Founding Doors guitarist Robby Krieger has unveiled full details about his forthcoming ninth solo album, The Ritual Begins at Sundown, which will be released on April 24.
The 10-track, jazz-influenced instrumental collection features nine original compositions, plus a cover of the 1970 Frank Zappa song “Chunga’s Revenge.” It was recorded at Robby’s own Horse Latitudes Studio in Los Angeles.
Krieger’s main collaborator on The Ritual Begins at Sundown was his longtime songwriting partner Arthur Barrow, a multi-instrumentalist who contributed to many Zappa albums. Also featured on the new record are several other Zappa alums — trombone player Jock Ellis, trumpet player Sal Marquez and keyboardist Tommy Mars — as well as flutist AeB Byrne, sax players Vince Denim and Chuck Manning, and drummers Joel Wackerman and Joel Taylor.
One of the album’s tracks, “The Drift,” has been made available as a digital single and via streaming services. People who pre-order The Ritual Begins at Sundown also will receive an instant free download of the song.
The album will be available on CD, as a yellow-vinyl LP, and digitally. The LP version will feature only nine tracks, and will include a downloadable code for the 10th track — a song called “Slide Home” that originally was released as a digital single in 2018.
Explaining how he developed a passion of jazz, Krieger says, “I was going to the clubs with [drummer] John Densmore — before The Doors — to really get an appreciation of jazz. We used to go see Wes Montgomery, Roland Kirk, Miles Davis, stuff like that. At first, I didn’t really get it, but after a while it sank in and I always loved it after that.”
The Ritual Begins at Sundown is Krieger’s first solo album since 2010’s Grammy-nominated Singularity.
Here’s the full track list:
“What Was That?””Slide Home”*”The Drift””Chunga’s Revenge””Hot Head””Yes, The River Knows””The Hitch””Dr. Noir””Bianca’s Dream””Screen Junkie”
* = not featured on LP version.
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