Album: Crossover
Artist: David Cross & Peter Banks
2020 Noisy
CD: noisy010

David Cross: violin
Peter Banks: guitar
Jeremy Stacey: drums (1, 7)
Geoff Downes: keys (1)
Tony Kaye: Hammond organ (2, 7)
Billy Sherwood: bass (2, 6)
Oliver Wakeman: Rhodes piano (2, 3, 6), grand piano (2), Moog synthesizer (2, 6), synthesizer (3), strings (6), organ (6)
Jay Schellen: drums (2)
Randy Raine-Reusch: world instruments: Chinese opera gongs, wind gongs, udu, changgo, talking drum, kotsuzumi, dumbek, empuunyi, atupan, kyizi, oyo, caxixi, tambourine, temple bowls, ching, mokugyo (3)
Andy Jackson: sound effects (4)
Pat Mastelotto: drums (6), drum synth (6)
Tony Lowe: additional bass, keys and string parts


Produced by Lowe/Cross
Drums engineered by Bill Munyon (6)
Adrian Benavides: sonic manipulation (6)
Drums recorded by Fil Ross (1, 7)
Mastered by Mike Pietrini
The Peter Banks Musical Estate is represented by Daniel Earnshaw
Artwork by Michael Inns


Tracks:
1. "Rock to a Hard Place" (9:12)
2. "Upshift" (8:21)
3. "The Smile Frequency" (5:17)
4. "The Work Within" (4:28)
5. "Missing Time" (4:10)
6. "Plasma Drive" (6:05)
7. "Laughing Strange" (7:23)
8. "Crossover" (4:40)

Composed by Cross/Banks



Notes: Former King Crimson violinist David Cross met Peter Banks on their joint tour in March 2006. Banks was playing then in his improvisational trio Harmony in Diversity, including with Andrew Booker. Booker and Cross then did an improvisation session together later in 2006, released as the album Ends Meeting in 2018. (Thus, this, Ends Meeting and What is This? on Harmony in Diversity's The Complete Recordings represent improvised sessions by each possible pair of Banks, Booker and Cross.). Cross and Banks took longer to get together, but eventually had an afternoon together with four improv sessions on 10 Aug 2010 at Cross's north London home studio.

In a Jan 2020 interview with Yes Music Podcast, Cross said they recorded about 70 minutes of music, a 10 minute piece ("F-Holes"), another 10 minute piece ("Piece 2"), a 40 minute piece (of which (1) is an extract), and a final 10 minute piece ("Video Piece", because it was also videoed, although the video was subsequently lost). This material was extensively edited and developed subsequently. After Peter's 2013 death, Cross initially couldn't listen to the sessions, but he returned to them and decided with Earnshaw (representing the Banks estate) and producer Lowe to develop the material further, inviting various guest artists, largely with experience of Yes or Crimson, to add to the material. The guests were given latitude as to what to do, being asked to "interpret the music as freely and creatively as you wish". Most of these recorded remotely and sent their ideas back, but Stacey worked in the studio with Cross and Lowe.

The additional musicians give the music a rather different feel to Ends Meeting or What is This?. (HP, 21 Jan 20; updated 27 Jan 20)

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