The Steven Wilson HQ page on Facebook officially announced that the label responsible for the re-release and distribution of multiple King Crimson remixed classics would be reissuing a remixed version of Close to the Edge, the classic 1972 album from Yes. Close to the Edge followed up the huge success of that band's 1971 gem, Fragile, and in its own turn became even more important a release.
Recently, Close to the Edge was remastered as a stereo SACD by Steve Hoffman and released by Audio Fidelity. In a normal cycle of reissues, ten years generally pass before a title is revisited. But with Panegyric's announcement, there is bit of excitement because superstar remix artist Steven Wilson has completed his remix of the revered title that will include not only stereo but also 5.1 Surround sound.
Wilson, a solo artist and a member of the popular band Porcupine Tree, has recently taken the experience of mixing his own albums and applied it to cleaning up and re-presenting beloved classics in remixed form. He did this with favorable results first with several King Crimson albums, then with Jethro Tull's Aqualung, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer's first two releases as well as a few others.
The Close to the Edge remix is planned for release in October of this year and is expected to be issued as a CD/DVD-Audio set, and a CD/BD-Audio (Blu-ray Audio) set. How you feel about a quick return of the title so soon after an SACD release depends on your own views and wishes. Personally, I love the album and will buy it in every re-release. But that's me.
As a brief aside to this announcement, Panegyric will also be reissuing remixed stereo and 5.1 Surround CD/DVD-Audio, and CD/BD-Audio sets for Nonsuch (XTC, scheduled for September), and The Road to Red (King Crimson, scheduled for October). Steven Wilson is attached to all projects.
