Legendary rock guitarist Steve Hackett is set to release his new studio album The Circus And The Nightwhale on 16th February 2024, via InsideOut Music. A rite-of-passage concept album with a young character called Travla at the centre of it, The Circus And The Nightwhale‘s 13 tracks have an autobiographical angle for the musician who says about his 30th solo release: “I love this album. It says the things I’ve been wanting to say for a very long time.”
With just a week and a half to go till the albums release, Steve has launched the track Circo Inferno.
Steve said of the track: “Circo Inferno is the most frenzied point in this album’s narrative… A plea for rescue within the maelstrom of a Dantesque circus, involving swirling Phrygian runs, insistent sax, full on vocals and blistering guitar…”
The albums opening track ‘People of the Smoke’ was released in December.
A second video followed for ‘Wherever You Are’.
The new album is available to pre-order on several different formats, including a Limited CD+Blu-ray mediabook (including 5.1 Surround Sound & 24bit high resolution stereo mixes), Standard CD Jewelcase, Gatefold 180g Vinyl LP & as Digital Album. All feature the stunning cover painting by Denise Marsh. Pre-order now here: https://stevehackett.lnk.to/
Steve will celebrate the release of his new album with two HMV instore events in London & Birmingham, where he will be taking part in a Q&A and signing albums. Find out more details on those here: https://ow.ly/HUaT50Q7paJ
The Circus And The Nightwhale is Steve’s first new music in over two years. Recorded between tours in 2022 and 2023 at Siren studio in the UK with guest parts beamed in from Sweden, Austria, the US, Azerbaijan and Denmark, the line-up for The Circus And The Nightwhale includes some familiar faces alongside Steve on electric and acoustic guitars, 12-string, mandolin, harmonica, percussion, bass and vocals. Roger King (keyboards, programming and orchestral arrangements), Rob Townsend (sax), Jonas Reingold (bass), Nad Sylvan (vocals), Craig Blundell (drums) and Amanda Lehmann on vocals. Nick D’Virgilio and Hugo Degenhardt return as guests on the drumstool, engineer extraordinaire Benedict Fenner appears on keyboards and Malik Mansurov is back with the tar. Finally, Steve’s brother John Hackett is present once more on flute.
The full track-listing is as follows:
