Fish - Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors and Internal Exiles to be mixed in Atmos

[César]

I was checking Fish's last post in Facebook and got to the point when he mentions being looking for the master tapes for Vigil and Internal Exiles. Nothing new as we know the remasters for these albums were on his to-do list. But then he says they will be sent to Mackintosh and Bradfield for Atmos mixing.
This is something completely unexpected. Vigil is a wonderful record and an Atmos mix will be the icing on the cake. Internal Exiles I don't like that much...

 

[DuncanS]

Vigil In A Wilderness Of Mirrors would work really well in surround, so I hope they find the Master tapes. I don't know Internal Exiles, I don't think I've ever heard a track from it!

 

[splinter7]

That is fantastic news!
"Vigil" is outstanding. "Internal" starts off hot with "Credo" & "Shadow Play" and then kind of stalls out until the title track and the closing cover of "Something in the Air".

Sounds like Universal may be opting to expand the modest success of the Marillion Deluxe Project to Fish's first two solo albums?
They were originally released on EMI & Polydor respectively.

Wish Universal would front some seed money for some of his independent releases to redone in 5.1
The Steve Wilson produced "Sunsets on Empire" and his "13th Star" albums are my favorites.

 

[splinter7]

I know I should be happy to hear that 5.1 mixes may be in the offering but Mackintosh and Bradfield? MEH
No doubt that they did an outstanding job improving the sonics of "Script" but just not overly impressed with their creativity in the 5.1 environment.

 

[sjcorne]

I know I should be happy to hear that 5.1 mixes may be in the offering but Mackintosh and Bradfield? MEH
No doubt that they did an outstanding job improving the sonics of "Script" but just not overly impressed with their creativity in the 5.1 environment.

They redeemed themselves with the 5.1 mix of Fish's Weltschermerz album. It's miles ahead of both their Marillion 5.1's, with very discrete and creative use of the rears--especially on the song "Man With A Stick". Their Clutching had some nice surround moments too, particularly on "Just For The Record" and "White Russian".

 

[splinter7]

Glad you like their ‘Weltschermerz’ mix. It is better than their Marillion output but still underwhelming to me.

 

[Progfiend]

Fish posted this about an hour ago:

Spent the last 4 days having my brain melted in a time warp digging out the old reels to be sent down to FX Rentals in London for baking and digital transfer. Still lots of questions on the content but hopefully amongst all the reels we have the multitracks we need for Avril Mackintosh and Andy Bradfield to put together the stems for creating the 5-1's and Dolby Atmos mixes for the Blu Ray on the deluxe version.

I'm also in contact with EMI Warners and we have a huge list of multi track assets to go through for the 'Vigil' project. It's moving forward but it's going to be a long haul.

'Close' by the way was the working title taken from the original lyric for 'Just Good Friends'. These are just 2 multitrack reels out of many in case you were wondering where the other 'Internal' album tracks were.

 

[LuvMyQuad]

Glad you like their ‘Weltschermerz’ mix. It is better than their Marillion output but still underwhelming to me.

I was pretty happy with the Weltschermerz mix as well. I'll buy any Fish surround releases they care to offer.

 

[SHB]

This is great news! I hope it comes to fruition. Prior to this, these were to come out in October, I believe. I imagine this will push them to the beginning of next year. That’s fine. It will be well worth the wait!

 

[splinter7]

Fish gave an update on the forthcoming deluxe versions of “Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors” and “Internal Exile”. Sadly, it almost sounds like these will be the last special editions (see underlined quotes) given Fish’s planned retirement to take up a crofting life.

Edited down from his Facebook Post

“At the moment the idea is to have both titles in deluxe edition hardback books in slip cases with 100 pages of sleevenotes, photos and artwork in the same way as the '13th Star'. 'Weltschmerz' and 'Feast of Consequences ' deluxe versions.”

On both titles:

• disc 1 is the 2024 Calum Malcolm remixed album with all the attendant B sides
• disc 2 are the original demos all mixed and mastered
• discs 3 and 4 are the best of live material from across the various band line ups and tours all remastered
• disc 5 is the Blu Ray will have the dolby atmos and 5.1 versions of the remixed albums by Avril Mackintosh and Andy Bradfield , the original album versions, an extensive documentary which includes a lot of footage from the relevant periods, the promo videos for the singles and at least one if not two of the official bootlegs of entire shows from the early 90's all remastered by Calum Malcolm.

“I’m am looking at £49.99 plus VAT which is £5 higher than the 'Weltschmerz' deluxe price in 2020 I'm interested in your feedback on this as I have to be careful with how I deal with all the product from here on in. As you already know the chocolate frog mailorder service will be shutting down at some point this summer and we are hoping to keep it going until the European tour in September when everything will be shifting over to the tour merchandise. I have had a couple of offers to take over our mail order service but the commissions in my opinion are too high and as with the live venue commission rates either force us to take the prices up or make the items not worth manufacturing.”

“So at the moment both 'Vigil', and 'Internal' are hopefully going to be available at the end of April with only a couple of months on the Chocolate Frog mail order site before we move from the Studio ( or we find a company that can provide an alternative service ). After that they will only be on sale at the venues and then only until April 2025 when we officially close the Chocolate Frog Record Company and someone else will deal with the label and my music catalogue. In short all the Chocolate Frog stock will be gone by April 2025 and there will be no more deluxe items or box sets produced by ourselves. The only reasons we can do all these deluxe sets is that it's just Simone and I and no huge overheads. Once they are gone from here they are gone. “

I'm pretty confident I'll be able to shift a good few 'Exiles', and Vigils'. But what I won't be doing is over manufacturing as (A) I can't afford to (B) I don't have the storage after the summer (C) I'm limited on stock movements on tour and (D)I don't want to be left with any stock come April 2025.”

Both 'Vigil' and Internal' will be put up for preorder in late March once I know the delivery date of the product. I am assuming no problems with the deluxes and a 6-8 week turnaround that will give us units at the end of April. It's a heads up for some of you as I can remember on previous releases and tours where I did say things were flying fast and there were a lot of disappointed people left dealing with e bay and touts. This farewell tour is creating a lot of noise and a lot of interest. I can't remember when I had so much profile and the buzz is growing. The European tour was only announced just over a week ago!! Yes its fantastic but I'm sticking to the plan and the endgame stays the same. So anyway that was a long explanation and I hope you understand a bit more of what we are doing with everything. I'll be back next week for Fish on Friday and I'll address your comments about the releases and the ideas a bit more. Till then stay safe, take care and have a fine weekend. I'm off to fire up the memory for sleevenote writing Fish”

 

[sjcorne]

Sadly, it almost sounds like these will be the last special editions (see underlined quotes) given Fish’s planned retirement to take up a crofting life.

I was hoping they might get SW back to revisit Sunsets On Empire.

 

[JediJoker]

I was hoping they might get SW back to revisit Sunsets On Empire.

Could still happen, just without Fish's direct involvement, and on some label other than Chocolate Frog. I'm sure Steven would be game, if the money were there for him.

 

[srbjab]

Assuming these sell well enough it's not out of the question that someone else will eventually pick these up and continue with re-issuing deluxe editions. Lord knows its happened plenty of times with other artists catalogs. Really a shame about Feast though - was really hoping for a good surround remix on that one.