A journey through words and music by Emily Chance

The first review; from Aotearoa Keri Ford North Island New Zealand Hermes by Emily Chance has the whiff of a bestseller, it's a tightly plotted page-turner with likeable characters and a mythic thread. It explores a theme of our human potential for understanding, generosity and love, undermined by our greed and jealousy. The novel moves through fantasy, history and the near future, with the different sections deftly woven together. A very cinematic novel, that will conjure images in the reader's mind, and while its form is original, the warm heart of the novel makes it a delightful reading experience. If you want to read a well-told story that touches us all, Hermes will deliver. Author's Response Keri is a quiet unassuming man with a voracious appetite for knowledge and a keen interest in the arts, including writing himself. His ability to see the art of the Polynesian Peoples in its glorious imaginative context and also love Mozart is a great tribute to his sense of enqui...

About Me I have been writing my blog about my great passion, music, a theme which underscores  Hermes , for almost two decades.  The publication of Hermes , my first novel, signals the beginning of my journey as an author, with a follow-up story,  Angelia , already written. My other great passion is hiking. So, when I am not writing at my home in the Middle East, I can be found at different points in the year in the Alps of Switzerland, the mountains of New Zealand and the South Island of Japan, reminding myself of how precious and unique  our  homeworld is. About the Duology I began writing the first book in the duology in the spring of 2022. With the publication of Hermes   by Foreshore Publishing  in February 2025, t he first part is now available. This is what Foreshore have  to say about Hermes. Hermes At turns both fascinating and entertaining,  Her mes is a cinematic, character-led, multi-epoch journey to a destiny that reminds us of w...

There are really just two questions for me, Is the organiser back.  Has he opened the door and entered the House of Castellano or merely thrown some fairy dust over it.  The Organiser In 1980, when the tectonic plates of Yes shifted, shaking the very foundations that had driven them to such incredible heights, the roots of the earthquake lay with Jon. He had decided he was no longer "the organiser" but a song writer, who wanted to make more spontaneous music.  In 2023 he returned to an idea he had pursued on two previous occasions; to re-establish himself at the fore front of Yes's most demanding music, the music that has become known as the main sequence. So, he dialled B for Band Geeks.  They and Jon delighted everyone on their tour last spring, receiving standing ovations wherever they went. The idea then begins to spin around in Jon's mind about another possibility; new music with the young Turks who played the classics with such elan, energy, flair and skill....

  A Full House  Note  This will be my first review under my Nom De Plume as a writer. I would like to thank all those who have read my blog over the years. It has now passed fifty thousand views despite recent modest activity. My intention is to broaden its subject matter as well as talk about my up and coming novel, "Hermes" the history it delves into, the speculations it offers and the conclusions one draws from a study of the past and the developing future.  Proximity and Chance   The emergence of this new project from John made me both excited but nervous, much like the previous one. The reason is simple after being so thrilled by his previous work and his evolution as a musician I was concerned whether he could maintain the momentum and offer something new and interesting, which genuinely added to his canon. I need not have worried.    Rather than a track by track and musician call out I am going to offer a more organic less Germanic review, m...

  There's a fire burning When you are fifty years in to your exploration of music, the same rules apply as they do to all the elements of your life, almost. It's not quite expand or die, more expand, circle or die.  From my first single (Martha Reeves & The Vandellas, Dancing in The Street) to yesterday’s Radio 3 jewels, gems and mysteries and everywhere in between I have been trying to hear music better. I hear harmonics, progressions and melodic connections that I could not have begun to appreciate in 1968. The nuances are more apparent, the structure clearer and yet ultimately, like all art, more than anything in 2023, I want to be moved and touched. What of the other side of the equation, the musician whose age I share? Trevor’s stated intent for his first solo vocal project since 1989, was to grow his musical vocabulary and try literally anything and see what happens. At an intellectual level, my one burning question was, would he be able to deploy all the e...

  Kintsugi With John's fourth project he has moved into an area rarely inhabited by the kind of bands that he and I share an interest in. Bands become a victim of their own momentum and feed on themselves. John, on the other hand, has no other consideration than to make music.  I have been thinking of artists that set aside naked ambition and just instinctively create. The Beatles "White Album" written in Rishikesh has that feel. Joni Mitchell's "Hijira" is more focused than "Hissing"; it feels more naked, more to the point, as if you get a more clearly distilled vision of the artist. Perhaps Steve Winwood's "Arc of a Diver" is an artist arriving at a destination, rather than striving restlessly for more 'something.' Thats what I feel I am receiving with Kintsugi. Part of that is because John has taken more personal responsibility over the playing and part is due to his absolute determination to feed the songs rather than the ...