The Tangent

Peter's Gift

The Tangent is a progressive rock group formed in 2002. Originally formed by keyboardists Andy Tillison and Sam Baine of Parallel or 90 Degrees and The Flower Kings' guitarist Roine Stolt, bassist Jonas Reingold, and drummer Zoltan Csörsz. The septet was completed by renowned saxophonist David Jackson of Van der Graaf Generator and multi-instrumentalist Guy Manning. The band was scheduled only to be a "one-off" project but has produced seven official studio albums and a number of live albums since. The Tangent has had numerous changes in personnel resulting in Tillison being the only member to have been on all the recordings.

The Tangent biography ( http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=644 )

THE TANGENT is a project originally formed by Andy Tillison, Guy Manning and Sam Baine of PARALLEL OR 90 DEGREES [Po90] as well as half of THE FLOWER KINGS including Jonas Reingold, Zoltan Csorsz and guitar virtuoso and former KAIPA member Roine Stolt. Of course to put further icing on the cake David Jackson of VAN DER GRAFF GENERATOR would lend his legendary sax to the band for their debut album. This started out as a mere project and was actually intended to be a Tillison solo effort before it became a full fledged band as Tillison felt the need to produce something more typically 'prog' than he'd been doing in Po90. Of course it has to be noted that this really is Andy Tillison's affair since over the years the entire roster (spare Tillison and Manning) has been changed due to many different circumstances, which has really not affected the supergroup as many would expect. Often asked about his changing line up, Tillison responds by saying that it's all part of a prog band's life and fans of the genre know all about line-up changes by now. THE TANGENT is quite a dynamic band in terms of line up even now as they recruit several members of BEARDFISH onto their team, having been impressed by them on the "Not As Good As The Book" tour. This does make for a very dynamic sound which leaves the band with a fresh angle for each album. Often touted as a 'retro' band thanks to their old school sound, the band does have a very 'classic' prog feel to them with Tillison's prominent synths. THE TANGENT has often been compared to YES and KING CRIMSON in style because of the mixture of Light and Dark with Stolt and Tillison (respectively) at the helm of the project. Highly melodic and very inclined to write sprawling epics THE TANGENT should satisfy the tastes of any prog listener who wants to go back to the roots of the genre while maintaining a contemporary message and feel.

Their music is often cynical as Tillison has often been seen as 'the dark horse' of the modern progressive scene, his lyrics often poking fun at modern music and tendencies as shown in every one of their albums, but especially "The Music That Died Alone" and their newest effort to date, "Not As Good As The Book", which is a largely sarcastic and cynical look at the world that turned out to be not as good as we thought it would be. heir second effort, "The World That We Drive Through" continued the band's approach as on their first one but without the help of David Jackson on the sax. The first two albums can easily be seen to work in connection with each other even in naming conventions and the similar, striking artwork that graces both albums. If there's one thing that the second album did that really made it different from the first was establish that this was more than just a mere project, making cohesive suits (as opposed to split) and even changing their sound slightly (this one often seen as more jazz oriented) while keeping the general tone of the debut. "A Place In The Queue" remains a modern prog essential and proved that Tillison would be able to continue the band without the Flower King (Roine Stolt) on the roster. This band is highly recommended to anyone who is a fan of THE FLOWER KINGS and anyone who wants to hear what's new in the prog scene. This is music by prog fans for prog fans as Tillison himself proves to be just as big as a prog freak as any of us would expect him to be and seems to know just how to quench the progressive thirst.

Bio Written by King By-Tor, Canada

Discography:

The Music That Died Alone (2003)

The World That We Drive Through (2004)

Pyramids and Stars [Live] (2004)

A Place In The Queue (2006)

Going Off On One [Live DVD] (2007)

Not As Good As The Book (2008)

The Tangent official website

The Tangent (2003) - The Music That Died Alone

Thanks, Peter