The third Hemispheres configuration will be offered as an audiophile black vinyl 180-gram three-LP Deluxe Edition featuring the same audio content as the two-CD edition housed in a slipcase with double-gatefold packaging. Also included is a 24-page booklet with unreleased photos featuring Hugh Syme’s new artwork and the edited, 5,700-word version of music historian Rob Bowman’s essay, and a 5x5-inch digital download card sticker of Syme’s new 40th anniversary art is also included.

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.”