Genesis’ Tony Banks to Release New Orchestral LP

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Genesis keyboardist and co-founder Tony Banks will be releasing a new album of orchestral music on Feb. 23 through BMG Records. Five will be Banks’ 10th album outside of the band and his third orchestral album following the releases of Seven: A Suite for Orchestra (2004) and Six Pieces for Orchestra (2012). Pre-order is available here.

Five is a collection of five compositions written by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and was produced by long-time collaborator Nick Davis. The production, with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra and Choir, is helmed by renowned orchestrator and conductor, Nick Ingman, who has worked with a broad range of artists and musicians from David Bowie and Oasis to the London Symphony Orchestra and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

From the Dec. 12 announcement: “The recording was built up over various sessions, the first in London’s Angel Studios where solos and percussion were recorded before a transfer to Prague for a week where concentrated sets of three sessions a day with the orchestra and choir. Recording section by section is a more rock/pop method and seen as unorthodox for an orchestral album, but this method allowed Banks, who also played all of the piano parts, to use his vast musical experience and give himself greater creative control.”

The impetus for ‘Five’ was a commission for the 70th Cheltenham Music Festival in 2014, for which Banks composed the original version of what now appears as the opening track, “Prelude to a Million Years.”

Watch the official video performance of “Prelude to a Million Years,” released Jan. 12