Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
To believe you can improve upon a classic is tantamount in many quarters as being condescending, perhaps even verging on the proud, of finding yourself placed into a section of society that is never satisfied with the result and considering yourself above the artist that made the picture perfect in the first place. However, to seek improvement, no matter in which way you deem appropriate, is how we learn, nothing is truly insurmountable that it cannot be seen as delving further, seeing farther and with the help of the collective ideal, be seen as going to the World Beyond.
With the collaboration of the Echo Collective, the Brussels based collective of Post-Classical musicians, Erasure seek out a different course for their stunning album World Be Gone, which set sail in May of 2017. It is a course that would not surprise anyone if the potential pitfalls and signs of here be dragons and critic induced serpents spelt out doom for such a venture. It is a course though that is navigated with extreme care, with the sense of overriding passion and symphony led brilliance and it is one that cannot be contained in just a small harbour; this is a vessel designed not for the high seas of pop, but for the stars of a post-classical work out and it is utterly, devastatingly brilliant.
Recorded over the period of ten days, World Beyond sees Andy Bell join forces with seven of the Echo Collective troupe, Margaret Hermant, Neil Leiter, Thomas Engelen, Jaroslaw Mroz, Gary De Cart and Antoine Dandoy as they open up the map that goes off the page, outside of the expected norm and journey into a place where few would dare, where few would seek out fortune.
It is in this journey that World Beyond is astonishing and illuminating; as the opening song points out, Oh What A World it is when we can open our senses to something new and exhilarating.
If World Be Gone was something special, then World Beyond should be considered unique, exceptional and everything you could want from Erasure; the classical feel enhancing songs such as Be Careful What You Wish For, A Bitter Parting, Take Me Out of Myself, Sweet Summer Loving and Just A Little Love to such an extent that it leaves you open mouthed and beautifully exhausted by the end.
To improve upon a classic is near impossible; World Beyond is that positive exception to the rule.
Ian D. Hall