Dear All,

this is just a short note to let you know that the creation of the next Sagittarius album is proceeding very well. The raw composing process is finished, and the piano basics are mostly recorded. Next week Marcel and I will continue the recordings at his "Dungeon Studio".

I decided to change the album title from "Uni ja kuolema" to "The Kingdom Come" which is the English title of Stefan George's final poem book "Das neue Reich" according to the translation by Olga Marx and Ernst Morwitz. This new title reflects the general impetus of the new opus much better.

Many of the poems I set to music this time are taken out of that particular poem book, which has been my constant companion and spiritual influence for many years. Apart from that a few songs will be based on poems by Hermann Hesse, William Butler Yeats, Charles Baudelaire, Ernst Morwitz and the Finnish poet Uuno Kailas - a writer being rather famous in my second native land Finland, but almost unknown in the rest of the world, which is a shame because his poetry belongs to the strongest I am aware of.

Another poem set to music is "Lebenslied (An die Deutschen)" by the German exul poeta Karl Wolfskehl, which is one of the most impressive and haunting pieces of German poetry ever. Descending from one of the oldest Jewish families in Germany, Wolfskehl had an enormous impact on the intellectual life in Germany. A magnificent poet, close friend to Stefan George and one the leading experts on German mythology and medieval poetry, he was forced to go to exile in 1933. This particular poem is a long reflection on his homeland and his spiritual influences, and both a song of valediction and distant hope.

You may expect the album to be released by Cold Spring Records in 2010.