Magenta, the superb Welsh prog rockers who now operate as a trio, released a new studio album called “Tarot” on April 10, 2026. The album came out on Tigermoth Records.
Below you’ll find the new single (and video) for the track The Empress. Before that, Magenta had unveiled the title single and the single The Lovers.
You can already order the album “Tarot”.
Rob Reed, the band’s boss, main visionary, composer and multi-instrumentalist, had this to say about the new album:
“It’s been a long time since we put out a new Magenta studio album. Lately I’ve been super busy with all sorts of projects, so it took a while for new ideas to grab me, things I could express in music for the new record. Over the last 25 years we’ve released loads of CDs, EPs and DVDs, and I always try to make sure the albums sound different from each other and that our sound keeps evolving.
This time I decided to write material that would suit Christina’s voice. While composing, I pictured the way she sings to help me get it right. So I wrote the songs hoping they’d fit her vocal range. It took quite a while before we were really sure we’d found the right keys, the ones that bring out the most in her performance.
Musically, I decided to look back to our beginnings, 2001 to be exact, when we formed the band. I’ve always been, and still am, a huge fan of Renaissance, and when we made the album “Revolutions”, the musical nature of Renaissance had a big influence on how that record turned out. So on the new album I wanted to strike the right balance between orchestrations, guitars, keyboards and clearly defined bass guitar lines.
I’m really happy with the result. In my opinion, “Tarot” is Magenta’s most coherent and consistent album so far, and I can’t wait to introduce it to the world.”
The drums on the album were played by Nick D’Virgillio, who is also a member of Big Big Train and Steve Hackett’s backing band.
Tracklist for the album “Tarot”:
1. The Lovers
2. Etude 1
3. The Magician
4. Etude 2
5. The World
6. Etude 3
7. Strength
8. Etude 4
9. The Empress
10. Tarot
11. The Lovers (single edit)
Lineup:
Christina Booth – vocals
Robert Reed – keyboards, bass guitar, piano, rhythm guitar, recorders
Chris Fry – lead guitar, acoustic guitar
Guest musicians:
Peter Jones – backing vocals
Steve Balsamo – backing vocals
Katie Axelsen – flute
Sam Baxter – oboe
Nick D’Virgillio – drums
