Album: Lunar Mist
Artist: Virgil & Steve Howe
2022 InsideOutMusic/Sony Music
CD: 19658715182

Virgil Howe: keys (1-8, 10-12, 14), electric piano (2, 13), piano (3, 7, 9, 10, 12), drums (3, 5, 14)
Steve Howe: koto (1), dobro (1), 12-string electric guitar (2-4, 8-10, 12), 6-string electric guitar (4, 9), electric guitar (5, 11, 14), acoustic guitar (2), classical guitar (2-8, 12), steel guitar (3, 14), bass (3, 5-7, 9), fretless bass (10, 11), mandolin (10, 13)

Produced by V Howe (1), S Howe (2-14)
Guitars and bass recorded at Langley Studios, UK, 2021 (2-14), 2017 (1)
Assembled & mixed by Curtis Schwartz
Mastered by Simon Heyworth

Front cover painting by Zuni Howe
Portrait by Stephanie Howe
Landscape photo by V Howe
Kaleidoscope photo by S Howe
Virgil illustration by Mike Ballard
Design by Douglas & Glenn Gottlieb
Liner notes by S Howe, 2022


Tracks:
1. "Lunar Mist" [V Howe] (3:52)
2. "More Than You Know" [V Howe] (3:05)
3. "Plexus" [V Howe/S Howe] (4:09)
4. "Mariah's Theme" [V Howe] (3:16)
5. "A Month of Sun" [V Howe/S Howe] (4:39)
6. "As If Between" [V Howe] (2:43)
7. "Never Less" [V Howe] (2:55)
8. "Lothian's Way" [V Howe] (3:06)
9. "Free Spirit" [V Howe] (2:45)
10. "Eternal" [V Howe] (3:09)
11. "Dirama" [V Howe/S Howe] (2:38)
12. "Pinnacle" [V Howe] (2:02)
13. "Pagoda" [V Howe] (2:19)
14. "Martian Mood" [V Howe] (3:59)


Notes (****): There were videos released before the album for the first three tracks.

Nexus was a collaboration between Virgil Howe and his father, Steve Howe. Virgil unexpectedly passed away in mid-Sep 2017, just before the album's release. An interview around the time with Steve pointed towards a follow-up release: "Initially when I said to him, 'Look, you've got all these tracks,' it was about 20 or so[.] So since Virgil's passed away I've done an update on what's around. There's a fair bit of material there that could be developed into the same sort of area, 'cause I wouldn't like it to be too radically different. But basically there is sufficient music for another adventure." This second album was released 23 Sep 2022 on CD (including a limited edition Digipak), 180g LP and digitally. Track (1) was prepared as a bonus track for a Japanese release of Nexus at the time, but that never happened. Howe compiled Virgil's material and started work on the album in Dec 2020/Jan 2021. He explained in promo, "I started by writing chord charts for all the other tunes, before adding guitars and bass guitars to embellish them and bring them to completion. In the most part I kept them as he'd written them but sometimes, I expanded them with further ideas and improvisation." In the liner notes, Steve explains, "By January 2021, I'd compiled all the tracks I could find of Virgil's that seemed to be fairly close to those of our original Nexus release. [...] Mostly I recorded to his original two-track stereo mixes but as several tracks had been recorded in our studio, I was able to be more flexible with the arrangements and balances of those."

The cover art again uses a painting by Virgil's daughter with Jen Dawson, Zuni (b. 2012). (HP, 8 Oct 22)
Return to Home Page