Where it all began
About f2g
Freedom To Glide
A landmark year for us, 2020 marks the decade that has seen Freedom To Glide grow from a seed of an idea within a chance conversation into a tour de force of music and media production. We are Andy Nixon & Pete Riley and our trilogy of albums, RAIN, FALL & SEED are the result of a passion to tell the stories and somehow get to the core of what it means to live within the shadow of war. Our chance conversation in 2010 led to the realisation that we were each intending to write something to mark the 2014 Centenary of the beginning of World War One. It was clear from our combined skill sets and our mutual enthusiasm that we had a chance to exceed our individual expectations and so our collaboration began. We could do everything ‘in-house’, audio, video, production, artwork, promotion and every other element required to get Freedom To Glide out to the world! By 2012 we’d released ‘Rain EP’ and six track mini album ‘The Wait’. Our intentions to treat our subject matter with the respect it demanded were clear to all and both releases were received with glowing reviews. Inspired, we forged ahead with our first full album.
2013
Rain
We released our award winning debut album RAIN in 2013. We were knocked out by the attention RAIN received! It was affirmation that our passion for our art and our approach to the subject were well placed. By this time we’d already made the decision to create a trilogy of albums to mark the 100 years since the outbreak of that most horrendous time in our history, World War One.
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Sick to Death
During the production of our second full length album FALL we made a visit to the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire UK. Almost tucked away in a far corner we discovered a monument to those who were ‘shot at dawn’ for so called ‘cowardice’ (now of course known to be sufferers of PTSD and long since pardoned). It was brought into stark reality that the horrors of that war knew no bounds. In 2014 we released our 4 track EP ‘Sick To Death’ to honour those poor souls pushed beyond their limits and shot by their own.
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Our second album in the trilogy FALL was released in 2016. With a much broader view point FALL encompasses the entire 100 years following WW1 and deals with such subjects as Far East prisoners of war, Alan Turin, The Russian Revolution, PTSD and military funeral repatriations. FALL, with our now well-established musical identity spans a century of war.
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In 2019 we released the conclusive album of our trilogy SEED, a sharply focused and deeply personal concept album based around one man’s experience of 1918 – the final year of World War 1. Creating a character for this album turned out to be an incredibly emotional experience. He is of course inspired by a whole raft of literature, poetry and first hand accounts but also by our own family connections. Focusing on one man’s experience of World War One seemed the perfect approach. We wanted to open a door into history and have the listener right there. The story of SEED is the result of that search to somehow get to the core of what it means to live within the shadow of war.
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Our entire discography to date: Rain EP (2012), The Wait (2012), RAIN (2013), Sick To Death EP (2014), FALL (2016) and SEED (2019) are a tribute to the fallen and everyone affected by a century of war.
With the trilogy now complete, Freedom To Glide are currently working on new music, what direction this will take is yet to be seen, so the f2g story continues…
Freedom To Glide – April 2020
"Seed is magnificent. It is devastating in the range of its emotional sweep, humbling in the profundity of the insights it enables and majestic in the way it flawlessly presents a holistic musical experience. This is, without doubt, a contender for album of the decade and should be mandatory listening for anyone who is grappling to understand what it is human beings are capable of doing to each other."
Rob Fisher
"There's elements of Floyd's Wish You Were Here and The Division Bell in their sound, they also point to Porcupine Tree as another inspiration and there's no denying that Richard Barbieri's keyboard style looms large. At their most sparse, Freedom To Glide also evoke the more soundscape-heavy fare of Barbieri's Rain Tree Crow side project."
Prog Magazine - May 2012
"In terms of clarity and depth and a level of musicianship that so very few attain, ‘Rain’ is a near perfect album that should be compulsory listening for progressive fans. A modern classic, Freedom to glide have created a true masterpiece that mingles beauty with sadness over its 63 gorgeous minutes."
Phil Stiles
"Sounds Like the best bits of mid-late career Pink Floyd"
Prog Magazine - May 2012
"I hope you will continue releasing such well-written, well played, and well-thought-out music. Not only is the musicianship and production excellent, your lyrics are literature in their own right. As a teacher of English for many years I often despaired at the poor quality of some bands' lyrics, but yours could be used in class as an example of well written imagery. They paint powerful pictures, and tell a story, which makes the songs powerful and memorable."
Dave Gordons
"Rain, is a superb album which has music which effortlessly flows throughout the 63 minutes, with swathes of keyboards, stunning lead guitar work, majestic piano passages, catchy acoustic guitar work and that crystal clear powerful voice. Above all, the concept dealing with the futility of war is dealt with sympathetically throughout and it must be one of the most emotionally tinged albums I have heard.... Go out and buy this album, listen to it completely and marvel at what Freedom To Glide have produced."
Jim ‘The Ancient One’ Lawson / Progzilla Radio
"Thanks guys. This album is gorgeous and confirms everything I love about prog, diversity, lyrical, musicianship and I love it. I simply have not listened to an album as many times in so short a time since the 70’s."
Musichog
“The British once again present a perfectly produced album”
Marten Dumbreck / Empire Magazine
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