Rick Wakeman – Melancholia

Limited silver colored vinyl LP pressing. 2025 release features 12-tracks of instrumental piano mastery from the legendary yes keysman. With 'Melancholia', Rick Wakeman completes a remarkable trilogy of solo piano works that began with 'Piano Portraits' (2017) & continued with 'Piano Odyssey' (2018) - both landmark albums that found him reaching new heights of popularity & critical esteem as a solo artist. But while those records looked outward, reinterpreting beloved melodies & exploring sweeping themes, 'Melancholia' turns inward, inviting us into the most personal, introspective & perhaps profound music of Wakeman's storied career. The album began, as so much of Wakeman's finest work has, with a quiet moment at the piano. One afternoon, his wife Rachel overheard him playing a contemplative piece - what would later become Garo" - & was struck by it's quiet emotional power. And because she knew well that he often turned to the piano in times of sadness or inner turbulence, using music as a kind of emotional compass, she encouraged him to share it. What followed was not a conceptual record in the traditional sense, but a deeply cohesive suite, written intuitively at first & later shaped in collaboration with long-time producer & engineer Erik Jordan at The Granary Studio in Norfolk. Recorded on a beautiful Steinway Model D, the sound of 'Melancholia' is rich, resonant & stripped bare in the most delicate way."

1. Sitting at the Window [03:24]
2. Reflection [03:41]
3. Pathos [04:13]
4. Dance of the Ghosts [03:57]
5. Alone [04:46]
6. The Morning Light [03:28]
7. Garo [03:50]
8. All in the Mind [05:01]
9. Sea of Tranquility [02:59]
10. Missing [03:39]
11. Watching Life [03:50]
12. Melancholia [03:39]

Label: Madfish Records Imp

Catalog: 5183311

Genre: Classical Artists