Progressive rock keyboard maestro, Rick Wakeman is set to release his new concept album “A Gallery Of The Imagination” on February 24, 2023, on Madfish Music.
The initial idea for “A Gallery Of The Imagination” originated from Rick’s first piano teacher, Mrs. Symes, with whom he studied from the age of five until his time at the Royal College of Music. She taught him that music was like painting pictures: that when you play, you are painting pictures through music, an important lesson that Rick never forgot.
Rick remembered the advice of his beloved teacher and decided to present the tracks for the new album as if they were pictures in a gallery. Just as there are many different styles in an art gallery, so there are many different musical styles on “A Gallery of the Imagination”. It contains many clear progressive rock influences, especially in the Moog solos and there are also two solo piano numbers, which reflect Rick’s classical roots and show influences from the Romantic period. Equally important is the strong song and melodic influence on “A Gallery Of The Imagination” with eight unconventional vocal tracks, with Rick’s unique descriptive music carefully arranged around the lyrics.
Rick says about the album, “One of my great loves is going to museums and art galleries and seeing all the different types of art, so I thought, why not a music gallery… the Gallery of the Imagination? People can paint their own mind pictures to the different types of music that are on the album. It is very diverse and for me it works very well because the concept holds it all together”.
One of the ideas Rick would like to pursue around album release is for listeners to draw or paint their own pictures or even create sculptures to the music which, in turn, could be displayed. “It is a very tactile album,” Rick explains. “I’d like to feel that people can actually touch the music.”
The line-up on “A Gallery Of The Imagination”, as with Rick’s previous album “The Red Planet”, features The English Rock Ensemble: bassist Lee Pomeroy; guitarist Dave Colquhoun; drummer Ash Soan; and singer Hayley Sanderson, famous for her work as a vocalist on “Strictly Come Dancing”, with each artist recording their individual parts in their own studios.