Photo Credit: © Eduardo Peña Dolhun
JOE SATRIANI is kicking off the new year with a brand-new album. Set for release on April 8, 2022, “The Elephants of Mars” marks the legendary guitarist’s 19th studio album in his 35+year career in music.
This album also marks the debut of his new label partnership with earMUSIC, the international rock label of entertainment group Edel. Pre-orders are available now and include a special limited digi-pack CD release featuring seven double sided cards of original artwork by Satriani representing each song from the album. In addition, several coloured vinyl options will be available as well to pre-order including an orange, pink (D2C only) and purple version. The first single, “Sahara” has debuted with a video directed by ZZ Satriani.
Joe Satriani had an admirably productive workingman’s holiday, with pandemic forced time away from the road, that ultimately gave him and his touring band, all recording remotely in separate areas of the world during lockdown, the ability to deliver an album length journey that never dulls. “The Elephants of Mars” crackles with an exciting new energy, briskly traveling through stylistic roads that feel freshly updated, viewed through new eyes.
The guitarist challenged himself to create a “new standard” for instrumental guitar albums to be measured against, one which would work from “a new platform of his own design,” as he terms it. “I want to show people that an instrumental guitar album can contain far more creative and entertaining elements than I think people are using right now.”
From the gripping, sci-fi madness of “Through A Mother’s Day Darkly,” to the isolation felt in a decaying urban landscape, as depicted in first single “Sahara,” to the general endorphin levels that peak as the elephants finally roar in the title track, “The Elephants of Mars” will stampede across your mind, leaving a sonic imprint that doesn’t fade.
In 2020 with all time constraints removed, “The Elephants of Mars” truly represents the album that Satriani himself hoped he could deliver with his band. “We did everything. We tried the craziest ideas. And we entertained every notion we had about turning something backwards, upside down, seeing what could happen.”
With this new album Satriani joins the eclectic and exciting roster of earMUSIC. General Manager, Max Vaccaro remarked, “Some years ago, we were lucky to be the label chosen by Joe Satriani for the extremely fortunate Chickenfoot project. It was impossible not to notice and admire the dedication, the work ethic, and the monstrous talent in the recording studio and on stage. We knew, though, that he had the same “home” for his solo music for decades and that for him, being signed to a record company meant loyalty and belonging. “It is with great joy and sense of responsibility that now, some years later, we welcome Joe for his first solo work with earMUSIC. We thank him for having written and recorded very special music that will make a lot of fans happy, and we like to think this will be the first of many great albums to come.”
