Nick Magnus is, to me, the progressive music fan’s progressive musician, someone who you know will release class material, extremely well played and produced, with stunning collaborators, and each work, whilst having a signature stamp of his, nevertheless providing something fresh, and certainly always intelligent. His albums are a particular favourite of this reviewer.
After a spell as a member of The Enid in the 1970’s, Magnus moved onto perhaps his best-known gig, that of initially playing as a touring band member, and then as a recording collaborator with Steve Hackett. He has also collaborated with a host of stellar artists, including Renaissance, China Crisis, Pete Bardens, and Colin Blunstone.
September sees the release of his seventh solo album, A Strange Inheritance, with Magnus writing and arranging all music, lyrics as usual provided by Dick Foster, who I believe has been a writing partner since the sophomore album. Let’s look first at the teaser video, which I have embedded below.
There is a cracking story behind the eight pieces on this album. It takes us on a voyage, with an unexpected bequest revealing the story of a young woman whose misplaced love condemns her to the grim streets of 18th century London. She is deported, travelling across the high seas to the New World where imperialism and injustice rule, and an island paradise that is not what it seems.
The opener, An Almost Silent Witness, is epic length, with Foster providing the prologue, Magnus the vocal, Andy Neve a backing vocal, and Mr Hackett a harmonica. This is a song which has our subject, via her witness, inviting the listener to learn from the accumulated wisdom of nine decades of life, to learn the lessons of history (we never do), relating what has been seen. Death and fire on the high seas, desperate men, warmongers in a dramatic opening. Foster’s prologue tells of the strange inheritance, breaking open a chest, with cards, fading parchment, and the mortal remains of a brightly coloured bird, thus beginning the discovery of a woman’s story. Musically, this takes the form of a shanty featuring some fine string orchestration, and Magnus has a voice which suits the story very well, Hackett providing for a deep, dark, and fascinating passage in the refrain. Six minutes in, the music turns more pastoral, with some lush guitar work and lovely pipes on the keys, before the darker turn again recalling the memory of a contented life before disaster struck, the warmongers, pirates, and punks holding sway. The final passage is wistful. An incredibly strong start to proceedings.
For Blood Money, we have an official video, and this is embedded below. Tony Patterson, the voice behind class Genesis tribute act, Re-Genesis, makes a welcome vocal return, whilst John Greenwood of Unitopia, whose Dark Blue was released last year, features on guitars, talking of which, you will note from the video the exceptional solo he provides in the mid-section of the song. The tale of 18th century rape of lands, replacing silver and gold with wooden crosses is a theme we would do well to remember in these troubled times.
Philadelphia follows, and there is another official video I am happy to embed alongside Blood Money. The vocals here are those of Magnus, with this tale describing well the social pratfalls for the working poor woman in this period of our history, with cut-throat alleys and broken lives the result of false promises of a happy life, with the maid falling for the dashing young gentleman of the house and becoming with child, this “shame” leading to banishment, he to the colonies, but she to the streets, the dream of a life together in ruins. The illustrations by Charlotte Fawley are simply stunning. The guitars are lush in this gorgeous descriptive song which takes a dramatic, and shocking, turn when telling of the appalling life on the streets, leading to our heroine having to take her child to the Foundling Hospital in Coram’s Field, London.
Sea voyages at this time were dangerous, desperately frightening, especially when taken against your will and better judgement, and so At Sea At Night, with Magnus singing, describes perfectly this scenario, with ghostly guitars providing the thematic night, the orchestration mournful and suspenseful, the piano asking the question as to what is on the other side? Will she even get there? This track is a personal favourite of 2024.
Four Winds is an instrumental piece over eight minutes long, very dramatic with choral chants and a symphonic sound which excites and puts you on that ship, with all the changes of weather and hopes & fears a long voyage brings, swirling guitars and noises which, to me, represent the voices of those lost at sea over the millennia. To create such a classical delight as this is a rare gift, and I, for one, would like BBC Radio Three to devote a segment to it, because I think their listeners would deeply appreciate it, and a wider audience is what this incredible album is crying out for beyond the confines of us progheads.
Welcome To The Island is up next, and it features on vocals Ginger Bennett, a new voice and name to me, but one I am interested in exploring further having perused her website, whilst Clara Sorace assists with Shamanistic chants as our heroine arrives at her New World destination, a beguiling and mercurial place. It opens with a jazz-infused big band sound, introducing Bennett as the hostess, all of it incredibly catchy and I think there is a single release in this. The jazz is continued with a glorious guitar solo, a fusion delight which compares to the best of its form. The chants take on a ritualistic form with entreaties to Sun, Moon, Water, Fire, Father Heaven, and Mother Earth. This track reminds me a little bit of a piece on the final Genesis studio album, Calling All Stations, but this is better, serious and both fitting in well to the concept, but also as a standalone piece.
Black & Scarlet is the penultimate track, with Patterson returning on lead vocals. The song tells the tale of the doomed pirate, Black Jack, hung from the neck by the island’s all-powerful governor, but replaced by Scarlet, his mistress (harlot) hellbent on revenge, the witness to her intent the parrot we encounter so many years later, and her ascension is heralded by the most magnificent guitar solo, with another shanty playing us out.
We close with To Whom It May Concern, which has as lead vocalist, Louise Young, another name which is new to me. Our heroine places her trinkets and goods in the chest, the story now turning full circle, with her words and advice to future generations awaiting discovery. The wind orchestration is beautiful, with a thoughtful acoustic guitar as a backdrop to a lovely vocal performance, emotional and you see them reaching out over the years, talking to us in the present from far away. The electric guitar solo is one Hackett would be proud of and is the perfect way to lead us into the final words. To whom it may concern, from no one you know.
Life and the universe are full of chance. A chance employment two and a half centuries ago leads to a chance love affair with a young gentleman who is off limits, which leads to a birth, abandonment, and who knows what future for the child which is another story in itself, deportation, and the drama of more chance with a pirate meeting a desperate end, revenge then the watchword, the experience and story put in a chest to be found in our time again at random, the recipient receiving it from a relative of whom he knew nothing. Is it possible the recipient is a descendant of the child left at the hospital all that time ago? I like to think so!
Nick Magnus continues to delight the intelligent music world. A Strange Inheritance is the kind of album I think would delight younger minds as well as us old sweats, because musically it has such an eclectic swathe, orchestral, pastoral, jazz, traditional shanties, all wrapped up in a story from which a fertile imagination can take and conclude so much. As ever, the challenge for artists such as Magnus is the inability (actually, unwillingness is a better word) of the corporate media machine to provide anything other than monochrome fodder to their captive audience, and, therefore, it falls to us to try our best to shout out to the world that there is so much more to be discovered.
I live in hope, and I cannot recommend this album highly enough. You can pre-order it by going to http://www.magnus-music.com/inheritance.htm and I have done so in addition to getting the press kit this review has prompted.