| Keys to Ascension 2 | ||||
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| Live album / studio album by | ||||
| Released | 3 November 1997 | |||
| Recorded | 4–6 March 1996 at the Fremont Theater, San Luis Obispo, California (Live tracks) November 1996 at Yesworld Studio, San Luis Obispo (Studio tracks) | |||
| Genre | Progressive rock | |||
| Length | 101:42 | |||
| Label | Essential | |||
| Producer |
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| Yes chronology | ||||
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Keys to Ascension 2 is the fifth live and sixteenth studio album by the English progressive rock band Yes. It was released as a double album in November 1997 by Essential Records as the successor to the previous live/studio album Keys to Ascension. After guitarist Steve Howe and keyboardist Rick Wakeman returned to the band in 1995, the group relocated to San Luis Obispo, California and started to write new material. The reunion of this particular line-up was promoted with three concerts at the city's Fremont Theater in March 1996, the five's first live performance together since 1979. Keys to Ascension 2 features the remaining half of the live set from the 1996 shows and five new studio tracks including two which marked a return to the group writing long-form pieces. It would ultimately serve as Wakeman's final studio album with the band.
Keys to Ascension 2 received mixed reviews from music critics. It reached No. 62 on the UK Albums Chart and No. 169 on the Billboard 200 in the United States. A promotional North American tour was set to start in June 1997, but was cancelled after Wakeman departed from the band due to scheduling conflicts. The studio material from the Keys to Ascension albums was compiled on Keystudio (2001), and both albums were reissued in their entirety in 1998 and 2010, the latter with the concert video as a bonus disc.