Geoffrey Downes – The World Service

Geoff Downes, widely known as the keyboard player from Asia, also present on one Yes album (Drama), occasionally gives us an instrumental album.

Downes is not known for his keyboard heroics, but rather as keyboard player who does the job and does it well. The World Service is not an album filled with complicated passages and long, drawn-out movements. Instead, it takes you into various moods influenced from his impressions of various cities of the world.

Based on an old Ferguson radio from his youth, which included short-wave and long-wave radio stations from around the world, Downes takes us on a musical journey around the world. From Moscow to Stockholm, from Quebec to Oslo, each piece (30 in all!) takes us through a different effort of creativity, bringing the whole thing to a very strong Symphony.

The album can be listened to in foreground, with the speakers blasting, as well as for creating a background ambiance. It does not need to be played in order. Actually, Downes himself recommends that you play the songs in different orders, thus creating your own, personal musical journey.