Lehmann.Amanda - Innocence & Illusion

After a musical career spanning over three decades (and known latterly for her musical involvement with Steve Hackett), singer / songwriter / guitarist Amanda Lehmann releases her debut solo album, which features several A-list guest players that have also worked past and present alongside the ex-GENESIS guitarist. 'Innocence And Illusion' features 9 songs and incorporates a fusion of Progressive-Rock, Rock and Ethereal Fantasy Ballads, with some elements of Jazz-Blues along the way, taking us on a journey through magical childhood worlds and hard-edged realities; emotionally touching us at every turn. Ranging from wistful and ethereal through to warm bluesy tones to rocky harder edged and choir-like pure notes, Amanda's haunting intertwining lead and multi-layered vocals weave a magical spell throughout 'Innocence And Illusion'. With engineering and co-production by Nick Magnus, 'Innocence And Illusion' comes in a 6-Panel Digi-File Card Sleeve with Booklet. The full line-up is: Amanda Lehmann (vocals on tracks 1 - 9 / guitars on tracks 1 - 8 / keyboards & piano on tracks 1, 4, 6, 7 & 8), Nick Magnus (keyboards / piano on tracks 1, 2, 4, 6 & 8) and Roger King (keyboards on tracks 3 & 5), with special guests: Steve Hackett (guitars on tracks 6 & 9 / harmonica on track 3), Rob Townsend (alto sax on tracks 3 & 5) and Paul Johnson (backing vocal on track 4). While the artist links quoted here will undoubtedly lead many to purchase this album, if the truth were to be told, this record is strong enough and more than worthy of attention without having any prior knowledge of who is playing on it! Amanda's superb songwriting and vocal performance skills on 'Innocence And Illusion' leads us through a range of styles and genres, delivering top-quality music... Stunning melodies with big hooks, magical atmospheres, infectious chorus's and meaningful lyrics... add the playing, engineering and co-production skills of none other than Nick Magnus and you get an effect similar to a terrific pairing such as Jon & Vangelis, where together two mega-talents of their own fields collaborate to create that rare thing... a piece of blissful cross-genre music magic.