Keys to Ascension

Keys to Ascension
Live album / studio album by Yes
Released	28 October 1996
Recorded	Autumn 1995–Spring 1996
Genre	Progressive rock
Length	116:12
Label	Essential
Producer	Yes, Tom Fletcher
Yes chronology
Talk (1994) Keys to Ascension (1996) Something's Coming: The BBC Recordings 1969–1970 (1997)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]

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.

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.

Production and release

The painting "Arches Mist", as featured in the liner notes

The first seven of the album's nine tracks were recorded live in San Luis Obispo, California's Fremont Theater 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 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.

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.

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.

Track listing

Personnel

Yes

• Jon Anderson – vocals, harp, guitars
• Chris Squire – bass guitar (piccolo bass on "Be the One"), backing vocals
• Steve Howe – guitars, backing vocals (6-string bass on "Be the One")
• Rick Wakeman – keyboards
• Alan White – drums, percussion

Production

• Yes – production
• Tom Fletcher – production, engineering, mixing
• Bill Smith – engineering, mixing
• Billy Sherwood – mixing

References