some parts (most notably Jon Anderson's vocals on at least three songs) were completely re-recorded in the studio.

The last two tracks "Be the One" and "That, That Is" are studio recordings of new songs made in November 1995 (with subsequent overdubs and post-production lasting into 1996). Other live recordings not released on this album were held over for release in 1997 on Keys to Ascension 2.

The studio tracks were reissued twice: once as part of the Keystudio compilation album on 21 May 2001 and again along with the whole album in 2010 as part of the Keys to Ascension box set along with its companion album Keys to Ascension 2.

Keys to Ascension (Essential EDF CD 417) reached #48 in the UK. It also reached #99 in the US during a chart stay of two weeks.

Personnel

Yes
  • Jon Anderson – vocals, guitars, harp
  • Steve Howe – 6- and 12-string electric and acoustic guitars, steel and pedal steel, 5-string bass on "Be the One", vocals
  • Chris Squire – bass guitar, (piccolo bass on "Be the One"), vocals
  • Rick Wakeman – keyboards
  • Alan White – drums, vocals
  • Production
  • Yes – production
  • Tom Fletcher – production, engineering, mixing
  • Bill Smith – engineering, mixing
  • Billy Sherwood – mixing
  • Songs

    1Siberian Khatru10:16
    2The Revealing Science of God20:32
    3America10:28

    References

    Keys to Ascension Wikipedia