3–17, 25–30 August[1] 1–7 September 1976 (Mixing)[1] (Whitesnake) 21 March–6 April 1977; 10–19 April 1976[2] (Northwinds) c. Late 1990s–2000 (Into the Light) c. 2020s (2024 Remix)
"Midnight Blue (2024 Remix)" Released: 16 August 2024
"Wherever You May Go (2024 Remix)" Released: 5 September 2024
"Time & Again (Strings Version) [2024 Remix]" Released: 26 September 2024
Into the Light: The Solo Albums is a compilation album by English hard rock band Whitesnake, showcasing the band's founder and singer-songwriter David Coverdale's solo works. The compilation includes selections from Coverdale's three solo albums: White Snake (1977), Northwinds (1978) and Into the Light (2000). The collection features "revisited, remixed and remastered" forms of previously released and unreleased material from the installment of these solo albums. The title of the compilation derives from Coverdale's third solo release, Into the Light. It was released via Rhino Records on 25 October 2024 and set to be released on 13 November in Japan.
Coverdale recorded White Snake and Northwinds after Deep Purple's dissolution in the 1976, before forming Whitesnake. Decades later, following the group's temporary hiatus, he resumed his solo career with Into the Light, exploring a more reflective and blues-influenced sound. Advanced technology was used to remix the albums, with tracks from White Snake and Northwinds separated into their multi-track stems using cutting-edge artificial intelligence software, while Into the Light was remixed digitally.
Background
Between 1977 and 1978, vocalist David Coverdale recorded the first of his two solo albums after the Mark IV dissolution of Deep Purple. Both were released as White Snake and Northwinds and were gone out in many compilation sets, more recently The Early Years in 2003.[3] Decades later after the temporary disbandment of Coverdale's formed band Whitesnake, he resumed his solo career as well to explore many forms of music.[4] The resulting 2000 record came out as Into the Light, listing it as his most successful solo album commercially and critically, only that it charted in six countries.[5][6][7][8]
According to Coverdale, his first two solo albums, including material from Whitesnake, have been digitally archived and can be restored and remastered. However, at that time, they could not be remixed. This was a result from the 2008 Universal Studios fire, which archived the band's material belonging to Geffen Records, although some of the masters were found safe at the Iron Mountain Storage Facility in Pennsylvania.[9][10]Purple Records, one of the sub-divisions of EMI at that time, retained the masters to Coverdale's first two solo albums, but had been gone out of print ever since.
History and production
Into the Light: The Solo Albums featured musicians that participated from singer David Coverdale's solo albums. His first album White Snake was released on 20 February 1977 throughout Europe then 6 May in the UK,[11][12] featuring then-Whitesnake guitarist, Micky Moody, whom Coverdale met in a local coffee shop at Teesside back then.[1][11] As a first solo effort, Coverdale remarked the record was "a very inward-looking, reflective and low-key affair in many ways, written and recorded as it was in the aftermath of the collapse of Deep Purple".[13] The album title, or the song name was meant for Deep Purple, but Coverdale presented it to Deep Purple's then ex-bassist, at that time, Roger Glover to play and produce the album with him right after the group dissolved. Deep Purple's management were pressured to support Coverdale and Hughes, thus the two were given $10,000 each to create their own solo albums. According to Coverdale, the album-named title track "Whitesnake" concept was created between 1975 and 1976, "after Come Taste the Band, or while we (Deep Purple) were touring, promoting that album...I thought it would be a fun Purple track.[1] The track would be later named as the official title of Coverdale's formation of the group after his follow up release.[1] It was followed by its successor Northwinds, released on 10 March 1978.[14] The album was viewed in blues-based and R&B influenced rock followed as an "antithesis" of Whitesnake 1987.[15][16] It was also largely viewed as nothing differentiated compared to Led Zeppelin, given that Whitesnake had been compared that group on many occasions.[17] Decades later, Into the Light was released on 25 September 2000, with its elements featured a more stripped-down and blues-influenced sound that Coverdale "felt appropriate" in his songwriting.[18]
Both White Snake and Northwinds were originally produced by Roger Glover, while Into the Light was produced by Coverdale himself alongside Doug Bossi, Bjorn Thorsrud, John X. Volaitis and Michael McIntyre being credited as associate producers.[11][2][19]
Remixing of David Coverdale's solo albums
Coverdale's first two solo albums were remixed using cutting-edge audio separation software using "Audioshake", allowing them to be artificially separated into their individual multi-track stems using artificial intelligence.[20][21] The original master tapes were lost for two decades and were unable to be located, largely due to both of those albums being out of print from the EMI label (alongside early Whitesnake material),[22] now owned by Universal. However, many of the outtakes from the album remain accessible.[1] As a result, the audio engineers at "Hook City Studios", named after Whitesnake, have been experimenting with various open-source software to separate two of the releases for the past five years.[23]
For the remixing of White Snake, the production team undertook the process of unmixing the entire record by exporting the stems via the same mechanism to various artificial intelligence software, selecting the best available mixes for comparison and approval in the White Snake remixing project.[1] Digital artefacts posed a recurring challenge, which the team addressed by overlaying enhanced versions of individual stems to reinforce the overall sound. Despite this, they had limited control over the volume and tone during the remixing process, particularly with the lead and background vocals, as well as the original track's reverb. Fortunately, the team managed to mitigate these issues by incorporating modern remixes for the drums and reamping the guitars and bass through amplifiers to achieve an authentic contemporary sound. Although the tape speed was slightly off, this was digitally corrected to ensure any new instruments were in tune with the rest of the record.[1]
The remixing process for Northwinds was originally inspired by a neural network known as MAL (machine-assisted learning), which had been developed as an audio restoration technology for The Beatles 2021 documentary The Beatles: Get Back.[24] MAL was originally named after the Beatles' former road manager, Mal Evans.[25] This process was used to separate John Lennon's home demo recording from the late 1970s, utilising a digital copy provided by Sean Lennon, which was of higher quality than the third-generation source the three surviving members of The Beatles had used in 1995.[26][27] This restoration preserved the clarity of every multi-track stem, culminating in the release of "Now and Then" in late 2023 and also the 2022 remix of Revolver. Audio engineer and producer Tom Gordon, who was working on the remixes for Northwinds, was impressed by this restoration approach and contacted Peter Jackson's company, WingNut Films, which had utilised the MAL technology for various music and film restorations, including The Beatles' archives. However, his request was declined as the technology was exclusive to The Beatles project and was "bespoken for" at the time. Gordon then approached Dr. Paris Smaragdis in an attempt to develop a similar version of MAL software, but due to time constraints and limited resources, this was not possible.[1]
Peter Jackson(pictured in 2003) developed the MAL audio-separation software to enhance and restore the archived music and filmography of The Beatles. Tom Gordon expressed interest in utilising this technology, but his proposal was declined.
After the initial attempts with MAL failed, Whitesnake audio engineers were under pressure to find an alternative audio isolation technology that could successfully separate the tracks from their original stems. For "Time & Again", Coverdale's vocals were recorded on the same multi-track alongside with the Rhodes electric piano.[1] Coverdale wanted to "ditch the Rhodes" and add string arrangements in the remix. However, when the Northwinds album was processed through various open-source audio separation software, the results included digital artefacts, rendering the remixes unusable as "the vocal was so exposed". The team eventually turned to an emerging software called "Audioshake", which was in its beta stage at the time. The software produced results that were deemed acceptable, allowing the remix of "Time & Again" to proceed.[1]
For the remix of Into the Light, the album was originally recorded digitally through Pro Tools.[28] Several tracks from the record were later remixed and included in the Red, White, Blues compilation trilogy, released between 2020 and 2021. The original recording utilised the now obsolete "Sound Designer II" format, which is incompatible with modern systems. However, the engineering team successfully transferred and converted the tracks using legacy equipment. To prevent data loss or corruption during the current project, the digital multitrack stems were re-aligned with their original time codes.[1] The remixing was held entirely by Christopher Collier, who worked with the group since the late 2010s, while remixing for White Snake and Northwinds were handled by Tom Gordon and Alex Breckenridge.[29][1]
Release and promotion
Although the three albums were recorded entirely by Coverdale as a solo artist, he now regards them as Whitesnake albums. He stated, "As I'm recognized as 'Mr. Whitesnake', I thought, Why not? They're all Whitesnake albums to me... we've remixed them to stand proudly alongside any Whitesnake album."[21] 1997's Restless Heart was at first originally viewed as a solo album, but was eventually grouped as a "David Coverdale & Whitesnake" album due to EMI's contract demands. This, along with Into the Light, was envisioned as "brother and sister albums", respectively due to their similar sound in comparison to Whitesnake's other recordings.[30] The first appearance of David Coverdale's solo work within Whitesnake was on Snakebite, which is considered the band's first official release. Initially issued as an EP, it was later expanded into a double EP, featuring four tracks from Northwinds album: "Keep on Giving Me Love", "Queen of Hearts", "Only My Soul", and "Breakdown".[31]
On the morning of 16 August 2024, Coverdale announced the upcoming compilation on his Twitter/X page.[32] That same day, a promotional music video for the track "Midnight Blue" from the album Into the Light was also released. [21]Into the Light: The Solo Albums was released via Rhino Entertainment on 25 October 2024 as a multi-disc box set, featuring remastered and remixed versions of the solo albums, as well as previously unreleased demos. The collection will also feature music videos and a 60-page booklet containing photographs and an interview with Coverdale. Additionally, the set will be released as a double vinyl album, featuring tracks exclusively from Into the Light, marking its first release on vinyl format.[33][21] Separately, the 2024 remixes of White Snake and Northwinds will also be reissued in the same format, pressed on translucent vinyl, released on 4 October for "RHINO Rocktober" sales event,[21][34] following a Japanese release on 13 November.[35][36] Snippets of the remixed tracks "Lady" and "Northwinds" are featured in their respective promotional videos.[21][37][38][39] On 5 September, a remixed track of "Wherever You May Go" was premiered, following with another promotional music video of the song.[40][41][42] "Time & Again" was released on 26 September with a promotional video featuring "Hook City Strings" arrangements.[43][44] The unboxing of the compilation set was premiered on 17 October, followed by a "River Song" video release on 23 October.[45][46] "Love Is Blind" with the 2024 remix was uploaded on the compilation's release date.[47]
Track listing
All tracks are written by David Coverdale, except where noted.[33]
