Yes - The Quest

The Quest is the twenty-second studio album by British progressive rock band Yes, released in October 2021 via Inside Out Music.

This is the first studio album released by the band since the passing of founding member Chris Squire in 2015. Billy Sherwood replaces Chris Squire on bass, and is the first studio album since The Ladder (1999) to feature Sherwood in the bands line-up.

The album was produced by Steve Howe and features Geoff Downes on keyboards, Alan White on drums and Jon Davison on lead vocals.

Work on the album began in earnest after the band completed their Royal Affair Tour, and with COVID-19 impacting their ability to meet physically and touring, the band worked on the material online and shared ideas for songs which were worked through with Davison adding lyrical and melody ideas and Howe bringing things together. Without working in professional facilities “on the clock”, the band could work at their own pace in their home studio environments, which was quite a different way of working for the band.

Jon Davison was the main lyricist, who wrote about various themes including hope, optimism, and environmental issues for the album.

The album was recorded in two main locations in 2020 and 2021; White and Sherwood put down their respective drum and bass parts first at Uncle Rehearsal Studios in Van Nuys, California, and Jay Schellen contributed percussion.

After sharing the recording files to the group online, and once COVID-19 restrictions began to ease, Davison travelled to England to join Downes and Howe at Curtis Schwartz Studio in Ardingly, West Sussex, where the album was completed.

The Quest features orchestral arrangements that Howe said were to "augment and enhance the overall sound", after the idea of using one appealed to him. Downes felt the orchestra complimented his keyboard parts as opposed to being a "me versus them" situation. Yes had previously used an orchestra on two other studio albums, Time and a Word (1970) and Magnification (2001). The orchestral parts were written by English composer and arranger Paul Joyce, a long-time fan of the band who had produced orchestrations for Howe's 2012 solo album, Time. Joyce arranged a full score for a 47-piece orchestra which was performed by the FAMES Studio Orchestra in Skopje, North Macedonia, with conductor Oleg Kondratenko.

Schwartz and Howe mixed the album in March 2021.

The record label Inside Out Music suggested that the album should be under 50 minutes, and the band selected eight tracks in the final running order. The label went on to suggest that a second disc of additional tracks recorded during the sessions be added, so Yes chose three songs that Howe said were "high-quality reserve tracks" and were not necessarily ones that they would have scrapped. He added that the two-disc configuration of The Quest is not strictly a full double album, but "a second part to the story."

The album features the distinctive and unique artwork from long-time artist and collaborator Roger Dean.

This double album 2LP record set is on 180 gram heavyweight black vinyl housed in a gatefold sleeve with a 16 page LP booklet and 2CD album set, pressed in Europe via Inside Out Music.