Devin Townsend announces ‘Empath – The Ultimate Edition’

Devin Townsend has announced a special edition of Empath!

Titled Empath – The Ultimate Edition, the upcoming album from the acclaimed Canadian musician features the original 2019 record and bonus discs across two CDs, plus two Blu-Ray discs. The special edition is scheduled to be released in June, via InsideOut Music.

The first blu-ray disc contains the 5.1 Surround Sound mix by Devin, with visuals for the full record, plus a stereo visualiser. The second blu-ray contains a raft of bonus material, including Acoustically Inclined – Live in Leeds, a recording from his April 2019 acoustic tour where he performed tracks including Love?, Deadhead, Thing Beyond Things and more. The collection also features the full Empath Documentary, a Genesis 5.1 Mixing Lesson, a full album commentary and more. The four discs sit inside a beautiful art-book that contains new liner notes and images from the making of the album.

Speaking about the 5.1 Surround Sound mix, Devin Townsend says, “on a technical level, I guess I have always been dissatisfied with the basic ‘stereo’ format in which the type of music I make gets presented in. Whether its headphones, computer speakers, stereos (or basically anything currently), I have had to figure out ways to get the work to function through TWO speakers. I hear things in a particularly orchestrated way, and with the amount of information that typically gets recorded per song, the result has been the dubious ‘wall of sound’ that I keep ending up with. But my intention has never been to make an oppressive experience, but rather something that is immersive and vast.

Making it work in two speakers just simply doesn’t quite work for the vision. Although I’ve managed to get the point across, (to varying degrees), things always have to compromise to make it all fit. Making the drums speak at the same time as orchestra, cymbals, guitars, choirs, synths etc.…all with my voice on top, ends up with every conceivable frequency fighting for breathing space between those two speakers. Therefore, I asked the powers that be in my business world, to tolerate one more ‘kick at the can’ when it came to Empath. I wanted to attempt a surround mix and follow the original vision of it being an immersive, multimedia experience for people in the ways I could best achieve at this stage. And although it’s still pretty ‘dense’, with four more sources for the sound to come from, I feel its significantly closer to the original vision here.”

Empath – The Ultimate Edition is set for release on June 5th via InsideOut Music.

For more information on Devin Townsend like his official page on Facebook.