In the past year, members of progressive rock band The Tangent were heavily involved in various musical projects worldwide, including collaborations with Steve Hackett, Soft Machine, Karnataka, David Cross, It Bites, Cyan, and others. Due to these commitments, they could only manage to schedule one gig in April 2023.
Consequently, the band decided that their leader and main songwriter, Andy Tillison, would proceed to create an album for The Tangent independently. This decision stemmed from Tillison’s desire to utilize his experiences working with past band members and apply them to the production process. As Tillison puts it, “Besides Which, I’ve always wanted to do this, use what I have learned from Luke, Jonas, Steve, Theo and many other alumni and take it to final production. Now was the time!”
Over the following year, Tillison embarked on a solo endeavor, handling all aspects of the album’s creation, from artwork and design to composition and performance. While To Follow Polaris is primarily Tillison’s solo effort, it remains deeply rooted in the essence of The Tangent. As Tillison acknowledges, “I could not have begun to make this record without having had the experiences of working with the band.”
The album, produced between January and November 2023, showcases Tillison’s versatility, featuring his performance on multiple keyboards, bass guitar, stick-driven drums, electric and acoustic guitars, and electronic wind controller. Drawing inspiration from various musical influences such as Yes, Van Der Graaf Generator, and Porcupine Tree, the album embodies a full-band sound.
Conceptually, Tillison describes the album as “highly optimistic,” although it delves into both light and dark themes, a characteristic typical of his work. While To Follow Polaris is presented as a regular Tangent album, it is not intended to represent the future direction of the band. The band aims to reconvene for their fourteenth album in the future.
Andy Tillison comments of the new album release: “Making ‘To Follow Polaris’ alone has been one of life’s greatest adventures. However alone it may have been though, a lot of people believed in it enough to make it happen: everyone at my record company InsideOut and their publicity departments, everyone in the full lineup of the band who supported me doing it this way and the fans who helped me finance this thing before it was even signed. It has been a massive learning experience. I hope to have created here an album that belongs in this strange and fraught period of time but with a positive eye on the future. Part of making the future better will always be knowing what must be overcome. That’s what this record is about.”
Buy To Follow Polaris.