Award-winning, international progressive rock band Big Big Train will issue their 16th studio album, Woodcut, via InsideOutMusic on 6th February 2026 to be followed by a UK and European tour in the autumn. Just released is the band’s second single taken from Woodcut, ‘The Sharpest Blade’.
Band violinist Clare Lindley wrote both th lyrics and shares lead vocals with the band’s established frontman Alberto Bravin on ‘The Sharpest Blade’.
“Having gone for a walk in the woods and happened upon an amazing piece of heartwood, lit by a natural beam of sunlight, the Artist has taken it home,” Lindley outlined, regarding the lead character in Woodcut, an album that acts as an ongoing musical narrative, or concept album as such.
“In the song ‘The Sharpest Blade’, he begins to carve the heartwood. Although he still has doubts and dark inner thoughts, he finds himself carving a wonderful scene. It’s so good that he feels it is perhaps not of his own hand.”
As with Big Big Train‘s previous single release, the video for ‘The Sharpest Blade’ was created by Crystal Spotlight and you can check it out here at RAMzine.
Woodcut is a landmark release for the international group, whose line-up draws together members from England, Scotland, Italy, the USA, Sweden and Norway, in that it marks their first ever full-length conceptual piece. Woodcut is a continuous narrative exploring creativity, sacrifice and the thin line between inspiration and madness.
The band recently teased the new record with the launch of a short passage of music, that can now be revealed as the album’s introductory piece ‘Inkwell Black’. The first single from the album, ‘The Artist’, was also released accompanied by a video created by Crystal Spotlight.
Bassist Gregory Spawton commented: “Woodcut tells the story of a character we call The Artist, who is struggling with his creativity and with life. One day he is able to fashion a woodcut which he considers to be beautiful and different. Maybe it’s a dream or maybe it’s real life, but he finds himself stepping into the woodcut scene and into an alternative world.”
Woodcut sees all seven band members making contributions, with frontman Alberto Bravin taking the lead as producer: “This time it’s kind of a new statement for the band. Woodcut is a big step forward for us,” Bravin commented. With more than 400 individual recorded tracks of music to edit, streamline and piece together, and also with the connectivity of the album’s storyline and its themed instrumental sections to consider, this was a task of gargantuan proportions.
“I felt a huge sense of relief when Alberto took over as producer,” said Spawton, the band’s final original co-founding member. “Although this is only Alberto’s second studio album with BBT, he is very aware of the traditions of the band and has also brought his own sense of energy to the music.”
Woodcut is said to feel like a Big Big Train record quite unlike any that came before—an assured union of music, storytelling and visual invention. The album is graced with a cover design from Dorset based artist Robin Mackenzie – a black and white woodcut print, of course, derived from a woodcut which the band commissioned from him specifically for the album.
Available as a limited CD + Blu-ray edition, including extensive liner notes as well as Dolby Atmos & 5.1 Surround Sound mixes by Shawn Dealey of Sweetwater Studios, the album will also be available as a gatefold 180g 2LP with special embossed cover, standard CD jewel case and digitally in both stereo and Dolby Atmos versions. It can be ordered here.
Featuring 16 tracks across 66-minutes of runtime, the full track-listing is as follows: ‘Inkwell Black’, ‘The Artist’, ‘ The Lie Of The Land’, ‘The Sharpest Blade’, ‘Albion Press’, ‘Arcadia’, ‘ Second Press’, ‘Warp And Weft’, ‘Chimaera’, ‘Dead Point’, ‘Light Without Heat’, ‘Dreams In Black And White’, ‘ Cut and Run’, ‘Hawthorn White’, ‘Counting Stars’ and ‘Last Stand’.
The full band line-up featured on the album is: Alberto Bravin (Lead vocals, guitar, keyboards), Nick D’Virgilio (Drums, percussion, 12-string acoustic guitar, vocals), Oskar Holldorff (Keyboards, vocals), Clare Lindley (Violin, acoustic guitar, vocals), Paul Mitchell (Trumpet, piccolo trumpet, vocals), Rikard Sjöblom (Guitars, keyboards, vocals), and Gregory spawton (Bass, bass pedals, 12-string acoustic guitar, mellotron, vocals).
The band’s Woodcut & Other Stories Tour will see the band play 18 shows across the UK, Belgium, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Italy and Switzerland.
The tour commences in the UK on Friday 25th September before moving into continental Europe. It then returns to the UK, culminating in the band’s debut show at the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London on Saturday 17th October. All UK shows will be seated except for Birmingham and Glasgow (that are standing shows), while all continental European shows will be standing except for those in Italy (that are seated shows).
During this tour, the band will be focussing significantly on Woodcut, as well as playing some fan favourites from their back catalogue plus other early material which has not been performed for over 25 years.
Regarding the tour, Bravin said: “We’re extremely proud of Woodcut and are really looking forward to bringing it to life on stage next autumn as well as exploring various corners of the band’s back catalogue, some of which will be more familiar to fans than others. We planning to play for over two hours each night and I can’t wait to get back on the road.”
Spawton added: “Since Alberto joined the band we’ve played almost 60 shows in the UK, continental Europe, North America and on board Cruise To The Edge. With five members who each have experience fronting bands as vocalists and a number of multi-instrumentalists, I think that over the last few years we’ve proved that this line-up has the ability to perform anything and everything.”
While D’Virgilio commented: “This tour is going to be a complete blast. As well as the eight UK shows, it will be great to get back to continental Europe for 10 shows, including performing in Spain and France for the first time, plus our debut indoor shows in Italy. Some of our very best shows recently have been in standing venues, so it will be fun to have two of these in the UK as well.”
Tickets are available here.
