Tales Of Mystery returns for its fiftieth year

Due 11 December from Cooking Vinyl, the 1976 debut will be issued across a numbered 3LP bookpack, 3CD, picture disc and Blu-ray, with Abbey Road mastering and a signed Alan Parsons print for the earliest vinyl buyers.

The Alan Parsons Project will release 50th anniversary reissues of its 1976 debut album Tales Of Mystery And Imagination Edgar Allan Poe.

The campaign spans several formats. A deluxe audiophile 3LP bookpack is pressed on 180g heavyweight black vinyl, limited to 1,976 copies. Cooking Vinyl is issuing a 3CD bookpack, a limited-edition picture disc LP and a Blu-ray.

The 3LP and 3CD bookpacks share the same core programme. Each set presents the original 1976 album, the 1987 Remix Album, and a Work in Progress album built from early rough mixes, demos and alternative takes. Both packages include a deluxe book containing the full lyrics, bonus track commentary and interviews.

The Blu-ray offers a surround presentation of the same material. It includes a new 2026 Dolby Atmos mix and the 2016 5.1 surround sound mix by Alan Parsons, together with HD remasters. Miles Showell mastered every edition at Abbey Road Studios.

Half a century after the debut appeared, the releases bring the 1976 sequence back into print alongside the later remix, the unfinished studio stages and the new surround work. The numbered vinyl run and the picture disc sit at the limited end of the range; the 3CD bookpack and Blu-ray keep the same archive available on other formats.