Esoteric Recordings is pleased to announce the release of a newly re-mastered and expanded 3CD clamshell box edition of the classic album, “A Song for All Seasons” by RENAISSANCE.

Released in March 1978, the album featured the song “Northern Lights”, a Top Ten hit single in the UK and Europe, and was a successful hit album in the UK, USA and Canada. By the late 1970s the line-up of highly gifted vocalist Annie Haslam, Michael Dunford (acoustic and electric guitars), John Tout (keyboards, vocals), Jon Camp (bass, acoustic & electric guitars, vocals) and Terry Sullivan (drums, percussion) had recorded a series of acclaimed albums that fused classical music influences with progressive rock and had earned a loyal following in Europe and had enjoyed wider success in the United States and Japan.

Working with producer David Hentschel (who had also produced the albums “A Trick of the Tail” and “Wind and Wuthering” for Genesis), the material on “A Song for All Seasons” was some of the most carefully crafted work of the band’s career. Flying in the face of the prevailing musical fashions of the time, “A Song for All Seasons” would be the band’s most successful album in Europe and is one of their best-loved works.

This expanded edition has been newly re-mastered from the original master tapes and features 15 bonus tracks, including the previously unreleased promotional edit and a “Top of the Pops” recording of “Northern Lights”, along with a BBC Radio session from August 1978 and a further two CDs comprising the entire concert recorded at the Tower Theater in Philadelphia on 4th December 1978, appearing in full on CD for the first time, with an additional 55 minute’s worth of unreleased tracks.

The release also features an illustrated booklet with a reproduction of the band’s 1978 US tour programme and new essay. The set also includes a reproduction of the original album poster given away with the initial pressing of “A Song for All Seasons”.

“A SONG FOR ALL SEASONS”
RE-MASTERED
1. OPENING OUT
2. DAY OF THE DREAMER
3. CLOSER THAN YESTERDAY
4. KINDNESS (AT THE END)
5. BACK HOME ONCE AGAIN
6. SHE IS LOVE
7. NORTHERN LIGHTS
8. A SONG FOR ALL SEASONS
BONUS TRACKS
9. NORTHERN LIGHTS (PROMOTIONAL SINGLE EDIT) (PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED ON CD)
10. DAY OF THE DREAMER (BBC SESSION – 19TH AUGUST 1978)
11. MIDAS MAN ( BBC SESSION – 19TH AUGUST 1978)
12. THE VULTURES FLY HIGH (BBC SESSION – 19TH AUGUST 1978)
13. NORTHERN LIGHTS (“TOP OF THE POPS” VERSION) (PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED) (LIVE AT THE TOWER THEATER, PHILADELPHIA – 4th DECEMBER 1978)
1. CAN YOU UNDERSTAND (LIVE 1978)
2. CARPET OF THE SUN (LIVE 1978)
3. THINGS I DON’T UNDERSTAND (LIVE 1978)
4. OPENING OUT (LIVE 1978) (PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED)
5. DAY OF THE DREAMER (LIVE 1978)
6. MIDAS MAN (LIVE 1978) (LIVE AT THE TOWER THEATER, PHILADELPHIA – 4th DECEMBER 1978)
1. NORTHERN LIGHTS (LIVE 1978)
2. A SONG FOR ALL SEASONS (LIVE 1978) (PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED)
3. TOUCHING ONCE IS SO HARD TO KEEP (LIVE 1978) (PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED)
4. ASHES ARE BURNING (LIVE 1978) (PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED)