Nic Potter

Nic Potter - The Blue Zone - 1990 - Voiceprint

On "The Blue Zone" Gordon Dennis, among others, his former bandmate Guy Evans and Peter Hammill Hammill Potter and longtime musical companions Stuart supported. The result pleases me far better than the pop of "Mountain Music" (which is the only Potter album is that I can use for comparison). The elegiac synth sounds of "Blue Ocean" are characteristic of the entire album. Hammill liefert dazu dezente Gitarreneinsätze, Guy Evans steuert etwas Perkussion bei. Hammill returns to subtle guitar stakes, Guy Evans contributes some percussion. With "A Whiter Shade of Blue" is about something more upbeat. A slightly trendy pieces, comparable to the better things of ex-Camel keyboardist Peter Bardens. The highlight of the album are the three parts of the title track. Part 1 begins with a quick, sequencer-like rhythm changes, then in a powerful piece with a slight classical influence.Towards the end there is a short but beautiful guitar used by Huw Lloyd-Langton (ex-Hawkwind). The other two parts are kept much quieter. In Part 2, Potter provides only going a few gentle and forth flowing background sound to a long acoustic guitar solo. Similarly, part 3 is constructed, then come here to oboe, bassoon and violin. A very elegiac piece of already partly mystical atmosphere. With "Hard as Irony" it will be something more conventional, the saxophone I find this somewhat kitschy. This piece reminds us of solo stuff from Peter Bardens. Overall, a beautiful electronic record, with a fall season, just over half an hour but plenty of short! © Jochen Rindfrey Babyblaue Seiten, January 2005 [translated from German]

Everything is right: The Blue Zone is a CD filled with wonderful music. Nic Potter, former bassist of VdGG, creates haunted, dreamlike soundscapes and must be for it - unlike me not be ashamed because of the previous pompous phrase - in the least. The color blue is the focus of this work. The ocean is deep blue. In terms of music it is a piece like "Ocean Blue" out which borrows its musical theme, although lovingly made "Das Boot", but get along before his judges. Pure atmosphere grabs the listener and pulls him deep under the water, always sun rays break through the surface and I forget that I have no air to breathe for several minutes more had around me. Again bombastic? But if it's so ... The three "Blue Zone" titled pieces are not a cohesive movement, there are three individual beads, which certainly stands out part 2. Listening to this piece lying on a pleasant summer afternoon on the back, one must simply close its eyes to get fancy in a Greek olive grove Just the atmosphere begins a Nic at this piece, shaped by the acoustic guitar by Duncan Brown. Part 1, however, reminds us of the rightly At exceedingly popular "Watermark" album by Enya. Great, atmospheric instrumental music, which unfortunately was perceived to be wrong by as much as anyone on this blue planet is, and will be. Therefore, rather VdGG-lover, fan of instrumental music, BBS reader who likes chillt times and last but not least, all who are not heavy guitars and incredibly complicated, Oblique even need to elated listening to: strike looking, listening, and agree snatch this album from oblivion. © Günter pod Rating : 11/15 © 1999-2009, all text copyright by their respective authors, Babyblaue Seiten [translated from German]

Ex-Van der Graaf Generator's Nic Potter's "The Blue Zone" was recorded at sessions between 1989 and 1990. The album has been described as progressive folk music. It could also be described as New Age or electronica. Regardless of definitions, this is an album worth absorbing. Nothing groundbreaking or innovative here, but it's a pleasant aural experience, and a good instrumental album played by Nic Potter with contributions from experienced musicians like Peter Hammill, Snowy White, Lindsay Cooper, and Duncan Browne. Try and listen to Nic Potter with Peter Hammill's 1971 "Fool's Mate" album, and also Van der Graaf Generator's "The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other" album

TRACKS

Ocean Blue [6:11]
A Whiter Shade of Blue [3:50]
Blue Zone: One [5:47]
Blue Zone: Two [3:30]
Blue Zone: Three (Gods and Ancestors) [11:13]
Hard as Irony [4:42]

All tracks composed by Nick Potter

MUSICIANS

Nick Potter - keyboards, bass
Peter Hammill - guitars (tr. 1)
Snowy White - guitar (tr. 2)
Huw Lloyd-Langton - guitar (tr. 3/6)
Duncan Browne - spanish guitar (tr. 4/5)
Guy Evans - woodblock percussion (tr. 1)
Malcolm Duncan - saxophone (tr. 6)
Stuart Gordon - violin (tr. 5)
Lindsay Cooper - bassoon (tr. 5)
Catherine Milliken - oboe (tr. 5)

BIO (WIKIPEDIA)

Nic Potter (born 18 October 1951 in Wiltshire) is a British bassist, composer and painter, best known for his work with the group Van der Graaf Generator in the 1970s. Before joining Van der Graaf Generator, Potter from a very early age (1968) played bass in The Misunderstood, and that's how he met Guy Evans who played the drums. He had left school at age fifteen to become a bass-player. In 1969 Potter and Evans both left The Misunderstood to join Van der Graaf Generator for the recording of their album The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other. Halfway during the recording of the following VdGG-album H to He, Who Am the Only One (1970), Potter left VdGG, leaving the a-side of the album with his bass-guitar-sounds (tracks: Killer, The Emperor in his War Room and Lost) and side b with the organ-bass-pedal sounds by Hugh Banton, which would become one of the signature sounds for Van der Graaf Generator. In 1971 he played bass-guitar on Peter Hammill's first solo-album, Fool's Mate, on Colin Scot's album Colin Scot and with the band Magna Carta. In the 1970s he also played with Jeff Beck, Chuck Berry, Rare Bird and Steve Swindells. In 1973 he collaborated on The Long Hello project. His playing can also be heard on Peter Hammill's album Over (1977). In 1977, after Hugh Banton and David Jackson had left Van der Graaf Generator, Potter was asked to re-join. He plays on both The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome (1977) and the double live-album Vital (1978). Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s Potter continued to record and tour with Peter Hammill, including being the bassist for the K-Group (from 1981-1985), and with the Tigers (in 1980) and Duncan Browne (in 1984). In 1983 he started a solo-career, and released a number of albums with mostly electronic music. In 1995 Nic produced and played the bass on the posthumous album Songs of Love and War by Duncan Browne. In 2008 Nic Potter published the live album "Live in Italy", together with many musicians like David Jackson and Tony Pagliuca (Le Orme).