Jon Anderson – Tour of the Universe (MVD DVD)

 

Picture: B-     Sound: B-     Extras: C+     Concert: B

 

 

The mastery of Jon Anderson comes alive in this terrific set entitled Tour of the Universe in which sections from Anderson’s career are highlighted in a superb concert that pieces collaborations with Yes and Vangelis.  Recorded live from 2004 Jon puts on a “one man show” at the XM Radio Studios along with clever visuals and other fascinating production aspects to make this a unique experience that any fan will certainly love along with new onlookers. 

 

Track Listing:

 

Harmony

Father Sky

Standing Still

Bring On The Day

You Lift Me Up

Long Distance Runaround

State of Independence

Set Sail

Who Could Imagine?

The Revealing Science of God (Dance of the Dawn)

First Song

Nous Sommes Du Soleil

O'er

Show Me

White Buffalo

And You And I

Change We Must

Harping

Your Move

Yours Is No Disgrace

This Is

 

 

This combines for a total run of nearly 73-minutes of nonstop playing with engaging music and visuals it’s a great disc to showcase some of the finest progressive rock in the last several decades.  The 1.78 X 1 image looks good and is anamorphic, yet indicates that it was not necessarily shot with some of the newest in technology and we can only hope that material like this will one day be shot in high definition and shown on Blu-ray.  The DTS 5.1 mix is pretty solid and certainly a nice touch here, although again we would love to get this in an uncompressed format sooner than later, but for now this is sufficient and reminds us of how good the music and be, especially when compared to the Blu-ray that we reviewed here. 

 

The extras are a bit wacky and indicate some of the strange sources of inspiration the Jon Anderson has found over the course of time, you almost need to be medicated or induced on some type of mushrooms to really believe it all.  It’s that crazy.

 

 

-   Nate Goss