Rick Wakeman announces new album

Robin Little/Redferns

Rick Wakeman is ready to release some new music. The Yes keyboardist just announced his brand-new concept album, A Gallery of the Imagination. He says it was inspired by his first piano teacher, Mrs. Symes, who taught him a lesson he never forgot: “when you play, you are painting pictures through music.” 

Wakeman says the songs on the album are presented “as if they were pictures in a gallery,” noting, “just as there are many different styles in an art gallery, so there are many different musical styles on A Gallery of the Imagination.” 

“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?” he says. “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.”

Fans can pre-order the album now, and it will be shipped before Christmas. Vinyl and deluxe editions will be out in February.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.