The Alan Parsons Project remastered vinyl box set on the way

By Jerry Ewing
( Prog )
last updated

The Alan Parsons Project's The Complete Albums Collection 11LP box set will be released in November

Eric Woolfson and Alan Parsons
(Image credit: Alan Parsons Project)

The Alan Parsons Project are to release an 11 album vinyl box set featuring all the band's albums, from 1976's Tales Of Mystery And Imagination debut through to 1987's Gaudi, as well as 2014's The Sicilian Defence.

The Alan Parsons Project - The Complete Collection will be released through Cooking Vinyl records on November 18, initially in a run of 1500 copies. The collection is a vinyl version of the CD box set that was released in 2014.

The set features every studio album released by Alan Parsons and musical partner Eric Woolfson as The Alan Parsons Project, including the curio The Sicilian Defence, which has never been available on vinyl before.

Released as a contactual obligation album, and used by Woolfson to secure the group a new deal with their then label Arista following the release of Eve in 1979, The Sicilian Defence and its song titles reflect the game of chess, an allusion to the negotiations with the label. It was finally released as part of the CD box set in 2014.

"I have not heard it since it was finished. I hope the tapes no longer exist," Parsons said of the album, a collection of unfinished musical ideas, in 2005. By 2016 he'd softened his approach to the record however. "I'm happy that it's fulfilling a need to document, historically, the entire catalog of the Alan Parsons project, but it's not our finest hour by any stretch of the imagination. It's an interesting piece of history."

All 11 albums have been half-speed remastered at Abbey Road, transferred from the best available master tapes (where analogue was originally used) and from the original digital master tapes for the albums from 1983 onwards. The remasters have all been approved by Alan Parsons and pressed on heavyweight 180gm vinyl, with sleeves that replicate the original text and imagery.

The set Includes includes giant A1 size poster, a 60 page 12”x12” hardback book containing full lyrics, brand new sleeve notes, and an essay from Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios on the half speed remastering process.

Pre-order The Alan Parsons Project - The Complete Collection.

Alan Parsons Project

(Image credit: Cooking Vinyl)
Jerry Ewing
Jerry Ewing

Writer and broadcaster Jerry Ewing is the Editor of Prog Magazine which he founded for Future Publishing in 2009. He grew up in Sydney and began his writing career in London for Metal Forces magazine in 1989. He has since written for Metal Hammer, Maxim, Vox, Stuff and Bizarre magazines, among others. He created and edited Classic Rock Magazine for Dennis Publishing in 1998 and is the author of a variety of books on both music and sport, including Wonderous Stories; A Journey Through The Landscape Of Progressive Rock.