Legendary rock guitarist Steve Hackett will release his new studio album The Circus And The Nightwhale on 16th February 2024 via InsideOut Music. A rite-of-passage concept album with a young character called Travla at the centre of it, The Circus And The Nightwhales 12 tracks have an autobiographical angle for the musician who says about his 30th solo release: I love this album. It says the things Ive been wanting to say for a very long time.

Recorded between tours in 2022 and 2023 at Siren studio in the UK with guest parts beamed in from Sweden, Austria, the US, Azerbaijan and Denmark, the line-up for The Circus And The Nightwhale includes some familiar faces alongside Steve on electric and acoustic guitars, 12-string, mandolin, harmonica, percussion, bass and vocals. Roger King (keyboards, programming and orchestral arrangements), Rob Townsend (sax), Jonas Reingold (bass), Nad Sylvan (vocals), Craig Blundell (drums) and Amanda Lehmann on vocals. Nick DVirgilio and Hugo Degenhardt return as guests on the drumstool, engineer extraordinaire Benedict Fenner appears on keyboards and Malik Mansurov is back with the tar. Finally, Steves brother John Hackett is present once more on flute.

Summing up The Circus And The Nightwhale, Steve says: Its a lovely journey that starts dirty, scratchy and smoky and becomes heavenly and divine. How can you resist it?