When it comes to Nick Magnus, one can always expect art of high order, so there’s a little surprise in the keyboardist falling into a five-year groove with his latest releases. Magnus followed 2014’s "N'Monix" by delivering “Catharsis” in 2019, and now, on his seventieth spin around the sun, the intrepid veteran feels adventurous again, which is why Nick’s next album promises to be rather entertaining.
In the player’s own words, “A Strange Inheritance” that will be out on September 16th to find the ivories master in the company of usual suspects – his former boss, guitarist Steve Hackett, singers Tony Patterson and Andy Neve, lyricist Dick Foster – is “a swashbuckling tale” set a few centuries ago in England, so there’s a concept unfolding on this record.
“The album is stylistically eclectic, ranging from rock to ballad to purely orchestral – ‘Four Winds’ is an eight-minute mini-suite in four parts – so the track titles reflect that,” says Magnus. “There’s also mythology in ‘Blood Money’; babies abandoned by their mothers in ‘Philadelphia’; female pirates in ‘Black & Scarlet’… I am also a huge fan of ‘Outlander,’ so I suspect that series has had an impact on the album, too!”
Read the review.1. An Almost Silent Witness
2. Blood Money
3. Philadelphia
4. At Sea At Night
5. Four Winds
6. Welcome To The Island
7. Black And Scarlet
8. To Whom It May Concern