Renaissance - Novella (Remastered & Expanded Edition) (2019)

Esoteric Recordings is pleased to announce the release of a newly re-mastered and expanded 3CD clamshell box edition of the classic album, “Novella” by RENAISSANCE. Recorded in late 1976, the album featured the epic ‘Can You Hear Me?’ along with the classic tracks ‘Midas Man’, ‘ Touching Once (Is So Hard to Keep)’ and ‘The Sisters’.

Because of record company issues, the album was released in January 1977 in the USA, but appeared in the UK and Europe in August 1977. “Novella” was a top 50 hit album in the USA and the band’s following in the UK grew steadily. To promote the album release in the UK, Renaissance, featuring 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), undertook some concerts in Britain with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, culminating with a concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 14th October 1977. The impressive set list featured material from “Novella”, alongside such classic tracks as ‘Carpet of the Sun’, ‘Mother Russia’, ‘Can You Understand’, ‘Running Hard’, ‘Song of Scheherezade’ and ‘Ashes Are Burning’.

This expanded edition of “Novella” has been newly re-mastered from the original master tapes and features a previously unreleased promotional single edit of ‘Midas Man’ and a new-to- cd single edit of ‘Can You Hear Me’ along with the entire performance with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall in October 1977.