When I was of a certain age (11), I spent a lot of time with Yes’s 1973 album Tales From Topographic Oceans. While trying to absorb its diffuse sonic sprawl — each side of the double LP consists of a single indigestible song — I would scrutinize the liner notes, hoping for insight into some basic questions, like what a “topographic ocean” was. But there is only a glancing reference to the phrase, in the middle of the few bizarre paragraphs in all-caps provided to explain the album’s origin.
Topographic oceans
Topographic oceans
Topographic oceans
When I was of a certain age (11), I spent a lot of time with Yes’s 1973 album Tales From Topographic Oceans. While trying to absorb its diffuse sonic sprawl — each side of the double LP consists of a single indigestible song — I would scrutinize the liner notes, hoping for insight into some basic questions, like what a “topographic ocean” was. But there is only a glancing reference to the phrase, in the middle of the few bizarre paragraphs in all-caps provided to explain the album’s origin.