Jakko M. Jakszyk, perhaps most recently known as lead singer and second guitarist in King Crimson, will release his new solo album, Son Of Glen, on the 27th June through InsideOutMusic.
The record is a companion piece of sorts to his acclaimed memoir Who’s The Boy With The Lovely Hair, that was released in October 2024, and explores many of the themes and the subjects that the book touches upon.
“I finally discovered who my father was after decades of fruitless searching,” Jaksyk revealed. “This was only three years ago. Turns out he was a US airman stationed in England in the 50s who went back to the States and that he died when I would have been 14. ‘Son Of Glen’ is a fantasy based around the idea that my father, a man I never knew, was somehow guiding me from a far. The video attempts to tell the tale, and bring my father back to life”
Out now, is a video for the previously released title track, the 10-minute long ‘Son of Glen’, which you can watch here at RAMzine.
Jaksyk’s songcraft is evident on Son Of Glen, as his elegiac lyric muses on our fixation with nostalgia and the human condition, and yet where great songwriting, pathos and poetry would be enough to satiate most listeners, let us not forget that he is (somewhat enviably) also a phenomenal guitarist, exceptional singer and multi-instrumentalist, whose precision production and skill for crafting glorious spatial soundscapes takes his arsenal of talents and skills, to a place where it’s more than justified to say, there is no one else quite like him, doing everything that he does, with the proficiency he does it.
Son Of Glen will be available as a limited CD digipak, gatefold LP & as a digital album. It features the tracks: ‘Ode To Ballina’, ‘Somewhere Between Then And Now’, ‘How Did I Let You Get So Old?’, ‘This Kiss Never Lies’, ‘Ode To Ballina (Reprise)’, ‘I Told You So’, ‘(Get A) Proper Job’ and ‘Son Of Glen’ – You can stream and order it here.
Despite being, seemingly, the last person to recognise this: Jaksyk stands in a league of his own. This in itself, we can muse upon, could well be the manifestation of an unwanted child who felt they had everything to prove. A core theme of his book, a theme many people themselves can relate to in some capacity.
Whether emotional hardship has driven Jaksyk to the place where Son Of Glen has culminated, or simply a need to reach out to the spectre of his late father, it gives credence to the romantic notion that one’s best art is produced from periods of struggle. Son Of Glen is Jakko M. Jakszyk’s triumph, succinctly showcasing an extraordinary life and career of an unparalleled musician, producer and songwriter.
The album also features appearances by drummer’s Gavin Harrison (King Crimson, Porcupine Tree) and Ian Mosley (Marillion), cellist Caroline Lavelle, Louise Patricia Crane on vocals and Jakko’s son Django on bass guitar.
