The debut album from Steve Hogarth (Marillion) & Richard Barbieri (Porcupine Tree, Japan) Kscope is pleased to announce the release of Not The Weapon But The Hand, the new album from Steve Hogarth and Richard Barbieri. The album will be available from February 27th 2012. Hogarth is best known as the frontman of Marillion, the progressive rock legends that he joined in 1989, following spells in The Europeans and How We Live. In addition to the 12 studio albums Marillion have released in this time, he has also recorded and toured as a solo artist, under the moniker H. In recent years Richard Barbieri has been a core member of Porcupine Tree playing keyboards on all the band’s albums since 1993 as well as releasing two solo albums, Things Buried and Stranger Inside. Prior to this, it was in the new-wave pioneers Japan that he originally came to prominence, helping to create the groundbreaking synthesiser sound that defined the band and influenced the likes of The Human League, Duran Duran, Gary Numan, Talk Talk, Kate Bush and a whole raft of other artists, including Hogarth. A few years ago, Porcupine Tree played some shows with Marillion and Steve invited Richard to be part of The H band on his Ice Cream Genius album. This association developed into what Hogarth describes as ‘an easyworking relationship which rapidly became an understanding beyond music.’ It wasn’t surprising then that the duo decided to collaborate on a joint project, a venture they have been working on for the past few years, the results of which can be heard on Not The Weapon But The Hand. ‘It also goes beyond what you might expect from the two of us... The album consists of music which is at times moving, complex, multi-layered (both instrumentally and vocally) spooky, goofy and of course, very personal to me. Not The Weapon But The Hand was completed in late 2011 and features occasional appearances from Danny Thompson on double bass, Arran Ahmun (John Martyn) and Chris Maitland (ex-Porcupine Tree) on drums and guitar and string arrangement contributions from Dave Gregory (XTC).