Band : Kip Winger

Album title : From The Moon To The Sun

Label : Frontiers

Distributor : Rough Trade

Release date : 09/05/2008

Release : CD

Pfieuw...would you believe it's been since 2001's Songs From The Ocean Floor that Kip Winger released his last solo outing? I mean, I had only joined the Concrete Web team 10 months earlier, still had no clue what-so-ever about the practical sides of research on the Internet, and only had the biographies the labels sent us to rely on as sources of info! A lot has changed since then: many labels don't even bother to send info (not Frontiers though...they've always been quite elaborate in their promotions), others send out cd-R copies of the product, sometimes not even complete, or without a track-list...and I've gone from delivering a maximum of 20, to an average of 50 to 65 reviews per month! Enough about me, myself, and I...time to re-focus on the business at hand!

Which is the solo career of Kip Winger . At this time, I feel compelled to call up the most significant moments in the man's musical career, because that goes back all the way to 1968, when he was only 7 and started his first band Blackwood Creek . Influencial bands in those early days were Yes , Jethro Tull , Uriah Heep , Rush , Black Sabbath , Led Zeppelin , Alice Cooper , Crosby, Still, Nash & Young , and The Beatles . After several struggles (for a more detailed account look up the Kip Winger page on Wikipedia . Important in the story is that he picks up ballet dancing -enticed by his then girlfriend- and a taste for classical music at the age of 15, and first got in touch with guitarist Reb Beach around 1985, the two immediately hitting it off, and Beach being invited to play on Kip 's demos of those days) Kip would finally make it into the Alice Cooper band, playing bass on the 1986 Constrictor album and subsequently being enrolled as live musician. He roomed with drummer Ken Mary (who would go on to join House Of Lords ) with whom he started to visualize ideas for a band, recording demos in the studio of one of Kip 's brothers...demos which were sent around to no avail. Come the recordings for Alice Cooper 's 1987 album Raise Your Fist And Yell , to which Kip contributed a small classical piece which ended up as the song "Gail".

All the while, Kip had stayed in touch with Beach , whom was becoming quite the session musician in New York. The two decided to stop taking on outside work for a while and just start writing and recording a bunch of demos together. 6 months later they were signed to Atlantic , and went into the studio with guitarist/ keyboardist Paul Taylor (with whom Kip had recorded earlier stuff) and drummer Rod Morgenstein to record their first album. The band name was an issue for a while, and eventually (and though Kip originally didn't like it) the band was named Winger (on a suggestion of Alice Cooper ) due to time pressure from the label. Winger , the band, would go on to record two more albums, before they decided to fold following the 6-month tour for the promotion of 1993 release of Pull which, in the middle of the Grunge heydays, got shot down mercilessly by the critics. Almost incredible, when 1990's In The Heart Of The Young went gold in two weeks!

After the tour Kip started thinking about a solo career, moved to Santa Fe (New Mexico) and   took an 8-month long break, spending the time to build his own studio under guidance of one of his old friends, and then started experimenting on music away from Winger . Eventually, the first solo album would be completed by July of 1996, and This Conversation Seems Like A Dre am got released on the Domo imprint in 1997...the album showing a far calmer side to the Heavy Rocker's musician. Already working on material for the follow-up album, Kip suffers a tragic blow when his first wife Beatrice dies in a car accident on a cold day in late November. Following the burial in December, he flees away to Egypt...where he comes in touch with the local musical culture. Mesmerized, he records several pieces of music he encounters during his Egyptian travels on a DAT (digital audio tape), and takes the stuff home. Sam ples of these recordings were to surface for the first time on Kip 's 2001 album Songs From The Ocean Floor , but in the meantime he first went on an extensive tour to support his debut solo outing, playing no less than 110 shows in the US, Europe, and Japan. Although the warm response didn't match that of the Winger days, it did inspire Kip to write a completely acoustic album, which was released under different titles: in Europe it would be called Made By Hand , In the US Down Incognito , and in Japan Another Way (the albums being released on different dates in 1998 and 1999). During May 1998 Kip produced the mostly instrumental album of the very talented guitarist Rob Eberhart Young (the album Speak seeing release in 1999 and a contribution from Kip as a musician). In 1999, Kip wrote the music for the soundtrack of a movie titled The Greenskeeper.

All along, Kip had been working on the material for his third solo outing Songs From The Ocean's Floor , which became a culmination of all of the man's musical influences in music. Much in contrast to his doubts when writing the material for debut solo outing, this time around he knew very well in advance which songs would work. The album was actually more of a group effort than the two previous solo albums, Kip co-writing lyrics to 6 songs with pianist Noble Kime (also worked on the 1997 album), and the musicians comprising guitarists Andy Tim mons (another returnee), Reb Beach , and John Roth , bassist Mark Tatum , and drummers Rod Morgenstein and Ken Mary ( Moon Zappa also bringing some backing vocals). The album, released in early January 2001 in Europe, had had an earlier release in the States, and Kip therefore toured the UK a a guest to Bob Catley in December 2000 (using guitarist John Roth , bassist Joe Tucker , and drummer Robbie Rothchild (whom was also comprised in the line-up working on Kip 's first two solo albums). Around the same time rumours came surfacing about a possible reformation of the band Winger , and sure enough the four members had gone into the studio to record some new material. The October 2001 released compilation album The Very Best Of Winger would include new song On The Inside , and in 2002 the band Winger reformed for a tour with Poison.

Although 7 years between solo outings seems a long time, Kip hasn't exactly been idle. Following the Poison tour, he moved to Nashville where he remodelled another house to include a studio, while also keeping with several projects in between all his acoustic performances. He was offered to join The Alan Parsons Live Project as their frontman, and actually sang for them briefly but schedules clashed, making it impossible for Kip to join as permanent member. However, Kip does occasionally join the band on stage to this date. 2003 saw Kip joining Whitesnake on tour as a solo acoustic performer. In 2004, Kip scored another soundtrack for the movie Sorority , and also contributed vocals to the Kiss classic "I Want You" for the Spin The Bottle tribute album. 2005 saw Kip involved as a guest (alongside Reb Beach , by the way) on the Xcarnation album Grounded by Turkish composer and guitarist Cenk Eroglu , with whom a friendship bond would be forged.That same year Kip also sang on two songs for the Rush tribute album Subdivisions , issued by Magna Carta . In May 2006 the band Winger was reformed in its original line-up, with the firm intention to record a new album (on which guitarist John Roth – also a former Winger member – and keyboarist Cenk Eroglu were to be featured as guests) and do extensive touring in support of the recordings. The album was released in October, and that same month Kip contributed vocals to a cover version of "Send Her My Love" for inclusion on the Cleopatra Records tribute compilation 80s Metal tribute To Journey . Winger , the band, have since góne on tour in support of their comeback album, and have also seen the release of the two-disc Demo Anthology (a collection of all demos ever made for Winger albums) and the two-disc Winger Live during 2007.

Which brings us full circle back to Kip 's current solo album...which again sees contributions by Andy Tim mons , Noble Kime , Ken Mary , and Rod Morgenstein , as well as from Cenk Eroglu (on synths, guitar and special effects), veteran pianist Alan Pasqua (he's co-composed the theme for the Evening News on CBS , worked on two albums with Jazz drummer Tony Williams , and then went into Rock music by joining Eddie Money before joining Bod Dylan with whom he recorded two album. During the '80s he performed with Starship on the No Protection album, then joined Santana on the albums Marathon , Zebop , and Havana Moon , and would be one of the founding members of Giant . His later 2 solo outings would see him return to Jazz), and violinist David Davidson and cellist John Catchings (two session musicians apparently often used as a pair – as far as I could tell from surfing around on the Internet).

When looked at overall, the album knows a somewhat livelier beginning with the first three songs (the first two of which again see Kip delving in his Egyptian DAT files, the third in a style closer to The Beatles than anything else – by the way, when surfing to myspace.com/kipwingermusic, it's these three songs you'll find posted), then a much calmer passage comes (starting with the somewhat depressive "Pages And Pages" , followed by the completely instrumental and neo-classical/ soundtrack-ish "Ghosts" . From here on, tensions & intensities rise and flow according to the songs! The somewhat dark mooded "In Your Eyes Another Life" knows more energetic bouts, but is in fact overall calm, except when the backing vocals kick in. The song also contains a short but beautiful bit of electric guitar. With a more classic build-up, the ensuining ballad "Runaway" has a somewhat sunnier atmosphere (but still gets some weird synth effects included towards the end). "California" is a beautiful ballad with piano, languid electric guitar, and percussion to accompany Kip 's beautifully serene & calm voice). The following songs see a return to the livelier side of things ( "What We Are" excelling and becoming one of the harder songs on the album overall, and the ensuing "Why" getting its heavy touches only at intervals through short bursts dúring the track, and in the very last 16 seconds of the song. In between, you'll hear contributions of what sounds like saxophone, and the violins giving the song an Oriental influence...as does the bit of chant preceeding the closing energetic part). The album is closed with another calmer passage (with the more conventionally built ballad "Why" , which nevertheless contains bits of sultry but in the background mixed of electric guitar and a great solo, the main musical soundscape being the acoustic guitar and the atmosph eric keyboards. People into Ambient – and I am one of "those" – might find those keyboard contibutions specifically interesting to single out for a listening sessions...wonderful stuff, you know!!! Actual album closer "Reason To Believe" opens with a bit of Oriental flavoured chant, and influences of the Orient also get into the violins used on that track, but stylistically the track is more conventionally flavoured, even if a bit of sample returns towards the end of the song). The European version of the album gets a bonus in the track "Monster" , originally part of Kip 's debut solo outing of 1997. I ain't sure if this is the original version or a re-worked one, as I could find no relating info (not even on the label's info, which I haven't even used in this review...or, how time will change or methods, eh?). Anyways, including this somewhat livelier track with its somewhat digital sounding drums, the total listening time of the album is a wonderful 61 minutes.

Tim e spent só dreamily, so mesmerized, that one is compelled to slouch from the lazy chair to go push that "play" button all over again for the umptieth time, ignoring that gnawing feeling in the guts which got there from food depravation due to the hypnotic feeling induced by the sounds on From The Moon To The Sun ...eh man, I'm finally getting the meaning of the album cover artwork!!! Gosh man, what a wónderful piece of musical art this is. It's the kind of rare release which confirms driven music loving music journalist in their belief that they have to persevere when the "work" occasionally becomes tedious...because there's always light at the end of the tunnel...as there had to be to this now very, véry length review!!!!

98/100

Tony.