Short Reviews [Clive Mitten - 2021 - "Suite Cryptique: Recomposing Twelfth Night 1978 - 1983"]

The enforced lockdowns many of us suffered impacted people in different ways, and while musicians were unable to tour, some of them used the time to go into the studio. In Clive’s case, he decided to finally orchestrate music inspired by Twelfth Night, yet also recompose them to turn them much more into classical pieces than “just” a straight rearrangement. What this means to the listener is that we are confronted with music which in some ways is very new, at others uses fragments of known themes, or reuses material in a new way or even complete sections just played in a different manner. In many ways this is an incredibly hard album to review, not because I don’t like it as that is far from the truth, but rather I am aware that I know the source material incredibly well indeed. I may not have been around for the original band when they were playing, but I think I have reviewed every album including all the reissues and additional live recordings. They are one of my very favourite bands, and while I enjoy what the band achieved after the departure of Geoff, it is his period with them to which I most often return. If one goes to the incredibly excellent Twelfth Night website http://twelfthnight.info/ it is possible to download the complete guide to this album. There, Clive details not only what sections have been used from the original songs, but also at what time they would have appeared, as well as explaining what new sections have been added. He also details the instruments he used, and it shows just how far digital music has come in recent years as it is hard-pressed to hear that everything is virtual as opposed to a real orchestra. He says it took 10 months of lockdowns, working on this for more than 10 hours a day, and that I can believe as this is a mammoth piece of work. The album is divided into five suites, with the first two encompassing complete albums in ‘Live At The Target’ and ‘Live and Let Live’, and his breakdown details what comes from what songs. It is the third to which I find I am most drawn, which is based on “The Collector”. For many years this was a “lost” song from Twelfth Night in that they had not recorded it in the studio, and the first time I heard it was when I bought a live tape from Brian 30 years ago. Eventually the classic line-up reformed to record it in line with a greatest hits album, ‘Collector’s Item’. That song is one of the greatest they ever recorded, and I find myself drawn to the majesty and edge of Clive’s re-composition. At times it is very true to the original, yet there are other elements (such as footsteps) which take our mind in new directions. It is dynamic, powerful, full of grace, madness and sheer brilliance, and I can “see” Geoff sat there smiling at the end result as Clive has taken one of Geoff’s finest pieces and lifted it even further. That’s the end of the first CD, and the second is devoted to the great album, ‘Fact and Fiction’. The first suite takes us completely through the album, excluding the seventh song, as “Creepshow” is rightfully given its own suite at the end. This actually means we hear Clive undertaking another reworking of “We Are Sane”, following on from ‘The Age Of Insanity’, here in a very different fashion to the vocal version on his last release. He has deliberately taken this on a different journey, yet it works well. Of course, his approach to the album means we end this suite with “Love Song”, a number I always find incredibly emotional – the first time I heard the version on ‘Live and Let Live’ I sat in front of the speakers sobbing, something I have never forgotten. It was not long after Geoff died far too young, a death which has impacted me personally far more than any other musician, which I still cannot explain. “Creepshow” brings us home, a song which will always be thought of as Geoff’s, yet watch the “Live In London’ video to see just how dominant Andy Sears was in this as well. Here Clive takes nearly two minutes to bring us into the original, as until then we have had new material to take us to that point. Interestingly, at the very end of this we hear the opening notes of “We Are Sane” again. Apparently Clive conceived this as a circular piece of music and here he takes us back to the beginning of ‘Fact and Fiction’. This is an immense piece of work. How it will be received by those unaware of Twelfth Night, something which needs resolving sooner rather than later, I do not know, but all I can say is that as a fan I am just blown away by the vision and execution of what is an incredible album.