Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Harmony is to be prized, to be in sync with oneself is to feel the universe at your fingertips guiding you to create the seemingly impossible with everything that makes you unique, a star, a coded piece of human machinery in which the world awaits your latest discovery.
Such is the prowess and dedication to music that Steven Wilson provides his own releases, and that of other groups and musicians with his own searing ability to mix and re-educate the listener, that the way that his latest album, The Harmony Codex, shimmers with quality could be one that many will find surprising. It is very much business as usual, but the way that the wholesale domain on the recording pounds more on a single friendly wave hand anything perhaps he has produced before, is testament to the ever-increasing way that the respected musician is willing to explore beyond the perceived tight lines that the fans expect.
Always capable of being diverse, The Harmony Codex is perhaps to be seen as a collection of tracks that are economically professional and elaborate in their belief. It is an outstanding sense of achievement to be able to meld the dichotomy of open-ended exploration and the short snap of immediacy, and as tracks such as Impossible Tightrope, Actual Brutal Facts, the astonishing Beautiful Scarecrow, Economies Of Scale, and Time Is Running Out fill the void of silence that comes before and after listening, where thought dominates in a realm where assumption and often rumour are emperor, where the shadows hide the true intention of the supplicant of dull routine.
Steven Wilson pushes himself out of the way of such carriers of misfortune, refusing to bow to the expected, and as such produces an album of depth and sincerity without damaging the prospect of the Prog legendary status he has rightly earned.
With collaboration with names such as Ninet Tayeb, Craig Blundell and Sam Fogarino, what comes through is a feeling of a journey undertaken on a route that is yet unexplored and yet knowing of the finest way to traverse the distance required to complete and navigate the emotional backdrop that the listener hangs onto.
A mindful and terrifically produced album; a recording you would expect but one that comes completely as a fine surprise on discovery. The Harmony Codex is the manuscript of illumination.
Ian D. Hall