This California based Prog Rock band, which originally started out under such working titles as Family and Family Report, was initiated by lead singer/ guitarist Billy Sherwood and keyboardist Tony Kaye. Both had played in the band Yes (Sherwood joined the band on the Talk tour in 1994, then joined as actual member between 1997 to 2000; Kaye was part of the original line-up in 1968, and stayed on 'til the end of 1971, to return at the occasion of the band's reformation in 1982 and stay on until mid-1994), and thought it would be a grand idea to start a band involving people who had played or were playing in Yes. So, they approached then current Yes drummer Alan White and Peter Banks (singer/ guitarist).
But as the project developed, they eventually went for Jimmy Haun (once studio guitarist in 1989-1990) in stead of Banks, and went on to record their Circa 2007 debut album (with guest appearances from Sherwood's older brother Michael, and Cole Coleman, and featuring 2 songs from sessions which Billy had co-written with then Yes guitarist Trevor Rabin in 1995) formally announcing their existence in March of 2007, and releasing the album at the end of July. The band did its live debut on August 23, 2007, and recorded the event for the DVD Circa: Live, which was released in February 2008. A limited amount of North-American gigs followed in early 2008, during which at one occasion Alan White was replaced by Jay Schellen, whom both Sherwood and Kaye had worked with in the past. With White eventually wanting to concentrate on Yes, he was permanently replaced by Schellen in July 2008, and with the new line-up the band recorded its sophomore album in the latter half of the year. Circa: HQ was released in January 2009, and was originally supposed to be followed up with a short Italian tour with former Toto singer Bobby Kimball, playing a set consisting of songs by Circa:, Yes, and Toto.
The tour however fell through, and Kimball and Circa: then joined to form a new band named Yoso (originally announced as AKA, the new name was a combination of Yes and Toto). With Schellen too involved in other projects, the band replaced him with Lou Molino III (whom had worked with Sherwood & Rabin), and went on to record its debut album in 2009, playing some Mexican dates in October of the same year. For dates in December, the band announced a new drummer in one Jody Cortez. Some more shows followed in early 2010. Elements, released on Frontiers in July 2010, was supported by touring with an again renewed line-up, this time finding the drums occupied by Scott Connor (of Genesis tribute band Gabble Ratchet) and the guitar played by Johnny Bruhns (of Yes tribute band Roundabout). Yoso however was short-lived, and split in early 2011.
Still in 2009, Circa: released the album Overflow, consisting of extra bonus material from the band's first two recording sessions. However, the album was only made available through digital download! With Circa: reactivated in 2011, they found Haun unwilling to continue, as he was now focusing on making music for commercials. From his side, Schellen was also to focused on his work with Asia featuring John Payne and Unruly Child, so Circa: respectively replaced the two by Bruhns and one Ronnie Ciago (originally Connor was to take over drums, but he declined. A new album entitled And So On, was released later in 2011...and that's where all info sources around the band end, except for the fact that when Western North American tour dates were announced, Ciago left, with Connor joining anyway.
What with the info in the album booklet restricting itself to the line-up consisting of Sherwood, Kaye, Connor, and bassist Rick Tierney, I have no idea of when this album was recorded. What I càn tell you though, is that the material on it consists largely of (4) songs off the last studio album, and (3) off the sophomore album...with only one song off the debut. Although containing only 8 tracks, the album nevertheless lasts a good 73 minutes of typical '70s UK Prog Rock sounds! For some audio/ video on the band, check the homepage of the band's own (www.) circaHQ.com, and the band's facebook and ReverbNation pages (see links for the first, and that one has a link to the second).
Oh, by the way, all of Circa:'s previous albums were apparently self-released, but just recently (in May and June) Purple Pyramid Records gave the band's first two albums an “official” (re-)release (re-titling the debut to just “Circa:”). And, while were' at the subject of the self-releases, the band already previously self-released a live album (simply entitled Live) in 2009, containing live versions of the complete debut album, plus an extra track (which I can reasonably assume to be a Yes meddle).