The second Ambrosia album is the one Alan Parsons produced outright, cut partly at Abbey Road, with orchestrations by the man who arranged for the Alan Parsons Project and a university African percussion ensemble on the credits.

The short version

Somewhere I’ve Never Travelled was released on 11 September 1976 on 20th Century Records. Alan Parsons produced and engineered it; Freddie Piro was executive producer. It was recorded and mixed at Mama Jo’s in North Hollywood, with the orchestral arrangements recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London. Ten tracks, all sung, all in English. It reached number 79 on the Billboard 200 and carried a second Grammy nomination, though no source consulted states the category.

Abbey Road, an orchestrator and an African percussion ensemble

This is the album where the Alan Parsons connection runs both ways. All four members of Ambrosia had played on the first Alan Parsons Project record earlier that year, appearing on ‘The Raven’; here Parsons returns the favour as producer, bringing Andrew Powell with him to orchestrate three tracks. Around the core four sit players borrowed from another world entirely: Ruth Underwood on marimba and Ian Underwood on saxophone, both from Frank Zappa’s orbit, and the Cal Arts African Ensemble conducted by Alfred and Kobla Ladzekpo.

The sound

Orchestrated, chamber-tinged art rock, and the most elaborate record they made. It opens with a forty-seven-second piece sung by Burleigh Drummond, and across the ten tracks Andrew Powell’s orchestral writing sits behind three while the vocal arrangements do the rest. Pack and Puerta take three solo leads each and share four more between them. Daniel Kobialka returns on violin. It is a denser, cooler record than the debut, and the one where the band sound least like an American rock group.

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The songs

‘Danse With Me George (Chopin’s Plea)’ runs seven minutes and forty-seven seconds, the longest track on the album, written by all four members with Pack on lead and Andrew Powell orchestrating. ‘Cowboy Star’ carries the second of Andrew Powell’s three orchestrations, with Pack and Puerta sharing the vocal; the third is on the closing track. ‘Can’t Let A Woman’, written and sung by Pack, was released as a single and did not reach the Hot 100. ‘We Need You Too’ closes the record at five and a half minutes with Puerta singing.

Reception and legacy

Neither single taken from the album charted — ‘Can’t Let A Woman’ and ‘Runnin’ Away’ both missed the Hot 100 — and the record itself stopped at number 79, lower than the debut. The Grammy nomination, again in an engineering category, is credited on Alan Parsons’s side of the ledger. The standard reference carries a ratings panel for this album where the debut has none, so it was at least reviewed at the time, even if the contemporary verdicts are no longer easy to read in full.

The verdict

Somewhere I’ve Never Travelled is the most rewarding Ambrosia album and the hardest to get into. Neither single taken from it reached the charts, the orchestration is used as structure rather than sweetening, and the guest list reads like a deliberate refusal to sound like a Los Angeles rock band. If you want the songs, the debut is the friendlier record. Come here when you want to hear what this group could do when nobody was asking them for a hit.

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