MAITREYA, SANANDA

Op 11 mei 2024 verschijnt The Pegasus Project: Pegasus & The Swan, het dertiende
studioalbum van Sananda Maitreya, de iconische artiest die eind jaren tachtig doorbrak met
wereldhits als If You Let Me Stay, Wishing Well, Dance Little Sister and Sign Your Name.
Deze nieuwe release vormt het sluitstuk van de trilogie die eerder is gestart met de
albums Promotheus & Pandora (2017) en Pandora's PlayHouse (2021).
Maar liefst 41 albumtracks zijn op The Pegasus Project: Pegasus & The Swan te horen, die
het beste kunnen worden samengevat als "A Horse that flies and a Swan that never dies".
Waar het Pegasus-gedeelte van het project door een energieke sound wordt gedomineerd,
variërend van energieke funk tot psychedelische pop, laat het Swan-gedeelte een meer
rustiek en orchestraal geluid horen. Kortom, een bijzondere en intrigerende release van een
artiest die veel plezier heeft in zijn leven én muziek. Het nieuwe album is een episch
muzikaal avontuur dat omhoog schiet, zweeft, galoppeert, tuimelt en bij elke luisterbeurt
nieuwe inzichten onthult.
The Pegasus Project: Pegasus & The Swan is volledig door Sananda geschreven,
gearrangeerd en geproduceerd. Ook heeft hij op dit album - in navolging van zijn bevriende
idool Prince - alle muziekpartijen ingezongen en ingespeeld. Verder zijn er bijdragen van de
co-producers Andy Wright (Pet Shop Boys, Massive Attack), Gavin Goldberg, Jellybean
Johnson (The Time, Janet Jackson) en Oscar Deric Brown (componist) plus de Italiaanse
zangeressen Beatrice Baldaccini en Luisa Corna.





“There was an extra element I felt in this record from the beginning. This is my 13th project. There’s a pride in that, considering how much music these 13 projects represent. I’m able to say: ’13? Wow.’ That feeling of achievement is audible on this record. This being my 13th project, there’s something a little extra there.”
Sananda Maitreya should feel proud both of the mesmerising journey his music has taken since Introducing The Hardline brought him to an unsuspecting world in 1987, and of the latest Season showing the magical, mystical, freewheeling adventures he now has in music.
Once he realised The Pegasus Project: Pegasus & The Swan would be his 13th album, Sananda wondered how to mark the occasion: “Anything that others are irrationally afraid of interests me.
I love black cats. Black cats are bad? No, black cats are fucking cool. The number 13 needs love too.”
Sananda Maitreya’s initial plan for Season 13 was simple: a 13-song guitar-led record staying on bass, drums and two guitars. Then, the month before his 60th birthday in March 2022, Sananda instead started working on this project. It was time to finish the arc started with his Prometheus & Pandora album in 2017, continued on 2021’s beautiful Pandora’s PlayHouse.
For anyone who hasn’t witnessed the saga’s first two Seasons, you’re missing out. But also, you can start here. “Every record has to stand on its own,” Sananda emphasises. “But if you want to go deeper, there’s a world that’s inter-connected, with interchangeable stories and characters. It’s like how Marvel and DC make films such as Iron Man and Spider-Man with the same understanding of mythology as the Ancient Greeks.”
Any newcomer can revel in the 20 songs each on the project’s Pegasus and Swan sides, summarised as “A Horse that flies and a Swan that never dies.” To generalise, the original guitar-based genesis is on the Pegasus side, featuring the rolling funk of Ben Downs, the multi-layered psych-pop of Life Will Go On, Nice Things’ raucous energy and the hypnotic carnival of Camden Town.
Meanwhile, the gracious Swan ushers us into a realm featuring The Archimia String Quartet from Sananda’s longtime hometown, Milan, and The Budapest Art Orchestra with conductor Diego Basso, an admirer of Sananda who had asked to collaborate with him for some years. “It felt like nature was telling me to work with Diego,” says Sananda.
“The Swan is a completely different energy,” he continues. “From the moment I heard the mixes from the orchestra, I could feel this record was absolutely going to be something special. I had to live up to what they gave me.”
In doing so, Sananda plays everything else on the album. That came with a proviso: “My first priority is that I never sound like one guy playing all the instruments. If you don’t know it’s me playing it all, I want you to think: ‘That’s a pretty cool band.’”
That mission is comfortably achieved on an album maintaining its energy throughout. “In keeping with my feelings about Pandora’s energy, Pandora’s PlayHouse was a more pastel collection,” reflects Sananda. “This project felt it needed to be more primary coloured, resulting in songs that are sexy, funny, serious, reflective, ‘Fuck it’. That’s how wide the river needed to be here.”
That sexual side is most explicitly displayed in Bondage’s swirling drama, Being Watched’s teasing funk and the irresistible acoustic pop of The Things U Like, Sananda’s voice at its most insistent.
It’s music that, to quote Bondage: “I’m in the dark, but I’m having fun.” As Sananda smiles: “Sexy sells. I’m certainly trying to capture feeling sexy in those songs. It’s an important emotion, part of a record’s wide palette. You want to ensure every ingredient is best represented, same as throwing a dinner party.”
The first draft of Being Watched arrived when Sananda was 27, in Massachusetts to record what became his third record, Symphony Or Damn. It was published as a poem on his website eight years ago. Its compelling final version arrived towards the end of The Pegasus Project, “The culmination of something I’d had for so long, now in its proper context.”
Conversely, the acapella Waiting 4 The Light 2 Change which follows Being Watched at the end of the Pegasus set was written walking home from the studio, literally waiting for a pedestrian crossing to go green.
It’s a beautiful, strangely hymnal song in the spirit of As Yet Untitled from Introducing The Hardline. “It was time to do another acapella song,” Sananda acknowledges. “As a publisher, acapella songs are always good, because they’re easy for other artists to work with. As Yet Untitled is one of my songs covered the most. So many DJs have taken so many things from it.”
Following Pandora’s PlayHouse, Sananda’s first record label Sony finally reissued his first project under its correct title, Introducing The Hardline According To Sananda Maitreya, acknowledging his true identity.
“It was pretty emotional,” says Sananda of going back to that time. “I felt annoyed at first, because it meant paying attention to something I’d been ignoring. I don’t look back – I’m not wired that way.” He never listens to his old music. Before tour rehearsals, Sananda’s band will remind him if he’s getting an old song wrong. “Going back to that project was trepidation and fear mixed with excitement. But enough time has passed that I’d forgotten the criticisms I had at the time, of what I did and didn’t do. I could appreciate the work as a writer, of what it was a portrait of.”
Heaven 17’s Martyn Ware, who co-produced the album with Sananda, worked with him on the reissue. “I hadn’t spoken to Martyn in years,” Sananda reveals. “The release allowed us to reconnect and I was delighted when Martyn agreed to work with me on it.”
Since Sananda Maitreya returned to music, he’s explored all avenues of creating songs, remaining grateful to his old self. He explains: “I was a different spirit with a different vibration, which is why I had a different name. I feel indebted to the work that person set up but, by the time I was 27, something had shifted. Mine was a completely different experience. It was a weird way of joining ‘The 27 Club’, where I was forever looking to replace that which had been replaced.”
That exiling from the music industry is the loose inspiration for the Prometheus & Pandora arc, which will become a musical counterpart to a film Sananda is planning as a way to tell his life story. One reason Sananda wanted to return to its landscape on this project is because he realised he needed a song for the opening scene of the Prometheus & Pandora musical.
What a song it is too. Mr Magoo (The Insurrection Song) is pure Bond theme in scope, majestic drama in every note. “There was a big production song missing from the start of the musical,” says Sananda. It shows how Zeus is forced to choose between remaining a God or exiling his beloved protégé, Prometheus. But, well, it’s also called Mr Magoo. “It’s about the Gods telling Zeus: ‘Get that motherfucker Prometheus out of here,’’ laughs Sananda. “But the humour had to be there too and Mr Magoo is an easy shorthand for someone blind to what’s going on around them. Now I’ve got Mr Magoo, the last piece of the puzzle for the musical is in place.”
If Mr Magoo is the project’s James Bond theme, there’s a gorgeous traditional Disney air too to Time Takes Time in the Swan’s side. It’s accompanied by songs featuring Italian singers Beatrice Baldaccini and Luisa Corna, both returning vocalists in Sananda’s cast.
Luisa fronts the lush Hiawatha, while Beatrice suits the flamboyance of fresh versions of New World Forming and Nice Things. Sananda first encountered Luisa when they shared a festival bill and he heard her sing I Will Always Love You backstage: “Whitney’s arrangement,” he clarifies. “When Luisa got to the climactic point, she nailed it. She’s got balls and has a very emotional, passionate way of delivering a song.”
Beatrice sang in Sananda’s band before becoming the lead in the Italian production of the Pretty Woman musical. “Beatrice has a lot of attention around her already and she’s only going to keep growing,” he enthuses. “She has a lot of side to give, and she’s the type of person you don’t think can be with you for too long. I wanted to grab Beatrice while she was still grabbable.”
Co-producers on the album include Andy Wright (Pet Shop Boys/Massive Attack) on Love Is Blind, Bunny Hearts & The Rugged associate Jellybean Johnson on Walk On and composer Oscar Deric Brown, who helped on The Last Word and I Have A Dream.
Johnson was drummer in The Time, the early proteges of Prince – a friend of Sananda’s who long helped guide Sananda. There’s a hat-tip to his mentor in the playful interlude BDSM, which features the saturnine presence of Mr Correcto.
“Prince and I had a very special relationship,” recalls Sananda. “We had a mind meld experience. When Prince was trying to reach me, I could always tell. I idolised him, and he adopted me like a younger brother. It was like Michael Jordan seeing Kobe Bryant. I keep a picture of Prince in my studio and I still feel I’m collaborating with him at times. My voice as Mr Correcto is like when Prince used to do his treated character voices.”
If a record featuring 41 tracks can be said to have a centrepiece, it might be Pretty Baby, the divinely sung ballad where Sananda advises: “Once or twice, you may lose your way.” He admits he’s fortunate to know what his purpose in life is as a father and musician, but insists: “You can know your purpose and still feel like you stumble and fuck up. You can have doubts and be afraid.” But he cautions against being too self-critical, saying: “With maturity, you can spend less time judging yourself. We’re encouraged by religions not to think that much of ourselves. It’s a results-oriented society we live in. But more of us are waking up to how life is less about the score at the end and more what we get out of playing the game.”
Few musicians give more to the game or are plainly having as much fun playing it than Sananda Maitreya. The Pegasus Project: Pegasus & The Swan is an epic that soars, gallops and tumbles, revealing fresh insight with every listen. Whatever travails Sananda once faced, he’s a joyous presence in person and in his music now.
“My musical and my film need a triumphant ending, because mine is a triumphant ending,” he smiles. “Not too many of us are blessed to say we live the life we’re supposed to be leading. As a kid, if I could have looked to where I am now, my mind would be blown. I was able to do all that and I still love doing it? Wow. That’s all you can really ask. That’s triumphant enough for me.”
The Pegasus Project: Pegasus & The Swan – a lucky 13 for creator and listener alike.

Pegasus Presents (0:19)
The Birthday Song! (4:07)
Mr. Magoo (The Insurrection Song) (5:09)
I Will Wait (4:06)
Pretty Baby Prelude (0:42)
Pretty Baby (2:52)
Ben Dover (0:15)
Ben Downs (3:55)
The Things U Like (3:19)
Life Will Go On! (3:33)
Pegasus & the Swan (5:40)
New World Forming (Visum Equues) (3:45)
Bondage (5:31)
BDSM (0:43)
Nice Things (4:10)
Camden Town (4:01)
Selfish (3:39)
Being Watched (4:00)
Waiting 4 the Light 2 Change (4:53)
Let's Come Together (1:41)
A Horse That Flies ... (0:21)
Love Is Blind (3:20)
Walk On (4:19)
I Have a Dream (4:31)
The Last Word (4:20)
New World Forming (A Swan's View) (3:51)
Hiawatha (3:46)
Her Kiss [Vesper Swann Mix] (5:58)
Time Takes a Timeout (2:47)
Time Takes Time (2:49)
She's Sad (3:35)
Share Your Pain (3:16)
Madame Swan (3:53)
Pegasus & the Swan Serenade (5:40)
Nice Things [The Echo'sEdge Mix] (4:20)
Coda: The Sluggish Thugs Vs the Thuggish Slugs! (0:52)
The Birthday Song! [Gluten Free Mix] (4:20)
Ben Dover Again (This Won't Hurt) (0:23)
Paradise Postponed Sonata (4:36)
The Final Word!!! (1:06)
... & a Swan That Never Dies (0:44)
totale tijdsduur: 2:15:07