BMGEmerson, Lake & Palmer has launched a reissue campaign that eventually will see the release of remastered versions of all of the influential prog-rock band’s albums. The initiative’s first installment, which arrived in late July, includes two-CD editions of the group’s first three albums — its 1970 self-titled debut and 1971’s Tarkus and Pictures at an Exhibition — as well as a career-spanning, three-disc compilation titled Emerson, Lake & Palmer: The Anthology.
ELP frontman Greg Lake tells ABC Radio that he’s very pleased with the reissues.
“They’ve remixed them. They’ve used the finest quality processing. They’ve gone into the vaults [and] dug up things that haven’t been released before,” he notes. “You know, just a general effort to represent the band’s history in the best possible way.”
The Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Tarkus reissues include alternate mixes of the albums by award-winning prog-rock producer Steven Wilson, plus several previously unreleased bonus tracks. Pictures at an Exhibition, features ELP’s original March 1971 concert performance of Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky‘s famous classical piece, along with an unreleased bonus performance of the piece recorded in December 1970.
Greg tells ABC Radio that his “biggest reflective joy” with regard to ELP’s early albums is that they helped introduce rock audiences to classical and traditional European music.
The reissue campaign is dedicated to ELP keyboardist Keith Emerson, who committed suicide in March at the age of 71.
“The best tribute to Keith and to ELP is these albums that are now being released,” Lake maintains. “They do contain the very essence, the very heart and soul of all three of those people.”
The second wave of ELP reissues — 1972’s Trilogy, 1973’s Brain Salad Surgery and 1974’s Welcome Back, My Friends, to The Show that Never Ends — will be released on September 30.
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