have never been ones to think small, but their upcoming 10th album, , is bigger, bolder and more ambitious than anything they’ve done before. Written over several months in 2021 and 2022, and recorded between keyboard player/songwriter Tuomas Holopainen’s hometown of Kitee and London’s fabled Abbey Road Studios, the 12-track record may not feature any side-long epics, but in every other respect it is, as Tuomas puts it, “a big one”. "It’s probably the biggest album we’ve done.
It complements the lyrics and the stories we want to tell. In the song , there are more than 600 tracks. That’s a lot.
It was hell for the mixing engineer.” “The major theme of the album is time - going back in time, recognising your own mortality. It’s about history, being human, but it’s optimistic.
Despite all the bad stuff, we have the chance as a species to get together and survive. That’s the core message and essence of the album.” “In late 2020, I discovered the world of black and white photos that had been coloured – the best example would be Peter Jackson’s [colourised WWI documentary] .
When I see them, it gives me a sensation I cannot describe – a connection to the past. I couldn’t find a word in any language to describe it, so I said to Troy [Donockley, multi- instrumentalist], ‘Can we make up a word to describe this?’ I came up with ‘yester’ and he immediately said ‘wynde’. ‘Yesterwynde’ - it was perfect.
I don’t know what the meaning .