In continuation of The Sound of Steve Hackett: A Selection of Guitar Transcriptions from His Solo Career, the present book The Sound of Steve Hackett, Vol. 1: The Complete Guitar Transcriptions of Voyage of the Acolyte contains the first complete guitar transcriptions ever published on Steve's debut solo album Voyage of the Acolyte, featuring notes, tablatures and chords. It also includes unpublished charts of the instruments and gears that Steve used to record the album. Both the music sheet and the text in this first volume were also a result of live meetings between Steve Hackett himself and me. Steve reviewed these materials, making it, once again, a very reliable source for guitar players. As its predecessor, The Sound of Steve Hackett, Vol. 1: The Complete Guitar Transcriptions of Voyage of the Acolyte keeps the innovative style of being a mix of a book and a songbook along with having the differentiating mark of being a pioneer work. Besides the discussions with Steve, other sources were the communications with people that were directly part on the making of Voyage of the Acolyte, having worked directly with Steve, including: John Hackett, Steve's youngest brother, a flautist, composer, guitarist and keyboard player; Sally Oldfield, singer; and Pete Cornish, who has built pedalboards for Steve throughout his career. The result of interviews and live meetings I had with Steve during the years of 2017 and 2018, the work brings previously unpublished information on how Steve first conceptualized Voyage of the Acolyte, his first solo album, recorded while Steve was still a member of Genesis, and the history of how Steve - as composer and instrumentalist, and the other musicians - started recording it all the way until its release. Voyage of the Acolyte (released in October 1975) is one of the most important records of prog rock of all time, merging elements from classical music using instruments such as: flute, oboe, cor anglais, cello, acoustic guitars, as well as electric guitars, keyboards, bass, and drums. This range of instruments and musical ideas clearly demonstrate the composer's eagerness to express a series of high quality compositions that had been often stunted. All the songs on the album were composed by Steve Hackett, except A Tower Struck Down, written in partnership with John Hackett, and Shadow of the Hierophant, with Mike Rutherford. The previously unpublished charts of the instruments and gears that Steve used in each song of the album is another fact of relevance in this first volume. These charts were put together by me upon thorough investigation. They are the first evidence, in my opinion, of how Steve creates his unique and differentiate sound - as per the name of this collection - along with his remarkable technique, previously detailed in The Sound of Steve Hackett - A Selection of Guitar Transcriptions from His Solo Career. Besides the charts, the book includes unpublished photographs taken by me of Steve's hands on the guitar showing details of parts of the songs in Voyage of the Acolyte. You will also find numerous unpublished photos of Steve's original instruments which he used on Voyage, in addition to unpublished photos of John Hackett's original manuscripts of parts of the songs included in the album.
