With the current line up just finished a tour in the US, heading to Europe in 2026 and online chatter about a possible next album next year, it’s time for Yes fans to catch up with some newly released items that you may have missed!
Tales From Topographic Oceans – Yes Album Listening Guide by Kevin Mulryne
First up, if you’re yearning for the Tales from Topographic Oceans mega box set that is coming in 2026, and want to start doing your homework, Kevin Mulryne’s second YesTome, is enough to get you a PhD in the subject. The sequel to The Tormato Story, Kevin set out to write a more concise Listening Guide style book for the band’s iconic double album. His investigations led him down various rabbit holes with the end result that the finished volume was even bigger than its predecessor!
KkkTales itself drew many comments that quantity doesn’t always reflect quality but I can assure you that this is not the case for this book. The book goes into the recording locations and process with the first significant interviews with a key player from Eddie Offord’s team who attended every session. He draws on instrument experts for comments on the particular tools used by the musicians, looks at the cover art and the tour staging and sound systems. There is a time coded listening guide for every side of the album, a history of the TFTO songs in the live arena and much much more.
The book reveals things you never noticed, and never knew you needed to know. It also has a companion “colour supplement” photo book which captures many unseen studio and live images relevant to the topic.
To order the book via Burning Shed, click here > https://burningshed.com/kevin-mulryne_tales-from-topographic-oceans_book
And to order the colour supplement, click here > https://burningshed.com/kevin-mulryne_tales-from-topographic-oceans_booklet
Master of Images – Barry Plummer’s Yes Legacy – 2026 Calendar
These various investigations led Kevin to get in contact with photographer Barry Plummer, whose images you can see in the TFTO supplement. That connection will form the basis of Mulryne’s next book as he draws the Yes highlights out of Plummer’s photo archive. But while that is getting put together, you can get a preview in the 2026 Barry Plummer Calendar, which features 12 colour / black & white images of Yes live and in the studio in the 1970s. Make sure you order quickly, so you can have this glorious piece of work in play for New Year’s Day!
For more details, including samples of the images, click here > https://tormatobook.com/product/master-of-images-barry-plummers-yes-legacy-2026-calendar
The YesStuff Book Series
Douglas and Glenn Gottlieb are long term Yes archivists and collaborators. If you don’t know their names, you have seen their work if you own any recent Yes tour books and album sleeves, to name but a few.
In the process of the archival digitization of their collection, they have released the first three books in a series called YesStuff. The first volume I received was focused on the band’s tour programs. It’s packed with colour photos, starting from some early venue based programs running right through to the almost encyclopaedic volumes produced for the Yes and CTTE 50th anniversary tours by the authors! The second one is picture single sleeves which, while having a bit less variety than the first book, is a definitive guide to all of the different covers that existed around the world.
I think it’s fair to say that this series is a labour of love, and extremely high quality! The volume I have yet to get is focused on concert posters, and I hope there will be many more to follow.
You can get all of the books on Amazon – just search on YesStuff and you will find them!
Steve Howe – Portraits of Bob Dylan/ Natural Timbre/ Signals Crossed
Having been occupied solidly with Yes for most of the 1970s, releasing two solo albums during that time, and then moving to Asia in the 1980s through GTR, into ABWH and Union Yes, releasing one more solo album, it was really only in the 1990s that Steve Howe’s solo work, and the number of solo albums he released increased. As this was the CD era, none of them ended up on vinyl, and many came out on various labels. So it seems that as the opportunity arises, Howe is now reclaiming these and reissuing them as records and on CD. The latest batch has two albums which show a great contrast in styles.
Portraits of Bob Dylan (1999) sees Steve Howe pay tribute to Bob Dylan through a thoughtful reinterpretation of his songs. Although released during the 1990s trend for “special guest” albums, the project feels driven by Howe’s genuine admiration for Dylan rather than commercial aims. Instead of forcing Dylan into a progressive rock framework, Howe honours the originals while placing them in fresh musical settings, including several deep cuts that reflect his deep fandom. The album features Howe’s distinctive guitar work and a rotating cast of vocalists drawn from his wide musical circle. It opens with an ambitious version of “Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands,” sung by Jon Anderson, whose performance sustains the song’s epic length. Other highlights include Annie Haslam’s Spanish-flavoured “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue,” PP Arnold’s rocking “Well Well Well,” and a country-tinged “Buckets of Rain” to close, showcasing the album’s stylistic range and respectful creativity.
Natural Timbre (2001) is a different prospect, as it is fully instrumental and acoustic. With no electric instruments, Steve adds mandolin, banjo, dobro, mandocello, lap steel and other instruments to his palette, a selection of both original compositions plus 3 versions of Yes classics! Also taking part are son Dylan on drums, Anna Palm on violin and Andrew Price Jackman on keyboards. There are a lot of different styles which keep this album interesting. Intersection Blues is a country-blues fingerpicked song, while Dream River brings elements of jazz to the sound. The Little Galliard is an acoustic solo inspired, I expect, by medieval music, while Solar Winds is almost acoustic prog-folk. The album ends with the 3 Yes covers: the familiar intro of Your Move is a rock radio classic and Disillusion is the middle section of the epic Starship Trooper. Perhaps the best track is the closing version of Yes’ Relayer album track To Be Over. Overall it’s a mellow and diverse listen and well worth picking up if you haven’t heard it before.
Finally, Signals Crossed (2025) is a vinyl only EP which takes 3 tracks begun at the time of Portraits of Bob Dylan and finished off more recently. Two versions of I Want You were recorded for the album, and this more reflective one with gentle backing vocals, is the alternate version. The version of One Too Many Mornings, a Dylan acoustic track originally, was inspired by the live version from Dylan’s Hard Rain album, and, like all 3 tracks, is sung by Howe. The EP ends with the wordy Mama You’ve Been On My Mind, which has Dylan Howe on drums and great harmonies. Overall it’s a great, if brief, addition – would have been great to have these as CD bonus tracks, but the EP is a good addition.
