RICHARD BARBIERI
SPELLBOUND
LOCKED DOWN IN HIS HOME STUDIO, FORMER JAPAN MEMBER RICHARD BARBIERI’S FOURTH SOLO ALBUM WASN’T AT ALL THE RECORD HE INTENDED TO MAKE…
GARY TIPP
Following his tenures in Japan and Porcupine Tree, Richard Barbieri has moved on to multiple collaborative projects and an acclaimed solo career
All photos © Carl Glover
Richard Barbieri has always regarded himself as a team player and it’s this selfless trait that makes him a reluctant solo artist. But when the band you’re in breaks up at the very height of its commercial success not once but twice, as happened to Barbieri with both pretty boy, new wavers Japan in the early 80s and again with not-so-pretty, post-prog rockers Porcupine Tree several decades later, what else is a pioneering synth-wizard to do but to go it alone?
“To be honest, I’m not sure how far I want to go with solo work because personally I’ve never been all that ambitious,” recalls Barbieri matter-offactly from the other end of a Zoom call conducted from his home in Kent. “I’ve always enjoyed success with others. I used to play a lot of team sports when I was younger and I’ve always got a lot of enjoyment winning with someone else. Much more than being on my own.”
Despite this natural diffidence to working outside of the band unit, with the release of the mesmerising Under A Spell, Barbieri is now four studio albums into a solo journey that, without the constraints of any semblance of set plan, continues to percolate nicely. With its expansive sound and elaborate arrangements, Under A Spell’s predecessor, 2017’s Planets + Persona, was widely regarded as a sonic breakthrough by the seasoned Londoner.