About This Item
Limited silver colored vinyl LP pressing. 2025 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 InchGaroInch - & 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. Album Tracks 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]
