Mystery Lessons

Montreal-based Mystery put their planned ninth studio album, Redemption, on hold in 2020. The ensuing break enabled Michel St-Père, who founded the band 37 years ago as a studio project, to write some of its more grandiose tracks. He explains how a heroic Canadian soldier found his way onto the album and why coming to the UK has always been a costly business for the Mysterons.

- Alison Reijman 

Michel St-Père is obviously a very happy man, thrilled to have finally released Mystery's latest album, Redemption - which, despite the global events of the last three years, has exceeded all his expectations in terms of pre-sales and rave reviews.

"The comments about it are all positive so far and the pre-sale went really well. It's been our best ever, so I think the fans did not forget about us during the past four years," enthuses Mystery's founder, guitarist, composer and producer. "We're very happy about this, especially as we have sold a lot of the records in the UK."

From beginning to end, Redemption is another Mystery masterclass in how to channel influences from classic British prog and US AOR, elevating them into panoramic symphonic soundscapes, full of moments that catch the breath and capture the imagination. Though much of the album was written and half-recorded before the pandemic, the enforced hiatus gave St-Père time to reflect, his observations providing the overarching theme for both the title track and epic closer Is This How the Story Ends?

Speaking to Prog from Mysteron HQ in Montreal, St-Père recalls: "The band were touring and it was going really well. There were many concerts prepared in 2020 - but all of them were cancelled so we lost track of what we were doing. We also lost the point of rushing to do the new album, so we put it aside and released the Blu-ray concert Caught In The Whirlwind Of Time in 2020 instead. Meanwhile, I continued working on the album, making the new songs.

"When we started touring again, we went to the Midsummer Prog Festival in the Netherlands last year. It was there we decided to get the new album out. It was like kicking our butt to get it finished!"