“one of the most meaningful suites of piano music I have ever done” – Rick Wakeman

Sitting at the Window 3:24 Reflection 3:41 Pathos 4:13 Dance of the Ghosts 3:57 Alone 4:46 The Morning Light 3:28 Garo 3:50 All in the Mind 5:01 Sea of Tranquility 2:59 Missing 3:39 Watching Life 3:50 Melancholia 3:39

All tracks written and performed by Rick Wakeman

With Melancholia, Rick Wakeman completes a remarkable trilogy of solo piano works that began with Piano Portraits (2017) and continued with Piano Odyssey (2018) - both landmark albums that found him reaching new heights of popularity and critical esteem as a solo artist. But while those records looked outward, reinterpreting beloved melodies and exploring sweeping themes, Melancholia turns inward, inviting us into the most personal, introspective, and perhaps profound music of Wakeman’s storied career.

Though often misunderstood as mere sadness, melancholia - as Wakeman himself notes - is more textured, more intricate. It is a temperament as much as a mood: sensitive, thoughtful, loyal, creatively driven, deeply analytical, and quietly steadfast. That richer definition lies at the heart of this album. These compositions are neither bleak nor morose. They are generous in spirit, filled with moments of light and resolve, reflecting a mind that has learned to make peace with melancholy - not to escape it, but to transmute it.

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 “Garo” - and was struck by its 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 and later shaped in collaboration with long-time producer and engineer Erik Jordan at The Granary Studio in Norfolk.

Recorded on a beautiful Steinway Model D - an instrument as storied as the music it brings to life - the sound of Melancholia is rich, resonant, and stripped bare in the most delicate way. There are no grand gestures, no theatrics - just piercing clarity and the quiet power of a legend laying his soul bare.