Artist: Renaissance
Album: Ashes Are Burning, Remastered and Expanded Edition
Label: Esoteric Recordings
Release Date: 7.1.2019
Ashes Are Burning has finally been given a proper reissue. Original artwork in a digipak cover, extended inner booklet, and the CD with three bonus tracks, all remastered from the original master tapes. Having the torch (and the same theme of “progressive” rock derived from classical music influences) passed down to them from a previous version of the band with a different line-up, this Renaissance was off and running, most notably with the five octave golden voice of singer Annie Haslam.
The tracks “Can You Understand” and “Carpet of the Sun” were FM radio stalwarts for any stations programming “prog” rock music in 1973. The title track, with guest guitarist Andy Powell (Wishbone Ash), also got its fair share of radio play. This led to constant touring, and their live performance was always something to behold, evidenced on this CD reissue.
Though the new remaster of the original album sounds clean and nicely updated from previous issued versions, here we are given three additional tracks recorded live for the BBC in London, in January 1974. More energized and punchier, this is a much better representation of what Renaissance was at the time. The outstanding vocal performance of Miss Haslam on the extended live version of the album’s title track opens up a rainbow of audible color not heard in the studio version.
If you were a Renaissance fan in the 1970s, relive those times with this particular version of this album.
—Barry Fisch
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