Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.If Coheed and Cambria’s place in the prog-rock firmament is open to question, then Steven Wilson’s bona fides are indisputable. The UK musician is feted as the modern torchbearer of prog, first with the band Porcupine Tree, then as a solo artist. He is also the go-to remixer for reissued albums, including the soundtrack for the forthcoming revamp of Pink Floyd’s 1972 concert film Live at Pompeii.The Overview’s theme is space travel, a staple of questing prog albums from back in the day. The music comprises two song suites, “Objects Outlive Us” and “The Overview”. Each lasts about 20 minutes, a design similar to that of vinyl records. There are echoes of Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Rush and Vangelis. But these references never subside into pastiche or cosplay. Wilson’s consciousness — his musical intelligence — is front and centre.The album’s title is taken from the “overview effect” that astronauts experience from their celestial perch, observing the Earth like deities or exiles. “Objects Outlive Us” is more strongly rooted in classic rock than the flipside suite. It shifts pace and intensity in the busy way of prog, but without coming to seem overstimulated or show-offy. Accompanied by keyboardist Adam Holzman, guitarist Randy McStine and drummer Craig Blundell, Wilson sings with feeling and purpose. The lyrics, partly written by XTC’s Andy Partridge, have a split perspective between daily lives and cosmic vastness, a linkage that magnifies rather than diminishes the individuals in the verses. Majestic guitar solos arc overhead like concentrated points of light, while subtle percussion brings out the patterns in Wilson’s musical scheme.For “The Overview”, he takes the perspective of an astronaut, joined by his wife, Rotem Wilson, who recites astronomical names and units of measurement. The sound is ambient electronica and cosmic music. The style looks back to the optimistic heyday of space exploration in the 1970s, but it carries a modern sense of grief for what we are doing on Earth. The coda is wordless, beat-free and meditative, a beautiful but sombre intimation of the great beyond.★★★★☆ ‘The Overview’ is released by Fiction Records
