Steve Hackett’s 2024 release The Circus And The Nightwhale is a rite-of-passage concept album - with an autobiographical angle - featuring a young character called Travla. 

 

Recorded between tours in 2022 and 2023 in the UK - with guest parts beamed in from Sweden, Austria, the US, Azerbaijan and Denmark - the line-up includes some familiar faces alongside Steve on electric and acoustic guitars, 12-string, mandolin, harmonica, percussion, bass and vocals. Guests include Roger King (keyboards, programming and orchestral arrangements), Rob Townsend (sax), Jonas Reingold (bass), John Hackett (flute), Nad Sylvan (vocals), Craig Blundell (drums), Amanda Lehmann (vocals), and Nick D’Virgilio and Hugo Degenhardt return as guests on the drumstool. Engineer extraordinaire Benedict Fenner appears on keyboards and Malik Mansurov is back with the tar. 

 

“I love this album. It says the things I’ve been wanting to say for a very long time. It’s a lovely journey that starts dirty, scratchy and smoky and becomes heavenly and divine. How can you resist it?” - Steve Hackett

 

180g vinyl in gatefold sleeve with 8-page LP booklet.