Scotland's SAOR have premiered Caledonia in full on the Season of Mist YouTube channel, one day before the album's official release on Friday, November 6. The label also confirmed that the one-man project of Andy Marshall will play Latin America for the first time in February 2027.
Caledonia gathers five songs from SAOR's first three albums, Roots, Aura and Guardians, each one re-recorded from scratch with producer Chris Fielding and tagged MMXXVI: "Aura", "The Awakening", "Carved in Stone", "Hearth" and "Tears of a Nation". Carlos Vivas plays drums, Ella Zlotos handles vocals, tin and low whistles and Uilleann pipes, and Àngela Moya Serrat adds violin.
Marshall says earlier remasters and remixes only went so far, and this was the first time he could fully reimagine the songs with years of stage experience, stronger performances and a clearer vision behind him. To him, it felt less like looking back and more like closing a circle: the emotions are the same, but the songs now reflect the SAOR of today.
We've been following this release closely. We gave Caledonia a 9/10 in our review, which compares the new versions with the originals, and our verdict, "favorite SAOR songs in better quality", made it into the label's press release. Before that we covered the album announcement and the "The Awakening MMXXVI" single, and talked with Andy in our interview back in April.
The February run is billed as a special "Roots & Aura" set:
- February 24 — Santiago, Chile
- February 25 — São Paulo, Brazil
- February 26 — Buenos Aires, Argentina
- February 27 — Bogotá, Colombia
- February 28 — Mexico City, Mexico
Caledonia is out on Season of Mist on CD digipak and as a gatefold double LP on black and two marbled color variants.
Order & Stream "Caledonia": Pre-order
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