The second configuration of Hemispheres-40th Anniversary, released in a two-CD Deluxe Edition digipak. Includes; - the newly remastered Hemispheres album - 1979 Pinkpop Festival performance in The Netherlands - previously unreleased performance of “2112” from Tucson, Arizona 1978 - 28-page booklet with unreleased photos and new artwork by Syme - and an edited, 5,700-word version of music historian Rob Bowman’s essay.

Hemispheres, Rush’s sixth studio album, was originally released in October 1978, and it built upon the adventurous sonic template the band established on its acclaimed 1977 effort, A Farewell To Kings. The album’s first track, “Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres,” encompassed the entirety of Side 1 on the original release and was the logical, heady continuation of the epic album-ending Kings track, “Cygnus X-1.” Side 2 commenced with the hard-driving commentary on English culture “Circumstances,” followed by the socially aware and environmentally conscious FM radio hit “The Trees,” and concluded with the instrumental tour de force and longtime concert favorite, “La Villa Strangiato.”

“Hemispheres was one of our most challenging and demanding records to make,” says Alex Lifeson. “From its inception in a Wales farmhouse where it was written over a 4 week span,” Lifeson continues, “to the very difficult mixing sessions in two London recording studios, it stands as a key transitional album in Rush’s long recording history.”