• Compact Disc in deluxe digipack with 8-page booklet on Amazon.com (shipping worldwide on June 1**)
• Digital download with PDF booklet (available now for pre-order)
• Compact Disc autographed by Annie Haslam (ships worldwide, available now)

Our first studio album in thirteen years, Grandine il Vento marks a bittersweet career landmark: on November 20, 2012, we suffered a great loss in the passing of our beloved friend, composer, and guitarist Michael Dunford. Grandine il Vento was to become his swan song.

You can hear samples of the music on the digital album page (three complete tracks) or this four-song sampler medley.

We hope you will share and introduce Grandine il Vento to family and friends. Purchases will not only help keep our music alive, but will also assist Michael’s widow Clare to raise sons William and Oliver.

Most sincerely,

Annie and the boys

** The album will be available to fans in Japan through the Marquee label

Vocalist Annie Haslam describes the tracks:

Symphony of Light
A tribute to the genius Leonardo Da Vinci.

Waterfall
About the rainforests in Brazil… I have been there many times and love it!

Grandine il Vento
A love song that transcends life itself.

Porcelain
About an African village and the people who live there.

Cry to the World
Our ‘World Song’ in honour of Mother Earth and all who are part of her.

Air of Drama
A love song about two people who come together again later in their lives in Paris, where they had first met.

Blood Silver Like Moonlight
This is a duet with John Wetton. He has been a friend for many years and I always felt our voices were similar in their timbre and range. I was told once by a ‘spiritual’ energy friend that John and I sang in the Angels choir together. That is what this song is about. Remembering the choir!

The Mystic and The Muse
I was inspired to write this by two of my paintings The Mystic and The Muse. Although it is a fantasy in a way, I see Michael as The Muse and me as The Mystic.

John Wetton (Asia, King Crimson, UK, Uriah Heep) appears as guest vocalist on the new Renaissance album Grandine il Vento, performing a duet with vocalist Annie Haslam accompanied by only the grand piano of keyboardist Rave Tesar.

Although Annie Haslam and John Wetton are life-long friends and musical collaborators, it is not widely known that John Wetton was a touring member of Renaissance briefly in 1971. With this guest vocal appearance, he has finally recorded with the band as well.

Grandine il Vento will be available in April.

Hear a sample of the track Blood Silver Like Moonlight  below:

The sad circumstances of losing Michael that befell us all recently, will always bring tears to my eyes, but the joy he brought to so many through his music will live on through all eternity. Your notes and posts over the past few months have meant so much to Clare Dunford and the boys. Your wonderful outpouring of love and admiration for Michael has helped them through these roughest of times. Clare and I discussed the quest to find a guitarist that would be worthy Michael’s blessing, and she too feels that Ryche Chlanda is the right one to carry on with Michael’s legacy.

Clare asked that we share the following letter with you:

I hope this note finds you and yours in the best of good health and spirit.

As you can imagine we’ve been tasked with the inevitable; the quest to find a guitarist that would be worthy of our Michael Dunford’s blessing and musicality.

We recently auditioned a wonderful guitarist/vocalist from New Jersey named Ryche Chlanda whom we feel will be the right one to carry on with Michael’s legacy. He is a well respected and articulate musician who has toured both with Nektar and Fireballet.

Please join us in welcoming Ryche (pronounced “Rich”) to Renaissance. You will be seeing him on tour with us this April, and we hope you’ll feel the same way we do about him.

Looking forward to seeing you…

Annie

The reclusive and soft-spoken composer, a mainstay in the world of progressive rock, was born, raised and educated in Surrey. His first job was selling clothing in a local shop followed by a stint as an airside driver at Heathrow Airport which enabled him to form a “skiffle” group which lead to his first rock band called Nashville Teens in the early 1960s. Nashville Teens reached #6 on U.K. singles charts with their version of Tobacco Road. On leaving them, he formed several other bands including The Pentad and The Plebes. One night he went to see the original band Renaissance perform locally and ended up joining them in the early 1970s. The original band members were Jim McCarty, Louis Cennamo, John Hawken, Keith Relf and Jane Relf.

Dunford and vocalist Annie Haslam took over Renaissance’s reins in 1971 and soon had established the group as a world class recording and touring act, selling out venues like New York’s Carnegie Hall and The Royal Albert Hall in London. They would go on to release over a dozen albums before eventually parting ways in the mid-1980s. However, they would continue to write new material together and in 2001 reunited the band to record a new studio album, tour the following year, and release a live album. After another sabbatical, the refreshed line-up was introduced to the world and captured for posterity on Turn of the Cards and Scheherazade and Other Stories Live 2011.

Earlier this fall, Dunford and the band completed recording their first new studio album in twelve years. Grandine il Vento was recorded at Studio X in Ridgewood NJ, USA. All the music on the new album except for one track was composed and arranged by Dunford and features him on acoustic guitars and backing vocals.

Michael Dunford is survived by his wife Clare, sons William (13) and Oliver (10), and sister Judy Kendall. Services will be held at Woking Crematorium at a date to be announced.

More to follow.

It breaks my heart that I have had to postpone the first two weeks of our very special tour.

I was hoping and praying that I would be OK.
I had been working, finishing off the new album despite the pain in my back, but it became so extreme I knew I had to finally seek immediate medical attention.

After going to a Physiotherapist, Chiropractor, then X-Rays, MRI’s, Cat scans and narrowly missing having to undergo spinal surgery, a decision had to be made, and it was very difficult for me.

I have never felt such heavy disappointment and sadness knowing so many of you were so excited to see the band again.
I am not allowed to go anywhere for 2-3 weeks, and will be in a back brace that I will basically need to wear 24 hours a day for 2-3 months.

We certainly will do all we can to make it up to you and come to play for you as soon as I am fully recovered. We are aiming for Spring 2013.

I am so thankful that I will be allowed to make the short trips to the last grouping of dates in the New Jersey/New York/Philadelphia areas, take off my back brace and perform!

We are certainly not an ordinary band, either by our music or the way we are blessed by people like you that have regrouped like us, and helped us on our new journey and new album.

I thank you from the bottom of my heart and look forward to seeing you all very soon.

Love and Light

Annie x

Philadelphia, PA – September 27

Annie Haslam, the lead singer of renowned progressive rock pioneers Renaissance, has been diagnosed with a serious vertebral compression fracture and is required to wear a Jewett Back Brace for two to three months. Her doctors have prescribed a minimum two to three week abstention from all travel. As a result, Renaissance will be forced to postpone the first nine dates of the first leg of their upcoming 2012-2013 Concert Tour.

The dates affected are:

Wednesday October 3 – Howard Theatre Washington DC
Thursday October 4 – Variety Playhouse Atlanta GA
Friday October 5 – The Plaza Live Orlando FL
Saturday October 6 – Capitol Theater Clearwater FL
Sunday October 7 – Amaturo Theater, Broward Center for Performing Arts Fort Lauderdale FL
Thursday October 11 – Le Gesu Centre Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Friday, October 12 – Tupelo Music Hall Londonderry, NH
Saturday October 13 – Showcase Live Foxborough, MA
Sunday October 14 – Center For The Performing Arts – The Egg Albany, NY

Ms. Haslam’s specialist has advised that she may begin performing live again starting with the group’s scheduled Friday, October 19th performance at the Ridgefield Playhouse in Ridgefield,CT. The group plans on rescheduling the cancelled shows and adding more dates in 2013.

“I am very upset about having to postpone these shows,” commented Ms. Haslam. “We’ve all been so excited about bringing our classics to the fans as well as previewing material from the new studio album Grandine il Vento.”

Renaissance recently completed mixing their first new studio album in twelve years, which is expected to be released in early 2013. The 2012 dates the band will be performing are:

**Friday October 19 – Ridgefield Playhouse Ridgefield, CT
**Saturday October 20 – The Concert Hall at Ethical Culture New York, NY
**Thursday, October 25 – Victoria Theater – New Jersey Performing Arts Center Newark, NJ
**Friday October 26 – Keswick Theater Glenside, PA
*Saturday, October 27 – Scottish Rite Auditorium Collingswood, NJ
*Sunday, October 28 – Strand Center for the Arts Lakewood, NJ

* Program comprising Turn Of The Cards and Scheherazade and Other Stories
** Program comprising Novella in its’ entirety plus a treasure trove of favorites and debuting selections from the
new album Grandine il Vento

With this said, completion of Grandine il Vento is taking longer than we had originally anticipated. In order to keep you and your ears in the loop, here is a sampler of several songs from the album. The songs in the sampler are:

Symphony of Light
Waterfall
Grandine il Vento
Cry to the World

For those of you that missed the deadline for our Kickstarter pre-purchase album campaign earlier this year, you can visit our web store and review some of the few packages that we are making available.

We are looking forward to seeing you on tour. If you haven’t purchased tickets please do so and be sure to let your friends know.

For those fans in the Philadelphia and New Jersey area, the Scottish Rite Auditorium is sold-out, but there are good seats still left for the Keswick Theater.

Once again, many thanks for your loyalty.

Love,

Annie, Michael, Rave, David, Jason, and Frank