The resurrection of a class act is always something to be celebrated, and Rick Whitehurst, returned after an extended break with collaborator Kalvin Foster with some old unreleased and new stuff.

The opener is a corker, and the deserved winner of my “storytelling of 2024” award. From my review:

The Princess of Tisul, is epic length, ten minutes plus. It is based upon the discovery in 1969 of a sarcophagus in Siberia of a woman in a tomb said to be 800 million years old. She in fact lived in the 5th century BC in what modern day tribesmen still call the second layer of heaven on the plateau she was found on. A “sleeper” indeed. The smoky jazz infused beginning is a delight featuring some fine effects, sax, brass, with the sounds of mammoths in the distance. It is embedded below. I find it utterly mesmerising, drawing the listener into a world of oblique noises and quotes with an ever so quiet intensity drawing not only on the discovery, but also portraying the life this woman might have led all those years ago, little knowing the fuss that discovery would cause.