Christopher James Harrison: piano, electric guitars, acoustic guitar, vocals
Grant Gordon: bass guitar
Gary Mackenzie: drums

written and produced by Harrison/Gordon/Mackenzie
recorded and mixed by Al Harle
additional recording by Grant Gordon
photography by Tom Aldwinckle

check out the Echoes of Ilion 'Inspirations' playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6tiSxU13M3ACXQlZzP7RWU

The Song of The Horse

Christopher James Harrison: electric guitars
Grant Gordon: bass guitar, acoustic guitar, keyboards, vocals
Gary Mackenzie: drums

written and produced by Harrison/Gordon/Mackenzie
recorded and mixed by Al Harle
additional recording by Grant Gordon
photography by Tom Aldwinckle

check out the Echoes of Ilion 'Inspirations' playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6tiSxU13M3ACXQlZzP7RWU

 We come from the sea we return to the sea and if you still believe you're immortal you'll suffer
We come on our boats and we'll flood out your moats
And we'll tear down your walls and slaughter your children
We are the new order in this waterworld
You're so self deluded to think you could conquer
This kingdom of water
Which birthed us all
And we will all eventually fall
Surrender yourselves to the sea people
Come back home again to where you're from

We laugh at the cheap tawdry weapons you made from copper and tin they're picks and spades
The future is with us, blowing our sails, propelling us forward to quicken your wails
We are the new order 'cross land and sea
We'll shatter your ramparts and make your kings bleed
Helped by volcanic eruptions or three
We saw the chance to take the lead
History has ended today we declare
Lock all the doors and turn the lights off

The Song of The Sea Peoples

Christopher James Harrison: electric guitars, vocals
Grant Gordon: bass guitar, acoustic guitar, vocals
Gary Mackenzie: drums

written and produced by Harrison/Gordon/Mackenzie
recorded and mixed by Al Harle
additional recording by Grant Gordon
photography by Tom Aldwinckle

check out the Echoes of Ilion 'Inspirations' playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6tiSxU13M3ACXQlZzP7RWU

The Song of Alexander

Echoes of Ilion features Grant Gordon, bassist with iconic New Wave band And Also The Trees and formerly of The Divine Comedy, drummer Gary Mackenzie (previously of seminal UK rock band Praying Mantis), and brilliant multi-instrumentalist Christopher James Harrison (The Mighty Handful, Ali Azimi & The Need.  

 

After playing on each other’s solo recordings for some years, Harrison, Gordon and Mackenzie formed Echoes of Ilion to explore their shared love of an eclectic range of influences - from King Crimson, Opeth and Pain of Salvation through Pink Floyd, Rush and Transatlantic to Kate Bush, Nick Cave and Ben Folds.

 

Using the siege of Troy as their starting point, each song explores a different aspect of how the Trojan myth has resonated through the centuries. The ‘Horse’ E.P. is the first part of the ‘Troy’ song cycle.

 

‘The Song of the Horse’ is a visualisation of what the Greek soldiers inside the Trojan horse might have been feeling as they waited for dawn to rise, deep into enemy territory.

 

‘The Song of Alexander’ is voiced by Alexander the Great who saw himself as the ‘new Achilles’, the greatest Greek warrior in Homer’s Iliad. Alexander was so obsessed with Achilles that he made a pilgrimage to his death-site at Troy in order to channel his warlike spirit before embarking on his epic invasion of Asia.

 

Contemporary with the Troy stories is The Bronze Age Collapse, an epoch during which numerous prosperous and cultured societies (including a rebuilt Troy) across the Aegean and Mediterranean suddenly disappeared. No-one is sure why, but the strongest theory seems to be that a mysterious military coalition ran riot across the entire area – ‘The Song of The Sea Peoples’ explore this crucial time.

 

The story of Troy is so rich. It is our alternative creation myth, and the first great East-versus-West confrontation. Virgil wrote that the Trojan hero Aeneas escaped the burning city, headed west and founded Rome. There is a sense that ancient secrets and learning from the East, encoded in the city of Troy and its inhabitants, were brought to Rome. This is the start of our culture. From the long Dark Age that followed The Bronze Age Collapse, the West was born.

 

The band wanted to explore the possibilities - musically, socially and politically - of being a trio. With Red-era King Crimson and Rush as their models, it has been an experiment in collaboration, ego-liberation and democracy - values that were, it turns out, invented in classical Greece.

 

Their next E.P., exploring more Troy resonances - from the Anzac landings at Gallipoli in 1915, the Nazis obsession with the city in the 1930s, and the first excavations of Troy in the 19th century when it was first realised that the myths might actually be true - will follow later in 2019.

 

Check out the Echoes of Ilion ‘inspirations’ playlist on Spotify. Each band member chose 10 songs each to trace the musical paths that brought them to Echoes of Ilion, and to Troy.

 

Christopher James Harrison: vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, piano

Grant Gordon: vocals, bass, acoustic guitar, keyboards

Gary Mackenzie: drums

 

All songs written and produced by Harrison/Gordon/Mackenzie

check out the Echoes of Ilion 'Inspirations' playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6tiSxU13M3ACXQlZzP7RWU

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