Will be released November 21, 2025.

This year, Rheostatics celebrate their 45th anniversary with The Great Lakes Suite, a groundbreaking new album featuring eighteen tracks of (mostly) improvised arrangements and poignant spoken-word pieces. Longstanding members Dave Bidini, Dave Clark, Don Kerr, and Tim Vesely are joined by recent members Kevin Hearn and Hugh Marsh, with the music deeply enhanced by the presence of legendary guitarist Alex Lifeson, one of the band’s musical heroes.

Recorded over two spontaneous sessions in Toronto, the album features an impressive roster of talented and award-winning collaborators: Inuk throat singer, songwriter, and novelist Tanya Tagaq; musician and filmmaker Laurie Anderson; poet and storyteller Chief Stacey LaForme; poet and essayist Anne Carson; and poet Liz Howard. Together, they help the group sonically mirror the power, history, and mystery of the five Great Lakes, in the spirit of Rheostatics’ landmark 1995 release Music Inspired by the Group of Seven.

This is a limited edition blue-smoke coloured double LP (gatefold with insert).