Camel brought disparate elements together to create the transitional neon magic of this icy remote romance. The original lineup of the band had broken through with their third album 'The Snow Goose', inspired by the Paul Gallico short story (Gallico sued for copyright infringement) and then 'Moonmadness' before bassist Doug Ferguson would leave the group. He was replaced for a couple of albums ('Rain Dances' and 'Breathless') by Richard Sinclair, who brought in former bandmates from Caravan (his cousin Dave Sinclair as well as Jan Schelhaas) to replace departing founding member Peter Bardens on keyboards. After the 'Breathless' tour, Dave and Richard Sinclair would leave and be in turn replaced by Kit Watkins and Colin Bass, respectively. All the while saxophone player Mel Collins would drift in and out of an official capacity in the group.
'I Can See Your House from Here' was produced by Rupert Hine at Farmyard Studios in Little Chalfont, England and featured Andrew Latimer on guitars, flute, backing vocals, lead vocals on "Who We Are", "Hymn to Her" and "Neon Magic", and autoharp on "Who We Are"; Colin Bass on bass, backing vocals, and lead vocals on "Wait" and "Your Love Is Stranger Than Mine"; Kit Watkins on Hammond C3 organ, Solina synthesizer, Yamaha electric grand piano, Rhodes piano, Moog synthesizer, Minimoog, Clavinet, Prophet-5, Yamaha CS80, EMS Sequencer, and flute; Jan Schelhaas on Yamaha CS80, Yamaha electric grand piano, grand piano, Prophet-5, Moog synthesizer, Minimoog, and EMS Sequencer; and Andy Ward on drums and percussion; with Mel Collins contributing alto saxophone on "Your Love Is Stranger Than Mine"; Phil Collins on percussion; Rupert Hine on backing vocals; and Simon Jeffes providing orchestral arrangements on "Who We Are" and "Survival".
The working title for the album was 'Endangered Species'. Latimer would relate: "Rupert was great fun to work with, he was really up and zappy. I enjoyed making that record. We did it rather quickly and it wasn't a lengthy production."
Hine opined: "Extraordinary moment for me was Andy Latimer's improvised solo on "Ice." I hadn't realised just how passionate a player he was. As I recall the solo was just one take, not as was already typical by that time – a composite of 'best bits' of a number of different takes. This was a fine example of consciousness-flow through musical expression that only a player entirely comfortable with his instrument can achieve. Unlike so many guitarists of his era bent on illustrating how many notes could be crammed into a solo or how much overall noise could be produced from one instrument, Andy's approach seem to be born out of less is more with each note."
'I Can See Your House from Here' reached number two hundred and eight in the US and forty-five in the UK.
http://www.camelproductions.com/
'I Can See Your House from Here'
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