Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
At The Edge Of Light there is reason and there is the shadow, the light focusing on what gives us imagination and purpose, the shadows hiding for now the imperative of intention, the judgement of others in which the continuous rock face of their lies, their superficial engagement with our own lives, is lit up by the spark of realisation that we have to conquer the fear of the unknown first and then see the cliff and the rock face for what it is, the higher ground, the conviction of your own journey.
It is at the edge of light that we see the immediate, the surroundings energised by the shards and fragments of the lightning strike or the first forage of the Sun as it seeks to reminds us that day is not far behind, that life is there to make music too and see the world as a canvas, not as a finished product.
It has arguably been a mantra of Steve Hackett’s for his entire life, that seeing the sharpness of illumination is the precursor to acting upon the feeling that comes from having navigated the cliff edge by only the shimmer of emerging light. Across a sublime solo career, the music remains unquestionably the source of light that guides others to seek out a better ideal of themselves, a foundation into which the listener can build a finer example of the life they have lived. It takes beauty to remind people that they are worthy, it is the graft of another’s art to which leads someone away from the point of looking down from the edge and which gives them the courage to climb ever higher.
In Steve Hackett’s latest cascade of creative freedom, At The Edge Of Light, what the listener takes on board is the force of the imagination released, never one to give anything but his upmost, to allow the guitar the freedom to be portrayed as the radiant sculptor of emotions, it is what Steve Hackett has always done across his long and seismic career.
In songs and arousing, feverish instrumentals such as Beasts In Our Time, Underground Railroad, Shadow and Flame, Conflict and Under The eyes Of The Sun, Steve Hackett once more brings a sense of enlightenment to the proceedings, in his own musically intense way but one that is rooted always in the calm assurance of his own observation, his demeanour and attitude to seeing the spark light up the sky.
At The Edge Of Light we see the world as it is, not one of glamour in the pulsating sunlight, nor in the depth of despair in which the darkness can overwhelm but a genuine place in which to see the task at close hand and to dream of the future that come from if we learn how to scale the cliff face of problems put in our way.
Ian D. Hall