It's been a pretty great year for fans of Genesis.  This morning, the news broke of upcoming reissues from Phil Collins.  Earlier this year, reissues arrived from Mike Rutherford and Anthony Phillips, and Steve Hackett released his latest solo album.  (A reissue of the 1986 album by Hackett's band GTR is on the way, and a box set of Hackett's Charisma recordings is due later this year, too.)  All has been fairly quiet on the Peter Gabriel front, but even Gabriel has some vinyl remasters on the way in the fall.  As for Tony Banks, the Genesis keyboardist is the recipient of a recent box set from Esoteric Recordings, the same imprint of Cherry Red Group responsible for the deluxe editions both from Banks' catalogue and Phillips' The Geese and the Ghost.  Banks' A Chord Too Far anthologizes the multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and artist's solo career, from 1979's A Curious Feeling through 2012's Six Pieces for Orchestra.  Four previously unreleased recordings round out this impressive hardcover book-style collection.

As Banks explains in the liner notes contained in the lavish 60-page book, "the challenge when compiling A Chord Too Far has been how to present the music."  Eventually, Banks decided to present music from his rock albums on the first three CDs "in an artistic rather than a chronological order, and emphasize different tracks from the various CDs than was done on the original albums."  In addition, a number of tracks have been remixed especially for this set.  The fourth disc is an all-instrumental affair drawing on his soundtrack and orchestral recordings as well as his core albums.

Banks' solo career began in 1978 when he embarked on the recording of A Curious Feeling.  As he reveals in the album-by-album liner notes which (chronologically) appear in the book, the album was originally conceived as a musicalization of Daniel Keyes' novel Flowers for Algernon.  Though the author consented, he revealed to Banks that Charles Strouse (Bye Bye Birdie, Annie) and David Rogers were already working on a stage musical of the novel.  Banks pressed forward with the album but adapted them for a different story on this concept album featuring vocals by Kim Beacon of the band String Driven Thing and drums by Chester Thompson.  Peaking just out of the U.K. Top 20, A Curious Feeling marked an auspicious debut.  Banks' next album coincided with a lull in Genesis' activities.  1983's The Fugitive featured Banks as lead vocalist and keyboardist, with guest musicians including drummer Steve Gadd filling the other roles.  The songs were shorter and more commercially oriented than on A Curious Feeling but the album only placed at No. 50 in the U.K. despite eventually going Gold.  Also in 1983, Banks scored director Michael Winner's film The Wicked Lady, selections from which are also present on A Chord Too Far.

Another Tony Banks album didn't arrive until 1989, but he busied himself with film scoring; some of the fruits of his labors from the films Quicksilver and Lorca and the Outlaws formed the basis of the 1986 solo release appropriately entitled Soundtracks.   Much as The Fugitive had differed from A Curious Feeling, Banks' 1989 effort took his music in yet another direction.  Taking his cue from bandmate Mike Rutherford's Mike + the Mechanics, Banks released the pop-leaning album under the group name of Bankstatement.  Steve Hillage co-produced the album featuring vocalists Alistair Gordon and Jayney Klimek and musicians including Hillage on guitar and Pino Palladino on bass.  Just two years passed before Banks went properly solo again with Still.  A variety of vocalists brought the album to life including Nik Kershaw, Klimek and the single-named Fish.  Both Kershaw and Fish co-wrote songs with Banks, and Genesis associate Nick Davis co-produced. Banks welcomed musicians including Palladino, Daryl Stuermer on guitar and Vinnie Colaiuta on drums to the band.  Despite heavy promotional pushes and a number of singles released, Still didn't make waves commercially.

Banks' final rock album to date was 1995's Strictly Inc., a duo project between Banks and Wang Chung vocalist/guitarist Jack Hues.  Daryl Stuermer, bassist Nathan East and drummer John Robinson played on the album which featured as its centerpiece the 17-minute long epic "An Island in the Darkness."  Banks writes that after the lack of success of both Strictly Inc. and Genesis' 1997 Calling All Stations, he felt no motivation to record another rock/pop album.  Instead, he turned his attention to his orchestral writing.  The successful pair of 2004's Seven: A Suite for Orchestra and 2012's Six Pieces for Orchestra both came out of Banks' interest in writing modern classical compositions.

The 48 tracks on four CDs - culled from every one of Banks' solo, duo and band projects - have been remastered at Abbey Road by Miles Showell, while Nick Davis and Tony Banks have undertaken the remixing.  The four previously unreleased tracks are all instrumentals on Disc Four - demos of Seven's "Spring Tide" and "Neap Tide" (the latter demo originally recorded for Strictly Inc.) and Six Pieces' "City of Gold" as well as "Poppet" which dates to the Still recording sessions.

This beautifully designed and illustrated survey of Banks' recording career outside of his famous band is a highly personal one, an illuminating musical autobiography from an artist who has followed his muse over the course of the decades.  A Chord Too Far is available now from Esoteric Recordings at the links below!  And watch soon for more details on Esoteric's Anthony Phillips box set Private Parts and Pieces I-V!

Tony Banks, A Chord Too Far (Esoteric ECLEC 42507, 2015) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

CD 1:

1. REBIRTH
2. AT THE EDGE OF NIGHT
3. WALLS OF SOUND
4. LION OF SYMMETRY
5. THE MORE I HIDE IT
6. SHORTCUT TO SOMEWHERE
7. THE WATERS OF LETHE
8. I WANNA CHANGE THE SCORE
9. WATER OUT OF WINE
10. SOMETHING TO LIVE FOR
11. BY YOU
12. NEVER LET ME KNOW
13. THIRTY THREE'S

CD 2:

1. CHARITY BALLS
2. AN ISLAND IN THE DARKNESS
3. THE BORDER
4. LUCKY ME
5. ANOTHER MURDER OF A DAY
6. MOVING UNDER
7. STILL IT TAKES ME BY SURPRISE
8. RED DAY ON BLUE STREET
9. AFTER THE LIE
10. REDWING

CD 3:

1. QUEEN OF DARKNESS
2. A PIECE OF YOU
3. BIG MAN
4. ANGEL FACE
5. THIS IS LOVE
6. I'LL BE WAITING
7. BACK TO BACK
8. FOR A WHILE
9. THROWBACK
10. YOU CALL THIS VICTORY
11. AND THE WHEELS KEEP TURNING
12. YOU
13. THE FINAL CURTAIN

CD 4:

1. BLADE
2. BLACK DOWN
3. SIREN
4. EARTHLIGHT
5. FROM THE UNDERTOW
6. SPRING TIDE (DEMO - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED)
7. NEAP TIDE (DEMO - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED)
8. CITY OF GOLD (DEMO - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED)
9. THE CHASE
10. KIT
11. POPPET (PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED)
12. THE WICKED LADY

CD 1, Tracks 1, 4 & 6; CD 2, Track 10 & CD 3, Track 10 from Soundtracks, Charisma CAS 1173, 1986
CD 1, Tracks 2, 11 & 13; CD 2, Track 6 & CD 3, Track 11 from The Fugitive, Charisma TBLP1, 1983
CD 1, Tracks 3, 10 & 12; CD 2, Tracks 1-2 & CD 3, Track 2 from Strictly Inc., Virgin CDV 2790, 1995
CD 1, Track 5; CD 2, Tracks 2-3 & CD 3, Tracks 1, 3, 5, 6 & 9 from Bankstatement, Virgin CDV 2600, 1989
CD 1, Track 7; CD 2, Tracks 4, 9; CD 3, Tracks 8, 12 & CD 4, Tracks 4-5 from A Curious Feeling, Charisma CDV 1148, 1979
CD 1, Tracks 8-9; CD 2, Tracks 5, 7-8; CD 3, Tracks 4, 7 & 13 from Still, Virgin CDV 2658, 1991
CD 4, Tracks 1 & 3 from Six Pieces for Orchestra, Naxos 8.672986, 2012
CD 4, Tracks 2 & 4 from Seven: A Suite for Orchestra, Naxos 8.557466, 2004
CD 4, Tracks 9, 10 & 12 from The Wicked Lady, Atlantic 78-0073-1, 1983
CD 4, Tracks 6-8 & 11 previously unreleased