01	Isadora						07:03
	02	Roads To Freedom						03:56
	03	Beautiful Country						04:30
	04	Solo Flight						04:26
	05	Everywhere You Go						03:22
	06	Face Of Yesterday						05:47
	07	Candles Are Burning						07:08

Date of Release 1977

Out of the Mist

Isadora: This song is a bit on the grand side, with McCarty and Relf singing lead. The refrain has a baroque feel to it with Hawken's piano and Cennamo's bass playing off each other. Knightsbridge has an electric guitar solo that simply plays the melody line. The song eventually goes back to the opening theme, and then has a fake ending before starting a one-minute instrumental coda that repeats the verse.

Roads to Freedom: Jane Relf takes lead vocals on this relaxed number, and she distinguishes herself from Annie Haslam with her singing style. Relf has a warmer voice and is less prone to vocal pyrotechnics than Haslam.

Beautiful Country: This is a slow ballad that showcases some nice harmonies between Relf and McCarty. A mellotron solo by Hawken, emulating a flute to great effect, is quite nice, and McNeil adds vibes to give the song even more warmth.

Solo Flight: This song rocks as hard, if not harder, as anything Renaissance ever did. Knightsbridge gets a chance to show off his chops on a nice solo. This is one of the few songs where the electric guitar is prominent in the arrangement.

Everywhere You Go: This is a breezy piece, with acoustic guitars strumming and the piano taking the lead. Relf sings lead on this, and the string arrangements in the background give the piece a true Renaissance feel. Knightsbridge gets another electric guitar solo, though, which is rather un-Renaissance-like.

Face of Yesterday: This is a classically influenced piece. Hawken and Cennamo play beautiful counterpoint in the opening. The drumming here is sparse, and Jane Relf gives a nice, restrained vocal performance.

Candles Are Burning : This is a two-part number. The first part is rather driving 12/8 section, with its multi-tracked vocals, classical piano runs, and electric guitar solo. But at the 4:25 mark the mood changes, and the song slows down. McCarty takes the vocal lead, and Relf joins in harmony. The song builds in a neo-romantic mode before coming to a quick end. This track could have really developed given another two or three minutes.


AMG EXPERT REVIEW: Featuring the original Renaissance lineup (minus the late Keith Relf), this revived configuration has production based largely around Hawken's lush keyboards and Jane Relf's crystalline vocals. Illusion is still very much the prototype of Renaissance - despite the entirely different lineup from the Haslam-fronted band, the family resemblance is striking. "Faces of Yesterday" highlights Hawken's use of cascading piano and Mellotron strings as an accompaniment to Jane Relf's lilting voice. The other primary song form is exemplified by "Candles are Burning" and "Solo Flight, " both of which use an aggressive, pounding left hand on the piano as the anchor for guitar solos by John Knightsbridge. The former song uses alternating harmonized vocals by Relf and McCarty, while the latter highlights McCarty's often underutilized voice. It's a welcome return for this band, and a must-own for any serious fan of Renaissance. - Paul Collins

Jim McCarty - Drums, Vocals
Doug Bogie - Producer, Engineer
Louis Cennamo - Bass
John Hawken - Keyboards
John Knightsbridge - Guitar
Eddie McNeil - Drums
Jane Relf - Vocals

1977 LP Island 9489

Illusion [UK]
Out Of The Mist (77), Illusion (78), Enchanted Caress (79/Rel.90)

This was a reformation of the original Renaissance lineup in the mid-70's with vocalist Jane Relf, Jim McCarty on guitar and vocals, Louis Cennamo on bass, John Hawken on Keys, plus some new faces on guitar and drums. (original Renaissance member Keith Relf had died a few years earlier). The basic sound on the first album is similar to early Renaissance, but with less of the classical riffing, and more song oriented. The second album is more refined, the songwriting is better, and Paul Samwell-Smith stepped in as second lead vocalist. The first two are very worthwhile finds, while the third seems a little pale by comparison.



Illusion-Out of the Mist/Illusion

Review by Steve Alspach

Overall Review

There are fewer musical bedfellows stranger than the Yardbirds and Renaissance. The seminal 1960s blues-psychedelia-based band featuring Beck, Clapton, and Page seem to have little in common with the group that put the rock in Rachmaninov. Yet there is a simple link between the two. Yardbird drummer Jim McCarty and lead singer Keith Relf formed the original Renaissance in 1970 before it became the Renaissance that is most familiar to us. In 1975 McCarty got some of the original members together, added a few more, and this new band recorded two albums of classically-tinged music. Both albums are featured in this CD. Fans of Renaissance will enjoy this CD as there is such an overlap in styles between the two groups.

The personnel for these two albums are: Jim McCarty, acoustic guitar, percussion, and vocals; Jane Relf, vocals; John Hawken, keyboards; Louis Cennamo, bass; John Knightsbridge, acoustic and electric guitars; and Eddie McNeil, drums and percussion. Paul Samwell-Smith guests to provide vocals on Illusion, and the string arrangements are by Robert Kirby.

===============

Illusion

Personnel:
Jim McCarty - vocals, acoustic guitar, percussion
John Hawken - Fender Rhodes, piano, mellotron, Hammond, mini-moog, ARP, poly-moog, harpsichord
Jane Relf - vocals
Louis Cennamo - bass
John Knightsbridge - electric lead guitar, acoustic guitar
Eddie McNeil - drums, tubular bells, timpani, percussion, vibes, effects

In 1975 Keith Relf, the singer and former colleague of mine in the Yardbirds, called me up for a 'get-together' with his sister Jane, and Louis Cennamo. We had all been in Renaissance a few years earlier and were still getting royalty payments. Since the Renaissance days, Keith had been successful as a producer and had been in a band with Louis, Armageddon, who had made an album for A&M Records. I had made an album of my own songs on EMI under the band name Shoot, and Jane had sung on various TV advertisements. The remaining member of Renaissance, John Hawken, the keyboard player, was invited to join us and we spoke about reforming the old band as none of us were involved with any other projects at the time, and the fact that we were still getting royalties meant the music was still popular. John was a versatile pianist, having played with more rocky bands such as Spooky Tooth and Vinegar Joe, and he was responsible for the dominance of the keyboards in the band's sound. We organised some rehearsals at my house in Molesey and things seemed to go well. Having played together before, it didn't take long to recreate our old distinctive sound. We decided to give it a go again, and after recording some demo tapes tried to get record company interest. We were still seeking this when Keith was tragically electrocuted in his flat in Whitton in May 1976.

Rather than making us abandon the idea, this event seemed to spur us on, and we decided to take on two more people: John Knightsbridge on guitar, and Eddie McNeil on drums, which left me free to sing lead vocal along with Jane. More songs came quickly and in July we recorded half a dozen more demos, including "Isadora" and "Solo Flight". Someone had once told me to take demo tapes to companies for whom you were earning money, so I contacted Island Records who were still selling the original Renaissance recordings. After a live audition we were promptly signed up, and recorded the album "Out Of The Mist" at Island Studios in Hammersmith. We needed a new name at that time as Renaissance had been transformed into a band of new members (Annie Haslam, Mick Dunford, etc.) We finally settled on Illusion, the title of our second Renaissance album, and went off on tour supporting Bryan Ferry in the UK and Europe. We were received well, though sales were only moderate. After another nationwide tour, supporting Dory Previn, we were pressed by the record company to start another album which was to 'break' us as a band. The first album had charted in the States, and it was generally thought that the production could be improved upon, so for the second album Paul Samwell-Smith, another former Yardbird, was brought in as producer. Paul was highly thought of by Island as he had produced a succession of Cat Stevens albums and of course the first Renaissance album. The consequent album ("Illusion") was fun to make, collaborating with Paul again, but due to the pressure of time and touring the material was not as strong as on the first album, in my opinion, although it did contain the classic track "Madonna Blue" which brought out the very best of everyone in the band.

The album was released in the UK and Europe, but not in the States, for some unknown reason, and this was a big blow to us. The new wave of punk music was becoming more and more popular, and the overall trend at the time (the late 70's) was far away from what we were doing. Our only hope had lain in the States, but after the non-release of the second album we were dropped by Island in 1979. We recorded more demos, but without any significant interest from the majors we lost heart and broke up a few months later. At the present time, Louis Cennamo and I are still active in music, recording as Stairway on New World Cassettes, John Knightsbridge has a fine blues band Ruthless Blues; I have just recorded my own album 'Out Of The Dark' for Higher Octave in California (using Jane again on backing vocals), and have also released two albums as part of the Pretty Things/Yardbird Blues Band (both available on Demon Records).

Jim McCarty, February 1994
Taken from the 2-on-1 CD reissue of "Out of the Mist"/"Illusion", EDSEL RECORDS, EDCD 369