Британский дуэт «No Man Is An Island (Except The Isle Of Man)» был основан в 1987 году гитаристом Стивеном Уилсоном (также широко известен, как создатель Porcupine Tree) и певцом, поэтом и композитором Тимом Боунессом. В 1990 название группы сократилось до No-Man и был выпущен первый сингл - кавер-версия песни Донована «Colours». На настоящий момент дискография No-Man составляет 6 альбомов, в записи которых принимали участие такие знаменитости, как Роджер Ино, участники King Crimson Роберт Фрипп, Пэт Мастелотто, Мэл Коллинз, а также почти весь состав Japan - Янсен, Барбиери и Карн.
****
The Roots of No-Man
Tim Bowness was born in Stockton Heath, Warrington, Cheshire in 1963. A turbulent adolescence left him responsible for his own destiny and with a hunger to express himself. Having immersed himself in music during his teens (courtesy of the remarkably cheap vinyl deals at his local record stores) Tim became a self-taught musical expert with a huge range of influences to draw on.
Tim Bowness, mid-80s During the early 1980s, Tim made an underground name for himself around the North-West England art-rock scenes in Warrington, Manchester and Liverpool as the singer and frontman of various bands and as a voracious and determined pop strategist.
Beginning with The Roaring Silence, by 1983 he had moved onto Still - who were briefly hailed by Mark Radcliffe as the most important Manchester band since Joy Division. Despite the flash of hype, Still was a short-lived affair: but Tim kept in touch with guitarist Stuart Blagden (a.k.a The Still Owl) while moving on to other projects.
Tim's next band was the spiky, art-rocking After The Stranger, resulting in his first appearance on album (1986's 'Another Beauty Blooms') and his first collaboration with another future guitar foil (Michael Bearpark).
As After the Stranger disintegrated (with the other members moving towards avant-rock and electronica projects, ultimately including L.D.T), Tim and Michael teamed up with Brian Hulse to form Plenty. In this band, several of the initial outlines of No-Man's music were first drawn up - dark balladry, a cinematic edge, an inherent drama.
Steven WilsonAt the same time, Steven Wilson was making his own mark a hundred and seventy miles south-east. Born in 1967 in Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, Steven grew up in the London satellite town of Hemel Hempstead. Like Tim, he had a broad and diverse musical taste (informed as much by Donna Summer or Karlheinz Stockhausen as by Pink Floyd or Abba) plus a hunger for exploration.
From childhood, Steven was fascinated by the possibilities of sound. Recording everything he could (much of it on home-made equipment built by his father, an electrical engineer) Steven become intent on becoming a record producer. Gradually turning his bedroom into a surprisingly effective recording studio (No-Man's Land), Steven also learnt guitar and keyboards to further his aims.
While still at school (with future Porcupine Tree bass player Colin Edwin), Steven established a reputation as producer, multi-skilled musician, and man-of-a-thousand-projects. These stretched from avant-garde industrial experiments to surprisingly accomplished teenage bands. The neo-progressive rock of Karma was the crucible for several songs which would later show up in Porcupine Tree and (as with the psychedelic Altamont project with keyboard player Simon Vockings) featured Steven's early collaborations with Porcupine Tree lyricist Alan Duffy.
These were only the most public Wilson projects - he was also seeding music paper demo pages and assorted record labels with innumerable demo cassettes under a variety of pseudonyms.
At some point in 1987, Steven was searching for bands to contribute to a compilation album he was assembling. Having read a review of After The Stranger's 'Another Beauty Blooms', he got in touch with Tim for the first time.
1987 to 1988
Steven and Tim met at a time when they both felt in need of new challenges. Their first tentative rehearsal in August 1987 yielded two solid songs - Faith's Last Doubt and Screaming Head Eternal - both of which were written and recorded in the course of a single afternoon. It soon became obvious that each provided the right challenge for the other, and that they were well-suited as working partners.
Back in 1986, Steven had created a solo instrumental (a cheerful mongrel of Steve Hackett prog rock and perky Associates synth pop) called From A Toyshop Window. He had credited it to a typically whimsical band name - No Man Is An Island (Except The Isle of Man). The name attached itself to the new project with Tim.
For the next two years, during time snatched from day-jobs and other band commitments, Tim and Steven accumulated songs and musical experiments in a free atmosphere. Various friends and colleagues contributed to the recordings - Colin Edwin, cellist and harmonica player Richard Felix, Michael and Brian from Plenty, Tim's former Still bandmate Stuart Blagden.
One significant new contributor was Ben Coleman, who'd responded to one of Steven's advertisement. From a mixed Mancunian and Israeli background, he was also a dynamic and flexible virtuoso on acoustic and electric violin, leaving a powerful impression on the tracks he was asked to play on.
The emerging music took two forms. One was the near-ambient, reverent material which would later be released on No-Man's 'Speak' album. The other was a punchier, rockier set of songs which demanded performance by a live rock band - which is eventually what happened.
1989
No Man Is An Island - Tim Bowness, Steven Wilson, Stuart Blagden, Ben Coleman The first live performances of No Man Is An Island (Except The Isle Of Man) featured Tim on vocals, Ben Coleman on violin, Stuart Blagden playing guitar and Steven on keyboards (as well as handling all other noises on tape). For their second gig, having entered the Hemel Hempstead "Bandsearch" competition as a joke, the new band walked off with the first prize. However much this might have amused them at the time, part of the prize was some professional studio time which gave them the opportunity to record their first single.
'The Girl From Missouri' The song they chose - 'The Girl From Missouri' - had been the highlight of the live sets, so it seemed like a good idea at the time. However, the band hated the results, the single sold poorly, and Tim and Steven "inventively destroyed" the remaining copies.
The opportunity had not been entirely wasted, however, as the band had taken the opportunity to test out a few of their more meditative tracks on the b-side. This was the first airing on records of Night Sky Sweet Earth and The Ballet Beast, as well as a reworking of the Plenty song Forest Almost Burning (All three would later resurface on the 'Speak' album).
No Man Is An Island (Except The Isle Of Man) continued playing gigs throughout 1989. Their mixture of formal written material, improvised noise and art-rock theatrics didn't always entirely suit the college and London pub venues they were playing, but they remained committed to their work.
By the middle of June, however, Stuart Blagden had left the band. As the music began to lose its improvisatory edge, Stuart's guitar style (rooted in classical and jazz influences) no longer gelled with it, and neither he nor the other members were happy with the situation.
'Swagger' Shortening their name to the less cumbersome No Man Is An Island, the band opted to remain as a trio. Steven committed his keyboard parts to tape and took over the role of guitarist. His playing style was more direct than Stuart's, emphasising rock and funk. This (plus the aggressive demands of the pub circuit rock environment) gradually sidelined the band's ambient side. Tim and Steven's growing interest in hip-hop beats, and in using sampler technology, accelerated the process.
The 'Swagger' cassette EP, released in November, showed just how much the band had changed. Histrionic, and relying heavily on loud crashing beats and power chords, it featured four poppy songs. Two of these - Bleed and Life Is Elsewhere - proved to be survivors and would resurface in various forms in later years. The remainder would be strip-mined for various fragments for later songs (notably, one song was called Flowermouth).
'Swagger' made little more impact than 'The Girl From Missouri'. With a new decade approaching, another change in direction was needed.
1990
1990 turned out to be the breakthrough year. Not only did the band finally abbreviate its name to its final form - No-Man - but Steven, Tim and Ben finally worked their influences into an effective new shape.
With greater inspiration now being drawn from hip-hop and dub artists (such as Public Enemy, A Tribe Called Quest and King Tubby) and, indirectly, from the growth of dance-based British pop movements such as the "Madchester" of 808 State and Happy Mondays), The 1990s No-Man trio (Coleman, Bowness, Wilson) No-Man incorporated dance loops and impetus to their art-pop songs. By April, these ingredients had made it into the live set.
'Colours' The first released result of the new approach was 1990's 'Colours' single, which arrived in the summer. A violin-and-beat-soaked crooner cover of a Donovan song, with a dubby bass groove atmosphere, it anticipated the birth of trip-hop, arriving nine months before Massive Attack's 'Unfinished Sympathy'. Its inspiration was typically perverse - Happy Mondays had announced their own intention to cover the song, and No-Man (longtime Donovan fans) had decided to beat them to it.
The single was picked up by Probe Plus Records and had an immediate press impact (Single Of The Week in both 'Melody Maker' and 'Sounds'). These were the beginnings of a stream of almost impossibly good reviews which No-Man would gain over the next few years.
The everyday reality for the band was more straightforward - playing concerts up and down the country, adapting their stock of ambient ballads to the new dance-beat style while maintaining the integrity of the original work.
However, 'Colours' had also gained No-Man the attention of record-label-of-the-moment One Little Indian Records (home of Bjork and The Shamen), who signed the band on the strength of the single.
Less spectacularly = but just as importantly - the band signed a deal with the similarly well-eastablished Hit & Run Publishing (part of the company's initiative of signing new bands which, on that occasion, also swept up retro-Raj Britpoppers Kula Shaker, the Liverpudlian pop experimentalists Space and the inimitable Right Said Fred).
The stage was set for No-Man to break through to the next level.
1991
'Days In The Trees' No-Man continued to gig during 1991, with their unlikely support acts including the Brand New Heavies and a then-unknown Tori Amos.
Under pressure from their new record company to think of themselves as a live act, No-Man briefly became a quartet with the addition of drummer Kevin van Doort (an arrangement that lasted for a single concert).
The band followed up 'Colours' in July with the majestic and romantic 'Days In The Trees' single. This gathered another raft of Single Of The Week nominations (in 'Melody Maker', 'Sounds' and 'Teletext') and is still remembered as one of the great "should-have-been-hits" of the '90s.
1992
'Lovesighs - An Entertainment'A third single - 'Heartcheat Pop' - was scheduled but never released. Instead, the band cherry-picked the best tracks from the abandoned single and its two predecessors and released the results as the mini-album 'Lovesighs - An Entertainment' in April.
Further press acclaim followed, with the consensus being that No-Man's moodily literate and danceable pop bridged the gap between such disparate acts as The Associates, Roxy Music, Chic, David Sylvian, The Blue Nile, King Crimson and the Native Tongues posse.
Tim Bowness and Mick Karn meet their public... 'Lovesighs' was trailed by a further single - 'Ocean Song' - in September. This was No-Man's third attempt at making Donovan danceable. Earlier in the year, they'd taken his musing, mythological Turquoise and set it to gurgling dance electronica and gypsy violin. With new lyrics by Tim, Ocean Song rewrote Turquoise as another moment of ruined passion.
Unfortunately, the new single failed to reach the heights of its predecessor and was ignored. One of its b-sides, the brief Reichian instrumental Back To The Burning Shed, maintained an old in-joke from the No-Man circle but would go on to lend its name to first the band's internet forum and subsequently to the record label 'Ocean Song' Tim would set up a decade later. The other b-side, Swirl, was a more successful take on the rocking efforts of 'Swagger'. With its epic scale and extended length, and its coda of scalding noise and dialogue samples, it was a nod backwards to the days of No Man Is An Island.
This period was also notable for featuring the band's first collaboration with Steve Jansen, Richard Barbieri and Mick Karn. The former Japan/Rain Tree Crow players were headhunted by Tim and Steven in order to complete the No-Man live band that they thought would do justice to their music. Jansen, Barbieri and Karn joined the core No-Man trio in autumn 1992 for No-Man's first full-scale British tour.
Although this dream-ticket six-piece band was short-lived (lasting no longer than the tour itself and, more permanently, several decisive studio sessions), it cemented an association which continues to this day. Among other things, it laid the ground for the Richard Barbieri/Tim Bowness duo album 'Flame' and for Richard's recruitment into Porcupine Tree the following year.
1993
Hit The North In 1993, No-Man began to release items via their own mail-order service, Hidden Art, in parallel with the One Little Indian releases. One of these was a cassette recording of the BBC 'Hit The North' radio session, featuring the 1992 touring band cruising their way through five tracks including Days In The Trees, new track Taking It Like A Man and a sepulchural re-reading of Ocean Song - stripped entirely of its pop flutter and now sporting a contorted alien-funk Karn bassline.
'Sweetheart Raw'The same bassline formed the core of the title track of the 'Sweetheart Raw' EP, the first evidence of the No-Man/JBK studio sessions. A bleak semi-spoken tale of a life warped by a single terrible mistake, the song spearheaded a much darker EP (the B-sides resurrected a tense early No-Man song called Bleed and shackled it to a raging industrial dance barrage). Nominally released on One Little Indian, the EP was actually distributed by Hidden Art, possibly hinting at the disagreements to follow between band and label.
'Only Baby' However, no such problems were in evidence when the obsessive disco throb of the 'Only Baby' single shimmered into view in March - a pulsating catalogue of love's unreasonable demands, it balanced Steven's funk guitar licks and airy synths with Ben's masterful Hendrix-ian squall on electric violin. Described by an intrigued 'Smash Hits' as "extra fruity with a hint of vavoom!", it hit number 20 in the indie charts.
'Loveblows & Lovecries - A Confession' 'Only Baby' paved the way for No-Man's debut album, 'Loveblows And Lovecries - A Confession' which arrived in May. Building on the ground broken by 'Lovesighs', it inspired similar rapturous reviews for its blend of lush pop romanticism, compulsive grooves and avant-garde textures, with 'Lime Lizard' declaring "This is too perfect to be true... this record deserves blind devotion." To promote the album, No-Man toured in May - supporting Ultravox - with Chris Maitland now installed on drums and Silas Maitland (no relation) on bass.
'Painting Paradise'Disagreements over No-Man's future direction were now beginning to develop between band and label. The 'Painting Paradise' single, released in June, showed a sharp division of content. On one side there was the Pet Shop Boys-styled pop of the title track (a butchered reworking of one of the band's favourite tracks from 'Loveblows'). On the other, there was the twenty-one minute luscious trance groove of Heaven Taste (another team-up with Jansen, Barbieri and Karn).
Following the mainstream success of the Shamen, One Little Indian seemed to see No-Man's own chances of success as lying entirely in hi-energy dance pop. For their part, the band had felt pressured into recording the single. Although the finished results briefly hit number 22 in the indie charts, No-Man absolutely loathed their new A-side, while feeling far more inspired by the ambition of Heaven Taste. Cracks were starting to show...
'Speak: 1988-89'Clues to No-Man's future lay in their past - a few months earlier, in April, the band had released another cassette via Hidden Art. 'Speak: 1988-89' compiled much of the best of the band's early studio work during its first few years of existence. Most of this was the ambient material predating No-Man's live career - detailed, dreamy and textural, with rock and dance beats notable by their absence. This wouldn't be the last time that those recordings resurfaced, but for now they were a fan-club secret.
Say it with flowers... Opting to fight their battles via strategy rather than tantrums, No-Man refused to return to expensive commercial recording studios to make the follow-up to 'Loveblows'. Instead, they returned home (using their advance to kit out No-Man's Land with upgraded equipment) and hoarded the remaining budget in order to hire guest players to expand their sound. Having spent several years constrained by the demands of live playing and the pop market, they wanted to try something different.
One of the casualties of this approach was Ben Coleman. While he contributed little to composing band material, he was at least as strong a personality as either Steven or Tim; and his relationship with them had often been fiery. His fluid and expressive violin playing was a powerful band asset in itself, but also demanded a string part or solo in every song. When Tim and Steven opted to broaden and vary No-Man's sound, this balance was upset. Inevitably, Ben was sidelined and resented it. Although he made some excellent contributions to the new recording sessions, he opted to leave No-Man during the autumn.
Another autumn development was Steven's first concert as Porcupine Tree. Having worked on the project in parallel with No-Man, he'd just expanded it from a solo studio effort to a live band by adding his old schoolfriend Colin Edwin and two players from various No-Man live bands - Richard Barbieri and Chris Maitland. Initially intended to test the waters and to please Porcupine Tree's small underground audience, the gigs were far more successful than Steven had anticipated...
1994
And then there were two.
No-Man, 1994Bar a single BBC live session, No-Man remained quiet for the first third of 1994. In April, their second album - 'Flowermouth' - was released. It brought all of the disagreements and contradictions about the band's music to the fore, but in contrast to earlier attempts it did so in a way that unified them, and won the band many new admirers. No-Man had broadened all aspects of their work by re-evaluating their original influences, the frontier musicians who'd gotten them into music in the first place - musicians and conceptualists like Miles Davis, Kate Bush, and Talk Talk (none of them artists to take the easy route).
'Flowermouth' The result was an audacious melange - both timely and independent of trends - which drew together contemporary dance pop, collective improvisation, expansive art-rock, moody minimalism, and even an assertive '90s remodelling of progressive rock. Electro-acoustic symphonics sat next to Erasure-ish synth pop, sleepy dance-romance and multi-textured epics marrying drum loops to avant-garde textures, distinct and maverick instrumental voices to carefully constructed and cunningly orchestrated songs.
The rich and panoramic sound of 'Flowermouth' featured an emphatic sweep of guest players. There were extensive contributions from Robert Fripp and his King Crimson bandmate Mel Collins as well as performances by Lisa Gerrard (of Dead Can Dance), Ian Carr, Steve Jansen, Richard Barbieri, and Chris Maitland. Ben Coleman, too, had made his last work with the band some of his best.
'Flowermouth' was the band's most ambitious and best-selling album to date, and remains a fan favourite. The momentum was still such that the Richard Barbieri/Tim Bowness album 'Flame' (a set of "ambient torch songs" midway between No-Man's work and Japan's 'Tin Drum') could be released on One Little Indian alongside the new No-Man album.
But it was obvious by now that No-Man couldn't continue along the path which their record label wanted them to follow. 'Taking It Like A Man' Following the release of 'Flowermouth', relations grew even more distant.
The band were still signed to Epic Records in America,who released a US-only single - 'Taking It Like A Man' - at the same time as 'Flowermouth'. Not only was it a 'Loveblows & Lovecries' outtake, it was backed with a series of hardcore techno club remixes which the band had nothing to do with. It reached number 34 on the Billboard dance chart, but already seemed like past history.
By the end of the year No-Man had parted company with One Little Indian. A planned single, 'You Grow More Beautiful', was shelved and the band's plans for a tour of theatre venues was abandoned due to lack of budget and support.
Bar a few final radio sessions, and a brief three-song set as a duo-with-backing-tapes at the Halloween Society film evening in October, No-Man effectively retired from live performance.
1995
'Flowermix' cassetteLeft to their own devices in No-Man's Land, the duo of Tim and Steven incubated new material while working on two separate albums: a expansive 'Flowermouth' follow-up tentatively called 'Lighthouse' and a more immediate and beat-driven project called 'Wild Opera'.
In March 1995, No-Man released the 'Flowermix' cassette album via Hidden Art. A set of trance-techno-meets-art-rock dance remixes of 'Flowermouth' tracks, it was much more to the bands own tastes. 'Heaven Taste' Mixes were contributed by Steven himself, Prophets of Bliss, Os (a sound engineer ally from gigs in Cambridge, soon to work with Tim in the Darkroom project), Music By Numbers (a.ka. Tim Closs, later to reinvent himself as Tears In X-Ray Eyes) and David Kosten (shortly to become better known as Faultline).
'Flowermix' 'Flowermix' was reissued as a Hidden Art CD album in September 1995 with a slightly different tracklisting, including a 12-minute Robert Fripp/Steven Wilson soundscape from the 'Flowermouth' sessions. It was accompanied by 'Heaven Taste', which compiled the more ambient and cinematic No-Man B-sides and rarities from the One Little Indian years, including a gorgeous cover of Nick Drake's song Road.
Otherwise, the year was dominated by other projects. In Steven's case, this was Porcupine Tree, which was rapidly developing a live following and a momentum of its own. Tim spent more time with Michael Bearpark and pianist Peter Chilvers in the ambient folk trio Samuel Smiles, which he'd played in on and off over the previous few years.
Behind the scenes, work was also continuing on new No-Man recordings.
1996
'Housewives Hooked On Heroin' No-Man, 1996In 1996, No-Man announced their return on a new label - 3rd Stone Ltd., home of Spacemen 3 and Bark Psychosis. The fresh start was spearheaded in May by the bleak and baleful 'Housewives Hooked On Heroin' single: Single of the Fortnight in 'Hot Press; magazine and a taster for the 'Wild Opera' album which followed in September.
'Wild Opera' was a far darker, more beat-driven and wilfully exploratory recording than 'Flowermouth', with lyrics and moods musing on a fractured, threatening and often crushing world. No-Man's taste for melancholy balladry, cinematic art-rock soundscaping and good tunes was still in evidence. This time, however, it was joined by savage industrial dance, luscious trip hop and odder pop excursions than the band had ever attempted before.
'Wild Opera' Minus Ben Coleman and the extensive guest list of 'Flowermouth' pared back almost entirely to the core duo of Tim and Steven, 'Wild Opera' made up for its lack of a supporting cast by mining Tim and Steven's own sonic imagination and production ideas - to great effect. Most of the album had emerged from a series of semi-spontaneous improvisations recorded over a few hours rather than planned-out attempts at songwriting. The raw results of three such sessions appeared on the album, revealing new and more direct No-Man working methods.
'Wild Opera' was a reinvention that flung itself into the faces of a press that were still coming to grips with the band's re-emergence, and consequently reviews ranged from the savagely ecstatic to the cluelessly confused. Over the years the album would become an insidious musical force, gradually gaining more and more underground attention.
1997
'Dry Cleaning Ray' (the single version) 'Dry Cleaning Ray' - the mini-albumKeeping up the momentum, one of the best 'Wild Opera' tracks - 'Dry Cleaning Ray' - was released as a single in 1997. Based on a twisting organ hook, it was an elegant outlining of a life of frustration and obscurity, its bleak content offset by its blatant pop melodics.
The single also spawned the 'Dry Cleaning Ray' mini-album, a companion release to 'Wild Opera'. Even more eclectic than its predecessor, 'Dry Cleaning Ray' presented drastically reworked or remixed 'Wild Opera' material (including 'Punished For Being Born', Muslimgauze's bizarre reinvention of 'Housewives Hooked On Heroin'), freefalling instrumental moments and a delirious cover version of Serge Gainsbourg 'Evelyn'.
Evidence that the band was continuing to explore new territories was shown by new songs such as the seething, venomous isolationist songscape of 'Sicknote', another instant No-Man classic.
1998
'Radio Sessions: 1992-96' No-Man remained quiet for most of 1998 while Tim and Steven worked separately on other projects: Porcupine Tree, Darkroom, Samuel Smiles, Bass Communion and I.E.M.
'Carolina Skeletons'The silence was broken in August 1998, when the beautifully melancholic 'Carolina Skeletons' EP was released. The title track was No-Man's most glorious piano ballad to date, and the other songs revealed a smoother, more lustrous side to the band following the abrasiveness of the past two years' releases.
Later in the year, No-Man released 'Radio Sessions: 1992-96', compiling various No-Man moments retrieved from the airwaves and featuring various line-ups of the band including several "unplugged" moments and performances by both Chris Maitland and Porcupine Tree bassist Colin Edwin, as well as Jansen, Barbieri and Karn.
1999
1999 was a year of reissues.
'Speak'In the summer 'Speak' finally got a full CD album issue (on Italian label Materiali Sonori), six years after the cassette release. A sustained and gorgeous mood-piece of densely organic soundscapes, quiet ambition and heartfelt emotionalism, the album fully revealed No-Man's more ambient and impressionistic side. and rapidly proved that it had remained a work of genuine beauty and substance. The return of 'Flowermouth' The trio of Steven's atmospheres, Ben Coleman's sensual violin shapes and Tim's abstract, cryptic balladry of hopes, doubts and abandonment rendered 'Speak' a timeless collection of music: one which contained some of No-Man's most beautiful and haunting moments. Tim re-sang his vocals for the CD release and Steven took the opportunity to fix or re-record missing or damaged instrumental tracks.
A remixed and remastered 'Flowermouth' (reissued by 3rd Stone Records) was also back in the shops in autumn 1999.
As welcome as these reissues were, since the release of 'Carolina Skeletons' there had been no sign of No-Man's next album (at this point still called 'Lighthouse'). A brief reminder of the No-Man alliance came when Tim Bowness/Samuel Smiles supported Porcupine Tree on a couple of dates on their UK tour. But for the most part, No-Man were hidden away - reworking, remixing and rethinking, trying to perfect the emerging songs...
2000
No-Man, 2000 Producing the next No-Man album proved to be a very slow process. The band's perfectionism and budget constraints played against them, as did Steven's growing commitment to Porcupine Tree.
Now based in Norwich after several years of drifting between London, Cambridge and Manchester, Tim formed Henry Fool (his take on a twenty-first century progressive rock band) with Peter Chilvers and new ally Stephen Bennett. He also continued to contribute to Darkroom sessions, and worked with Peter Chilvers on duo material.
Most importantly, Tim and Peter (along with Noisebox Records boss Pete Morgan) set up the online record label Burning Shed. Over the next few years, Burning Shed was to evolve into the main online distributor for all Bowness and Wilson projects as well as for a growing number of other established bands and musicians.
2001
'Returning Jesus' No-Man's fourth album finally emerged under a new title - 'Returning Jesus' - in February 2001. With the recording loosely based around a quartet of Wilson, Bowness, Porcupine Tree's bass player Colin Edwin and Steve Jansen on drums, the album was the airiest and most natural No-Man had made to date.
Crossing the conflicting streams of 'Wild Opera' and 'Flowermouth', it was a mature work - surprisingly subtle and airy, and boasting a fragrant melodicism. 'Lost Songs: Volume One' Musical contributions from Ian Carr, David Kosten, Ian Carr and the stray acoustic guitar of balladeer-of-the-moment Ben Christophers quietly coloured its wistful balladry with blended sounds both chillingly electric and warmly acoustic. Exquisite white soul, pensive pain, hopeful resolution and string-drowned vistas of regret and fascination all played their part in the latest step forward for No-Man.
In July, the Burning Shed label released 'Lost Songs: Volume One', a compilation of assorted No-Man studio outtakes from 1991 to 1997, wildly varying in both mood and method. It bore further witness to No-Man's diversity and creativity. Not only did it unearth a few radically different versions of familiar No-Man songs, it revealed some of the other paths the band had explored en route to albums like 'Flowermouth' and 'Wild Opera': from meticulously-structured electro-pop to improvised oddities and fragments, from punk swing to electronic bliss-out; from orchestrated ensemble pieces (with guest appearances from Robert Fripp, Theo Travis, Colin Edwin and Mel Collins) to sparse duo recordings.
2002
2002 saw no No-Man public activity whatsoever. Steven continued to develop Porcupine Tree - by now a very successful modern rock band - and Tim released the bittersweet and haunting 'California, Norfolk' album with his old Samuel Smiles partner Peter Chilvers.
2003
'All That You Are' No-Man returned to the public eye in February 2003 with 'All That You Are'. This was a belated EP to accompany 'Returning Jesus', featuring several unheard songs from the album sessions.
A far more varied release than its parent album, 'All That You Are' showed No-Man at their most solid and diverse. The naive grace of the title track and the sophisticated lost-love balladry of 'Chelsea Cap' explored No-Man's pop roots, while the bluesy banjo of 'Until Tomorrow' explored folk paths; and the presence of the eerie, disturbed 'Darkroom" served as a strong reminder of the darker, more surreal No-Man of 'Wild Opera'.
The EP was also No-Man's farewell to the 3rd Stone label, as they moved over to Snapper Music for the next phase of their career.
No-Man in 2003 'Together We're Stranger' May 2003 saw the release of No-Man's fifth album, 'Together We're Stranger'. Moving deeper into the slow, mournfully textured zones which the band had previously explored on 'Returning Jesus', the album was a subtly powerful reflection on loss and its aftermath. Longtime No-Man allies Michael Bearpark and Peter Chilvers made contributions, alongside those of fresh collaborators such as ambient-acoustic keyboard player Roger Eno, British jazz clarinettist Ben Castle, Stephen Bennett (from Tim's latest band project Henry Fool) and David Picking of the Birmingham art-rock project Rhinoceros.
Songs like 'All The Blue Changes' and 'Photographs In Black And White' continued to build on the tradition of highly-constructed No-Man epics like 'Angel Gets Caught In The Beauty Trap', while 'Back When You Were Beautiful' and 'The Break-Up For Real' pursued the pithy ballad scenarios Tim had been exploring in his ongoing ambient songwriter-folk albums with Peter Chilvers. The hovering heartbreak of 'Things I Want To Tell You' showed that No-Man could still find new modes of expression - poised on the lip of breakdown, wringing the last drop of significance from inertia and despondency and flushing it with an unearthly beauty.
2004
2004 was another quiet year for No-Man, during which Steven divided his time between Porcupine Tree, Bass Communion and his Blackfield collaboration with Israeli pop singer Aviv Geffen. Tim pursued a new alliance as part of the new trio line-up of Centrozoon (an ambient/avant-rock electronic project) as well as working on collaborations with Rhinoceros, Italian pop balladeer Alice and ex-Soft Machine bassist Hugh Hopper.
Steven and Ben onstage, 2004The closest that the fans got to new No-Man that year was Steven's surprise reunion with Ben Coleman on 10th September at a Blackfield concert in London. Steven played a solo set to open the evening, and Ben guested on electric violin for three Porcupine Tree songs (Even Less, A Smart Kid and Trains). No No-Man material was played, but the obvious chemistry and dynamism of the two musicians onstage brought back memories of the power of the 1990s trio.
September 2004 also saw the arrival (after years of assorted collaborations) of Tim's debut solo album, 'My Hotel Year'. This was a collection of dark experimental pop songs (released on No-Man's old label One Little Indian) for which Tim's main creative foils were David Picking and Stephen Bennett. There were also appearances by Peter Chilvers and Michael Bearpark, as well as Hugh Hopper, Roger Eno, Centrozoon and Brian Hulse (Tim's onetime 1980s colleague from Plenty).
As for No-Man, an expanded reissue of 'Speak' - revived and reissued for the benefit of those who'd discovered the band from 'Returning Jesus' onwards - kept their profile steady.
2005
2005 was another reissue year. 'Flowermouth' was remastered once again and reissued in a new package, now sporting two Steven ambient remixes from the deleted 'Flowermix' album. Two years after its initial issue, 'Together We're Stranger' was reissued as a deluxe vinyl edition with additional tracks.
2006
'All The Blue Changes' 'Returning Jesus - The Complete Sessions' As Porcupine Tree continued to go from strength to strength (with Steven consequently spending more time on the road) No-Man's presence seemed entirely reduced to the band's reissue programme.
In February 2006, 'All The Blue Changes' became No-Man's first full career overview, a double album compiling tracks ranging all the way from the 'Speak' years to 'Together We're Stranger'. 'Returning Jesus - The Complete Sessions' made it onto vinyl shortly afterwards, and collected all of the album tracks, related EP tracks and alternate versions of songs into one definitive package.
However, all this was eclipsed - to considerable excitement in the fan community - when it was announced that Tim Bowness, Steven Wilson and Ben Coleman would all be appearing on the same concert bill at the Burning Shed evening in Norwich, UK on 16th July. Although Tim and Steven publicly played down the implications of this (and Ben would ultimately withdraw from the concert), the sense of anticipation on the night was palpable.
No-Man backstage, 2006 No-Man onstage, 2006No-Man's return to live activity was definitely the evening's worst-kept secret. But return they did - if only for three off-the-cuff songs.
Tim sang, Steven contributed blurry meditative clouds of lead guitar, and the rest of the group was drawn from the Tim Bowness band: Peter Chilvers on piano, Pete Morgan on bass, Andrew Booker on electronic drums, and Michael Bearpark on second guitar. The band played Watching Over Me, Together We're Stranger and (as a trio of Tim, Steven and Peter) Things I Want To Tell You. Rehearsal had been minimal, but the excitement of the event took over for what became a memorable and joyful performance.
The success of the evening kick-started No-Man activity again - but with both Tim and Steven now spending much of their time out of the UK (in New York and Tel Aviv respectively), it was a while before this was fully followed up.
2007
'Together We're Stranger' 2007 reissue 'The Break-Up For Real' In 2007, 'Together We're Stranger' resurfaced as a two disc CD/DVD-A package with video clips, gallery and extra tracks.
May 2007 saw the band testing the effectiveness of download singles in the shape of 'The Break-Up For Real'. This was a low-key release combining the bittersweet final track from 'Together We're Stranger' with the extra tracks for the vinyl and two-disc issue.
In August 2007 both Steven and Tim were back in No-Man's Land, comparing notes and recording again. Rumours of a new No-Man album began to circulate through the fanbase again, and were greeted with great enthusiasm.
2008
'Schoolyard Ghosts'In May 2008, No-Man released their sixth album, 'Schoolyard Ghosts'. Recorded in the UK, France, Sweden and the USA, it made the most of Tim's increasing production skills and all-round musicianship and of his more recent collaborations. No-Man, 2008 Nonetheless, the results were unmistakably No-Man, yet also different and arguably more confident. The band's longing, world-weary ballads were very much in evidence amidst new takes on chamber pop, post-punk restlessness, progressive rock scope and touches of jazz and world music.
Familiar collaborators had joined the party (Theo Travis, Porcupine Tree drummer Gavin Harrison, former Samuel Smiles cellist Marianne De Chastelaine and Bowness Band drummer Andrew Booker) as had new faces (King Crimson's Pat Mastellotto, American Music Club's pedal steel guitarist Bruce Kaphan, Fabrice Lefebvre from Rajna). The album's centrepiece, Truenorth, featured a stirring performance from the London Session Orchestra arranged by Canterbury scene legend Dave Stewart.
With a full-scale London concert date announced for August, No-Man appeared to be entering a new phase of confidence.
Operating entirely on their own timescale, No-Man continue to write and record: thrilled by possibilities, and always happiest when working in their own kind of terra incognita. Popular music's most important dictum is not to get bored. With so much to discover and to bring to life, No-Man are a long way from being bored yet.
↑
