PROGRESSIVE Rock legend Keith Emerson has pulled out all the stops for his new album.

Entitled Three Fates, he has teamed up with Los Angeles guitar hero Marc Bonilla, Norwegian classical music conductor Terje Mikkelson and the Munich Radio Orchestra to bring the work to life.

“I’ve actually been involved with mixed media projects since the sixties when I was with The Nice.” Keith says.

“It’s quite fun from time to time to mix things up a bit, but it wasn’t easy back then as orchestras didn’t like working with rock and roll.”

Todmorden-born Emerson’s first foray into classical music was back in 1969 when The Nice recorded the Five Bridges Suite.

This album, inspired by the five bridges which span the River Tyne in Newcastle, reached number two in the album charts and was the band’s highest chart placing.

After that, he co-founded Emerson, Lake & Palmer and went on to greater success.

One of ELP’s greatest albums was Works Volume One (upon which you can find Fanfare for the Common Man.

The double album contained one side each from the three members and a fourth side of them together. Keith’s solo offering was a Piano Concerto.

“I loved that piece,” Keith states.

“It received great praise and has ended up being performed all over the world by various orchestras, and I even did a rock version with my own band.”

This new album began life many years ago on the other side of the world as the keyboard wizard explains.

“About six years ago, I received an e mail about a concert in Beijing promoting the green issue in China.”

“They wanted to use a Chinese composition called The Yellow River Concerto and amalgamate it with the Third Movement of my Piano Concerto. It turned out to be a wonderful concert and I was quite surprised at how well it went.”

Warming to his story, Keith continues.

“Before I flew back home, I sat with the conductor Terje and discussed a few things.”

“He suggested doing some ELP stuff with an orchestra and came up with Tarkus.”

Laughing he now says.

“I thought at the time that he would never be able to do it, but he said that all I had to do was the arrangements and we’d record it in Munich.”

The resulting album is dominated by ELP material with the epic Tarkus – Concertante taking centre stage.

“The ELP pieces have been drastically altered,” Keith affirms.

“The Endless Enigma (from the album Trilogy) is now a Suite in two parts, and Fanfare for the Common Man is also in two sections.”

Also from Trilogy is Adabbon’s Bolero and Keith has penned a new, moving piece called After All of This.

Guitarist Marc Bonilla also contributes a number of compositions and the whole experience of the mix of rock and classical music is a feast for the ears.

“It was great to play with the orchestra,” smiles Emerson, but he hesitates when asked if a live tour of the album could be in the offing.

“It would be nice to do the album live, but it’s not easy to tour with a full-blown orchestra. We could go from city to city using the orchestras based there – for example, using the Halle Orchestra in Manchester; but it would be extremely expensive.”

“To make ends meet, I’d have to play some extra gigs just with my quartet.2 He quips.

The album is much more than just music, it’s about making Emerson’s music resound on a symphonic scale and in a way the work completes a circle.

Keith Emerson brought classics into rock, now his own music is being performed by a classical orchestra.

Concluding, Keith simply states.

“Without doubt I consider this to be my most important album since the ELP days.”

Three Fates is due to be released on November 19th 2012 viaearMUSIC.

Catalogue number: 0208328ERE – EAN: 4029759083283