A new standard for instrumental rock. 17 albums in 35 years is an impressive feat. Even more impressive, however, is that Joe Satriani has always kept his quality high over time. he has received 15 Grammy nominations, but has yet to win one. Nevertheless, the musician is one of the best guitarists in instrumental rock today. This is also confirmed by his new, 18th studio album "The Elephants Of Mars", which also marks the beginning of his collaboration with the earMUSIC label. The album was made, how could it be otherwise, during the Corona pandemic and an accompanying break from concerts. Satriani and his live band wrote and recorded the 14 tracks in various locations around the world. But despite those constraints, or perhaps because of them, they wanted to do something more ambitious, using their time to create a wide-ranging set of songs that revealed a variety of influences. "We did everything. We tried the craziest ideas. And we tried every idea we had to turn something on its head and see what could happen," Satriani writes on his website. "Sahara," the first single from The Elephants Of Mars, is the best example of that. In the wake of the new record, the guitarist says he challenged himself to create a "new standard" for instrumental guitar albums. He wanted to move away from what he describes as the "classic rock" of the last few albums he's released. "I want to show people that an instrumental guitar album can have far more creative and fun elements than I think people are using right now," Satriani says. Whether he succeeded with "The Elephants Of Mars", you can find out from April 8, 2022. The album comes as a CD in jewelcase and digipak, as a classic black LP and, matching the color scheme of the cover, also as orange vinyl or purple vinyl