01	Prologue						05:42
	02	Kiev						07:40
	03	Sounds Of The Sea						07:12
	04	Spare Some Love						05:13
	05	Bound For Infinity						04:24
	06	Rajah Khan						11:31

(c) 1972 Sovereign Records, Ltd./EMI Records, Ltd.

Renaissance
Prologue
One Way (CDL 57577)
UK 1972

The amazon link leads to the import Repertoire Records printing, as the One Way pressing seems to be out of print.

Annie Haslam, vocals, percussion;
Jon Camp, bass, vocals, tamboura;
John Tout, keyboards, vocals;
Terry Sullivan, drums, percussion;
Rob Hendry, guitar, mandolin, chimes, vocals;
with Francis Monkman, VCS3 synthesizer


Joe McGlinchey:
This was the first album by the "classic" Renaissance line-up: Jon Camp, John Tout, Terence Sullivan, and, of course, the one-of-a-kind Annie Haslam on vocals. Mick Dunford's activity on Prologue is strictly one of songwriting; the guitar slot which Dunford would later completely fill are here handled by the soon-departed Rob Hendry. Although Prologue was pretty much a wiping of the slate from the previous two Renaissance albums in terms of personnel, the conventions and spirit of the first two albums remain surprisingly very much in tact. Beautiful pop tunes led by a powerful female voice merge seamlessly with classical piano flourishes and intricate instrumental section breaks. The upbeat title track starts it all off with gusto, and Annie's crystal-clear voice glides with a childlike abandon on "Sounds from the Sea". The album's strongest track, I think, is the gorgeous "Bound for Infinity", which hints at what's to come. "Rajah Khan", sounding uncharacteristically goofy for the band though still enjoyable, features Francis Monkman from Curved Air going postal on a VCS3 synthesizer. Prologue is kind of a dress rehearsal for the classic phase of Renaissance, leaning a bit more towards extended, accompanied pop material than the resplendent symph prog glory that would burst forth in full bloom over the bands next few releases. Recommended to all who want to explore the band Renaissance, and to those who think Yes might've sounded better with a female singer.



Prologue Liner Notes

In 1972, the rock world was introduced to a group of artists who would become internationally admired and appreciated for a sound that remains unique to this day.

Prologue was the product of an entirely different "Renaissance" than the world had previously known. The original group was born in 1969 from the ashes of the legendary Yardbirds, when Keith Relf and Jim McCarty chose a very different and ambitious path for their new project. They released two albums of this amalgam of electric rock with classical and jazz influences before they handed the keys over to other players who would not only inherit the legacy, but fashion their own and surpass anyone's expectations.

At the center of the "new" Renaissance were John Tout and Annie Haslam. An accomplished keyboard player, Tout was a member of the latter edition of the "old" Renaissance. It's his piano work that gives Prologue its classical and jazz elements. Haslam's stunning voice became the band's focal point. She stepped to the microphone and exuded a power and passion that truly became the "soul" of Renaissance.

Michael Dunford had also performed with the band during the latter portion of its initial incarnation, and with Prologue he remained behind the scenes in a non-performing role. One of the three tracks he penned for the album, the simple-yet-soaring "Spare Some Love," was co-written by Cornish poetess Betty Thatcher. Dunford would eventually return to full time status with the group and become one of its guiding forces, and Thatcher would become Dunford's longtime collaborator and Renaissance's resident lyricist.

On the eve of the band's entering the studio to record this album, electric guitar player Mick Parsons passed away and Rob Hendry was asked to take his place. This is the only "classic" Renaissance release where the electric guitar is so prominent. The band chose an acoustic approach on future releases. Jon Camp's bass and Terry Sullivan's percussion rounded out the rhythm section.

While the band were still developing the "orchestral" sound for which they were to become renowned, Prologue shows us the beginning of that journey. Their use of classical excerpts for the title track and "Kiev" was not only keeping in the original spirit of the band, but the new songs contained an overall focus and an intensity that was missing in Renaissance's earlier incarnation.

The album's gentler and melodic moments, "Sounds of the Sea" and "Bound For Infinity," carry the promise of the sentimental moments that were to come. The Eastern-influenced acid-rocker "Rajah Khan" proves that Renaissance could indeed hold their own in a traditional rock mode.

Prologue was the first many of us heard from Renaissance, and thanks to their passion for the music, we listeners found ourselves on a journey that would last for many years.


Joe Lynn
September 1997


Date of Release 1972 (release) inprint

AMG EXPERT REVIEW: The first album by the '70s (i.e. Annie Haslam) version of Renaissance is a transitional work, rooted in more standard hard rock sounds (including psychedelia) than what followed. One can spot the difference, which may please some listeners and put others off, in the fairly heavy guitar sound of "Prologue", Rob Hendry's electric instrument playing both lead and rhythm parts prominently at various times behind Annie Haslam's soaring vocals and adjacent to John Tout's piano. "Kiev" may also startle some longtime fans, since Haslam doesn't handle the lead vocals, the male members' singing being much more prominent. The ethereal, flowingly lyrical "Sounds of the Sea" is the cut here that most resembles the music that the group became known for in the years ahead, and shows Haslam singing in the high register for which she would become famous. "Spare Some Love", with its prominent folky acoustic guitar, also anticipates material (specifically "Let It Grow" and "On The Frontier") off of the group's better known second album, Ashes Are Burning. "Bound For Infinity" marked the final creative contribution by co-founder Jim McCarty, of the '60s version of Renaissance, and is pretty enough even if it doesn't fit in anywhere with their subsequent sound. And the 11-minute epic "Rajah Khan", with its elements of raga-rock, including sitar-like passages on Hendry's electric guitars and an extended VCS 3 synthesizer solo by Francis Monkman, is a more advanced and virtuoso descendant of late '60s psychedelia. It, too, has little to do with the sound that the group subsequently adopted (although it does intersect, in the most peripheral way, with "Song of Scheherazade" and some of the other Eastern-theme works that preceded it), but the track is entertaining and does show off a startlingly different type of art-rock toward which this group could have gravitated. The sound is clean, and this version of Prologue is to be preferred over Capitol's abortive attempt to reissue it in the late 1980's as In The Beginning, which cut some of the material and had totally lackluster sound. - Bruce Eder

Mick Glossop - Engineer
Miles Copeland - Producer
Mike Weighett - Engineer
Betty Thatcher Newsinger - Composer

CD One Way 57577
1972 LP Capitol 11116