"Топграфиялық мұхиттардан әңгімелер"

1973 studio album by Yes

Tales from Topographic Oceans is the sixth studio album by English progressive rock band Yes, released on 7 December 1973 by Atlantic Records. It is their first studio album to feature drummer Alan White, who had replaced Bill Bruford the previous year. Frontman Jon Anderson devised its concept during the Close to the Edge Tour, when he read a footnote in Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda that describes four bodies of Hindu texts about a specific field of knowledge, collectively named shastras–śruti, smriti, puranas, and tantras. After pitching the idea to guitarist Steve Howe, the pair spent the rest of the tour developing an outline of the album's musical themes and lyrics. Rehearsals lasted for two months in London, during which the band decided to produce a double album containing four side long tracks based on each text, ranging between 18 and 21 minutes. Keyboardist Rick Wakeman was critical of the concept and felt unable to contribute to the more experimental music that was being produced to fit a double album, and distanced himself from the group. Yes decided against recording in the countryside in order to use Britain's first 24 track machine at Morgan Studios, where they decorated the studio to resemble a farm. Roger Dean incorporated suggestions from the band into the album's cover art, which inspired his designs for the stage used on its tour. Tales from Topographic Oceans received mixed reviews upon release and became a symbol of the perceived excesses of progressive rock, but earned a more positive reception in later years. It was a commercial success, becoming the first UK album to be certified Gold based solely on pre orders, and spent two weeks at number one. In the US it peaked at number 6, where it was certified gold in 1974 for surpassing 500,000 copies. Yes toured the album for five months across Europe and North America, the first half of which featured the entire album performed live. Wakeman, who was against playing the whole album, quit the band at its conclusion to continue his solo career. In 2003, the album was remastered with previously unreleased tracks, and an edition with new stereo and 5.1 surround sound mixes by Steven Wilson, with additional bonus tracks, followed in 2016.

By 1973, Yes had stabilised with a line up of frontman and lead vocalist Jon Anderson, bassist Chris Squire, guitarist Steve Howe, keyboardist Rick Wakeman, and drummer Alan White, who had replaced original drummer Bill Bruford in the previous year. Their fifth album, Close to the Edge (1972), was released to commercial and critical acclaim, and the band toured worldwide to support the album between July 1972 and April 1973. Anderson had begun searching for ideas for their next album during this time, one of which involved a "large scale composition" as the group were writing successful longform pieces, including the 18 minute "Close to the Edge". While in his hotel room in Tokyo during the Japanese tour in March 1973, Anderson found himself "caught up in a lengthy footnote" in Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda which outlines four bodies of Hindu texts named shastras. Yogananda described them as "comprehensive treatises [that cover] every aspect of religious and social life, and the fields of law, medicine, architecture, art " that "convey profound truths under a veil of detailed symbolism". Anderson "became engrossed" with the idea of a "four part epic" concept album based on the four texts, though he later admitted that he only had a basic understanding of them. King Crimson drummer and percussionist Jamie Muir recommended Yogananda's book to Anderson at Bruford's wedding reception earlier in the month. Anderson said of Muir: "I felt I had to learn from him. We started talking about meditation in music—not the guru type but some really heavy stuff." Anderson gained further clarification of the texts from talking to Vera Stanley Alder, a mystic, painter, and author of spirituality books that had a profound influence on him. One riff that Howe played was initially discarded, but it was later incorporated into side three as by then, the two sought for a different theme that would suit the track. An interview with Eddy Offord and a Melody Maker advert congratulating Yes for winning a readership poll published in August and September 1973, respectively, touted the upcoming album as Tales from the Tobergraphic Ocean and Tales from Tobergraphic Oceans. Wakeman jokingly nicknamed the album Tales from Toby's Graphic Go Kart.

After touring finished, Yes regrouped at Manticore Studios in Fulham, London, a former cinema bought by fellow progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, in May 1973. They spent eight weeks rehearsing and developing Anderson and Howe's initial ideas. Wakeman described an early musical concept for Tales from Topographic Oceans around the time of its release, whereby its parts could be interchangeable at any time depending on the audience's reaction, thus allowing the band to perform upbeat portions back to back and skip the slower sections until a later time in the piece. The problem, however, was putting such a concept on a record. The group agreed to make a double album but had no ideas at hand to develop, so the four tracks were fleshed out through improvisations. Wakeman disagreed with the "almost busking, free form thinking" approach and the musical "padding" that resulted, which he thought needed further rehearsal. He felt sections resembled "avant garde jazz rock, and I had nothing to offer". Despite the uncertainty, Anderson stated in the liner notes that Squire, Wakeman, and White made important contributions to the music. Anderson looked back at this time and thought the band were on the same page, but disagreements from Wakeman and producer Eddy Offord marked the end of the period of "illusive harmony" that had been in the group since Fragile. Yes took a break roughly one month into rehearsals, during which Anderson vacated to Marrakesh with his family and wrote lyrics.

The group were split in deciding where to record; Anderson and Wakeman wanted to retreat in the countryside while Squire and Howe preferred to stay in London, leaving White, who was indifferent, as the tie breaking vote. Anderson wanted to record at night under a tent in a forest with electrical generators buried into the ground so they would be inaudible, but "when I suggested that, they all said, 'Jon, get a life!'" Yes were joined by Offord, their engineer and producer who had worked with the band since 1970 and mixed their sound on tour. He pushed their manager, Brian Lane, to record in the country, thinking "some flowers and trees" would lessen the tension that the album was creating within the group. Yes were swayed to remain in London, but wanted to avoid the familiar surroundings of Advision Studios in Fitzrovia, so they chose to record at Morgan Studios in Willesden as it housed a 3M M79, Britain's first 24 track tape machine, which presented greater possibilities in the studio. Squire worked in the studio for as long as sixteen hour days, seven days a week. In July 1973, Yes settled into studio 3 at Morgan for a period of ten weeks. Sound engineer Nigel Luby recalled tiles falling off the box during takes. Wakeman distanced himself from the band as recording went on and spent most of his time drinking and playing darts in the studio bar. and his solos were influenced by his belief that Frank Zappa performed lengthy solos "because the audience wanted it. I was thinking at one stage, 'I'll do that. They'll love it'. The "Young Christians see it" section originated from an unused take from the Fragile sessions, a take from which was released as a bonus track in 2015 as "All Fighters Past". "The Ancient (Giants Under the Sun)" is attributed to the puranas, meaning "of ancient times", which contain eighteen "ancient" allegories. "Steve's guitar", wrote Anderson, "is pivotal in sharpening reflection on the beauties and treasures of lost civilisations." During one of Wakeman's absences from the studio, White came up with the piano sequence for the closing "Nous sommes du soleil" section. Howe, despite participating on the drum solo on stage early on, opted out as it affected his guitar playing afterward.

The album was packaged as a gatefold sleeve designed and illustrated by Roger Dean, who had also designed the artwork for Fragile, Close to the Edge, and Yessongs. Each of them carried a loose narrative thread that Dean did not continue for Tales from Topographic Oceans. Dean and Anderson discussed ideas for the cover during a flight from London to Tokyo via Anchorage, Alaska, for the Japanese leg of the Close to the Edge Tour. Prior to the flight, Dean had completed the artwork to John Michell's book The View over Atlantis. He recalled: "The wives and girlfriends made a cake and we all had some. I have no idea what was in it but from London to Anchorage, I was stoned But from Anchorage to Tokyo, I couldn't stop talking. And I was telling Jon all about this book, about patterns in the landscape and dragon lines, and we were flying hour after hour after hour over the most amazing landscapes So the idea of a sort of magical landscape and an alternative landscape that informed everything: the album cover, the merchandising, the stage." Dean, who primarily describes himself as a landscape painter, wished to convey his enthusiasm for landscapes on the cover, and everything depicted in the design is of something that exists. Painted using watercolour and ink, the front depicts fish circling a waterfall under several constellations of stars. In his book Views, Dean explained that the final collection of landmarks on the front was more complex than intended "because it seemed appropriate to the nature of the project that everyone who wanted to contribute should do so." Anderson wanted a Mayan temple at Chichen Itza with the sun behind it, and White suggested using markings from the plains of Nazca. The landscape comprised, amongst other things, famous English rocks taken from Dominy Hamilton's postcard collection, including Brimham Rocks, the last rocks at Land's End, Logan Rock at Treen, and single stones from Avebury and Stonehenge. Dean thought "the result is a somewhat incongruous mixture, but effective nonetheless." Initial pressings included a slipstream in the background behind the fish that was removed from later copies. Although it was not a part of the original design, Anderson persuaded Dean to add it after it had been painted, so Dean drew it on a clear cel and photographed the cover with and without the slipstream. Dean thought the idea still did not work, and used the original design for the advertisements and posters. In 2002, readers of Rolling Stone magazine voted the album's cover as the best cover art of all time.

The album was finished in the first week of November 1973, and aired on British radio several times before its release in stores. It was set for broadcast on David Jensen's show on Radio Luxembourg on 8 November, but according to Anderson, the radio station somehow received blank tapes, resulting in dead air after the album was introduced. Two more radio broadcasts followed, one on Your Mother Wouldn't Like It hosted by Nicky Horne on Capital Radio on 9 November, and on Rock on Radio One with Pete Drummond on BBC Radio 1 the following day. A listening session was held at Morgan, which studio engineer and manager Roger Quested attended and remembered rows of seats laid out by a set of speakers before the whole album was played. "All but the diehard had drifted away before it had finished." Radio consultant Lee Abrams recalled the risk and difficulty in getting the album played on American radio, with many stations mainly playing "The Revealing Science of God" and primarily at night hours. The album was released in the UK on 7 December 1973, followed by its North American release on 9 January 1974. It was a commercial success for the group; following a change in industry regulations by the British Phonographic Industry for albums to qualify for a Gold disc in April 1973, the album became the first UK record to reach Gold certification based on pre orders alone after 75,000 orders were made. It was number 1 on the UK Album Chart for two consecutive weeks and peaked at number 6 on the US Billboard Top LPs chart. The album was certified Gold in the UK on 1 March 1974

The album initially received a divided reaction from British critics. Robert Sheldon for The Times termed the music as "rockophonic", and selected "The Ancient" as a piece of music that "will be studied twenty five years hence as a turning point in modern music". The Guardian newspaper thought Anderson's "high pitched and carefully modulated voice seemed at ease and control". Steve Peacock reviewed the album and a live performance of it for Sounds magazine using the headlines "Wishy washy tales from the deep" and "Close to boredom". Critic and Yes biographer Chris Welch reviewed the album for Melody Maker and wrote: "It is a fragmented masterpiece, assembled with loving care and long hours in the studio. Brilliant in patches, but often taking far too long to make its various points, and curiously lacking in warmth or personal expression". He thought "Ritual" brought the "first enjoyable moments" of the entire album, "where Alan's driving drums have something to grip on to and the lyrics of la la la speak volumes. But even this cannot last long and cohesion is lost once more to the gods of drab self indulgence." For New Musical Express, Steve Clarke, who had listened to the album for two months and saw the band perform the album live once, declared the album "a great disappointment", coming from the strength of Close to the Edge and notes the "colour and excitement" that the group usually puts on their albums was missing. He thought Wakeman's abilities were restricted, and a lack of "positive construction" in the music which too often loses itself to "a wash of synthetic sounds". Howe's guitar adopts the same tone as Wakeman's keyboards, which bored Clarke, but Anderson was praised in helping carry the music through with his "frail, pure and at times very beautiful" voice. Clarke concluded with a hope of Yes making a return to "real songs" which demonstrate their musicianship better. The album also received mixed reviews in America. Abrams thought it could have received better marketing, and suggested "an experiment in recording" as a tag line. Record World magazine considered it "by far the most progressive album to date" and displays the talents of each band member well, particularly Wakeman's. A review in Billboard said the four sides produce mixed results, with Anderson's "weighty spiritual concept" having "indigestible lyrics that are fortunately outplayed by the band's rich, sweeping playing" and praised Wakeman's keyboards in particular. It concluded with "Ritual (Nous sommes du soleil)" as the most "complete" track. In his negative review for Rolling Stone, Gordon Fletcher described the record as "psychedelic doodles" and thought it suffers from "over elaboration" compared to more successful songs on Fragile and Close to the Edge. He complained about the album's length, Howe's guitar solos on "The Ancient", and the percussion section on "Ritual", but praised Wakeman for his "stellar performance" throughout and believed the keyboardist was the "most human of the group". Fletcher singled out the acoustic guitar section from "The Ancient" as the album's high point. In September 1974, Time magazine called it "by far the most provocative album of the past year."

Retrospectively, Bruce Eder of AllMusic thought the album contains "some of the most sublimely beautiful musical passages ever to come from the group, and develops a major chunk of that music in depth and degrees in ways that one can only marvel at, though there's a big leap from marvel to enjoy. If one can grab onto it, Tales is a long, sometimes glorious musical ride across landscapes strange and wonderful, thick with enticing musical textures". In 1996, Progression magazine writer John Covach wrote that it is Tales from Topographic Oceans, not Close to the Edge, that represents the band's true hallmark of the first half of their 1970s output and their "real point of arrival". He pointed out "the playing is virtuosic throughout, the singing innovative and often complex, and the lyrics mystical and poetic. All this having been asserted even the most devoted listener to Tales is also forced to admit that the album is in many ways flawed. Tracks tend to wander a bit and the music therefore is perhaps not as focused as it might be." He notes that while Howe "set a new standard for rock guitar", he thought Wakeman's parts were not used properly and that the keyboardist was instead "relegated to the role of sideman". Author and critic Martin Popoff called the album the "black hole of Yes experiences, the band dissipating, expanding, exploding and imploding all at once", though he thought it contained "some fairly accessible music".

In January 1974, Squire picked The Yes Album and Tales from Topographic Oceans as the two most personally satisfying Yes albums "in terms of being captivated". In 1984, after Yes had released 90125 (1983), Anderson looked back on Tales from Topographic Oceans as "difficult in some respects", but felt it was "stupid to even think about defending it." In 1990, he said that he was pleased with three quarters of the album, with the remaining quarter "not quite jelling", but the tight deadline to finish it meant there was little time to make the necessary changes. Squire recalled the album as an unhappy period in the band's history, and commented on Anderson's attitude then: "Jon had this visionary idea that you could just walk into a studio, and if the vibes were right the music would be great at the end of the day It isn't reality". Wakeman continues to hold a mostly critical view. In 2006, he clarified that there are some "very nice musical moments in Topographic Oceans, but because of the format of how records used to be we had too much for a single album but not enough for a double, so we padded it out and the padding is awful but there are some beautiful solos like "Nous sommes du soleil" one of the most beautiful melodies and deserved to be developed even more perhaps." In 2023, Steve Howe stated that the album was for the band "a time of spreading our wings, a wonderful project where we went to the ends of the Earth to do it. There was often a feeling that disaster was almost about to strike, but we got there in the end. You have to account for Tales in our history to properly talk about what Yes achieved, because it was quite exceptional. I don’t think we’d be the same group without it", adding that he was "still very proud of it and very pleased with it [ ] "Tales is totally epic, and I love it to bits".

Anderson spoke about his wish to edit the album and reissue it as a condensed 60 minute version with remixes and overdubs, but the plan was affected by "personality problems". The album was digitally remastered for CD by Joe Gastwirt using the original master tapes, in 1994. It was remastered again by Bill Inglot in 2003 as an "expanded" version on Elektra/Rhino Records, which features a restored two minute introduction to "The Revealing Science of God" not included on the original LP, but previously released on the 2002 box set In a Word: Yes (1969–). The set includes studio run throughs of the same track and "The Ancient". The 2003 edition was included in the band's 2013 studio album box set, The Studio Albums 1969–1987. Tales from Topographic Oceans was reissued with new stereo and 5.1 surround sound mixes by Steven Wilson in October 2016 on the Panegyric label. The four disc set was available on CD and Blu ray or DVD Audio and includes the new mixes, bonus and previously unreleased mixes and tracks, and expanded and restored cover art.