Elegy In Sound

Prog's favourite dog whisperer Rick Wakeman has taken an unexpected path on his latest release, Melancholia. The virtuoso musician explains the inspiration behind his new piano album of originals and reveals his exciting plans for the English Rock Ensemble, which include a "full-on" prog record with a tribute to his old friend David Bowie.

- Johnny Sharp

When inspiration struck as Rick Wakeman was composing his new album of piano instrumentals, the venerable maestro of the ivories had a reliable way to indicate whether or not he was onto something. During a phone conversation, Prog's correspondent notes how, while looking after a handful of dogs at home, playing excerpts from Melancholia seems to have a distinct calming effect on a normally rambunctious pack of hounds.

Wakeman, also an animal lover, can believe it. “They're a really good gauge!” he says. “We've got three rescue dogs and two rescue cats, and it's interesting how the dogs, if I'm playing certain things, will appear from nowhere and sit under the piano. The cats will sit on the piano. And with this album, there were a couple of others – which never made the album – where they just walked out! They know what they like. So they really are my meters for, ‘Oh, there must be something in this one.’”

Nonetheless, the focus of Melancholia is firmly on human emotions, even if our furry friends also seem to respond in kind. Many of these pieces are named after the situations or moods that inspired them. The opener, for instance, is Sitting At The Window. Others include Alone, Pathos, Watching Life and The Morning Light. Simple inspiration for ungarnished, solo piano pieces, and Wakeman's first set of all-original compositions in this style, unlike his triptych of previous solo piano covers albums, 2017's Piano Portraits, 2018's Piano Odyssey (both focused on interpretations of pop, folk and classical numbers) and 2019's Christmas Portraits (carols). Melancholia is more fruit from a particularly fertile creative spell that has also seen some contrasting full-band prog material emerge – more on which later.

"I mainly write in the mornings," he says. "Sat at the piano, playing for fun, and I found that ideas were coming. It was a creative time."