Aura is the eighth studio album by British progressive rock bandAsia. The group had gotten reduced to the duo of singer-songwriterJohn Payne and musician Geoff Downes by this time, and they determined to create a new sort of supergroup around Aura by bringing in multiple guest artists to collaborate with them. Examples include Tony Levin, Elliott Randall, and Chris Slade. The album came out on 5 June 2001. It was produced by the band itself alongside Simon Hanhart, an audio engineer who had previously produced work by groups such as Babylon A.D., Saxon, and Whitecross. Despite deliberately seeking to replicate the band's earlier sound, with single "Wherever You Are" gaining some airplay, Aura failed to achieve significant commercial success. This is possibly related to the group's troubled record label, which went bankrupt within a year after the album's release.
Production
Aura was recorded during 2000 at Loco Studios located in the village of Llanhennock in Monmouthshire, Wales, and produced by the group themselves in collaboration with Simon Hanhart. As vocalist and bassist John Payne and keyboard player Geoff Downes had remained the only permanent members of Asia before the recording sessions started, they invited an array of guest musicians to perform on the new album. Afterwards, a stable line-up was established, featuring Payne, Downes, guitarist Guthrie Govan and drummer Chris Slade. In 2004, they would release the next album, Silent Nation. The lyrics for "Awake" were adapted from "The Rubaiyat" of Omar Khayyam. The lyrics for "The Longest Night" were inspired by Wilfred Owen's poem of 1918. "Ready to Go Home" was written by Andrew Gold and Graham Gouldman of 10cc and appeared on Mirror Mirror. The cover artwork was designed by Roger Dean, who had collaborated with Asia since their inception.
Release
Aura was released in Europe by Recognition Records as a standard jewel case CD edition, a limited Digipak CD edition, which featured three bonus tracks, and a vinyl edition. In the United States, the album was issued by Windstorm Records, a division of Blue Storm Music, and also included the three bonus tracks. In Japan, the album was released by Victor as an 11-track CD edition. In 2007, Aura was released by Acadia, a label of Evangeline Records, with an addition of bonus CD, featuring Steve Howe's acoustic guitar performance, recorded live at the Chestnut Cabaret in Philadelphia on 21 November 1992. "Wherever You Are" backed with "Under the Gun" was released as a promotion only single and received some airplay. Although the sound of Aura can be described as radio-friendly, it did not perform well in charts and remains one of the least sold studio recording in the group's catalog. This may have been partly due to Recognition Records, which went bankrupt within a year after the album was released. Two songs originally written for the album, "Never the Way" and "Innocence" were included on Armada 1, the band's first fan club exclusive EP released in 2002.
