Personnel includes: Sting (vocals, bass); Dominic Miller (guitar); Branford Marsalis (saxophone); Kenny Kirkland (keyboards); Manu Katche (drums).
Recorded at Studio Guilaume Tell, Paris, France and Villa Salviati, Migliarino, Italy.
Personnel: Sting (vocals, mandolin, synthesizer, Synclavier); Dominic Miller (guitar); Kathryn Tickell (pipe); Paola Paparelle (oboe); Branford Marsalis (saxophone); Kenny Kirkland (keyboards, drums); David Sancious (keyboards); Manu Katch (drums); Skip Burney, Munyungo Jackson, Tony Vacca, Vinx, Ray Cooper , Bill Summers (percussion).
Recording information: Studio Guillaume Tell, Paris, France; Villa Salviati, Migliarino, Italy.
Sting's most personal solo album (it was written in response to the death of his father), THE SOUL CAGES is also his most ambitious. Many of the tracks (Island of Souls", "Mad About You") verge (impressively) on classical art song territory. For some, however, the good news here is that Sting is playing bass again; his simple yet effective lines are heard to particular advantage on the upbeat pop gem "All This Time." Another high point is "Saint Agnes and the Burning Town," a flamenco-inflected instrumental tour de force unlike anything in Sting's catalogue.
Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (2/21/91) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...Sting's most ambitious record yet, and maybe his best...the nine pieces are minidramas of intensity and will...Sting's poetic language makes for a sort of sensory theater, darkly lit, almost Gothic. The effect at times is a bit overwhelming, but it's gripping too, the tossing and turning of an anxious superman."
Q (2/91) - 4 Stars - One of Q Magazine's 50 best albums of 1991.
Stereo Review (4/91) - "...the album is not an entertainment so much as a meditation...an important work..."
