While his position as a drummer of JOHN HACKETT BAND and a bassist for Joanne Harris’ #STORYTIME BAND, Duncan Parsons‘ creative streak may seem to be determinedly rhythm-driven, yet the Sheffield-based musician’s outlook is much wider than any groove-focused perspective should suggest. Consistently delivering solo albums for the last decade, Duncan is always on the lookout for fresh textures to get his philosophy across, yet Parsons’ sixth full-length offering, titled “On Earth, As It Is” and scheduled for release on December 2nd, promises to be his most profound to the date. Taking “The Lord’s Prayer” as a framework, this record concentrates on basic traits of humankind, depicting the artist’s perception of those by weaving prog, folk and jazz strands into an enticing whole.
While Duncan handles quite a lot of instruments himself, and sings too, he has invited an array of friends to help and color this platter, including bandmates John Hackett and Nick Fletcher as well as Dave Bainbridge, but there are two legendary figures among Parsons’ guests: SUPETRAMP’s John Helliwell and the one and only Leland Sklar to give more gravity to the bottom-end department.
Says Duncan, “On my 2014 album [“C:Ore”], one of the tracks had a brace of Hacketts, Gary Boyle and Ton Scherpenzeel, along with Nick Fletcher’s glorious return to electric guitar, and the last ever appearance of Bill Bruford on new music – only a spoken part in the dying embers of the reverb, but there none the less! Next year I’ll be doing a retrospective album, as I’m finally starting to get noticed a bit, just as a way of introducing back catalogue. So that track I just mentioned will get a remix to bring Bill a little more to the fore. My next main project is a instrumental jazz-rock ‘Urban Submarine,’ while I write a folk-rock album titled ‘My Beautiful Machine’ – about the Luddites, correcting the traditional assertion of them being anti-progress – they weren’t… I have to plan what I’m doing in advance, otherwise if I have nothing on the horizon, I’ll never finish anything!”
On Earth, As It Is
1. Heaven
2. This Day
3. Fissures Of Men
4. FinishLine
5. Unnecessary Kindness
6. Three Sixteen
7. Lead Us Not
8. Fissures Of Men (reprise)
9. Valediction (Power And Glory)
