Not The Weapon But The Hand

Kscope are releasing ‘Not The Weapon But The Hand’ as a mid-price LP by Steve Hogarth (Marillion) & Richard Barbieri (Japan, Porcupine Tree) on the night of Barbieri’s performance at Liverpool’s Church of St. Margaret of Antioch, and during Hogarth’s European tour with Marillion for their 2016 album ‘Fuck Everyone And Run’. on mid-price LP.

As an ex-founder of the new-wave pioneers Japan, Richard Barbieri was a leader in creating the ground-breaking synthesiser sound that defined the band and influenced the likes of The Human League, Duran Duran, Gary Numan, Talk Talk and a whole raft of artists to follow. Together, the band record five studio albums culminating in the ground-breaking ‘Tin Drum’, which stayed in the UK Albums Chart for a year. Following Japan, Barbieri joined Steven Wilson to form the legendary progressive outfit Porcupine Tree, and has since released three solo studio albums including his most recent and successful ‘Planets + Persona’.

Hogarth is best known as the frontman of Marillion, the progressive rock legends that he joined in 1989, following spells in The Europeans and How We Live. Marillion are enjoying the successes of their 2016 studio album ‘F.E.A.R.’, and the album’s worldwide tour is continuing into the Autumn of 2017.

A few years before the release of ‘Not The Weapon But The Hand’, Porcupine Tree played some shows with Marillion and Steve invited Richard to be part of The H band on his ‘Ice Cream Genius’ album. This association developed into what Hogarth describes as ‘an easyworking relationship which rapidly became an understanding beyond music.’ It wasn’t surprising then that the duo decided to collaborate on a joint project, a venture they have been working on for the past few years, the results of which can be heard on their debut album together. “It also goes beyond what you might expect from the two of us… The album consists of music which is at times moving, complex, multi-layered (both instrumentally and vocally) spooky, goofy and of course, very personal to me.”

‘Not The Weapon But The Hand’ was completed in late 2011 and features occasional appearances from Danny Thompson on double bass, Arran Ahmun (John Martyn) and Chris Maitland (ex-Porcupine Tree) on drums and guitar and string arrangement contributions from Dave Gregory (XTC).