The most common question I get when people write to me is, "Where can I get the old Vital Information recordings?” Unfortunately, the answer is, “Your used record shop.”

The first four Vital Information records were on Columbia, and are currently out of print. Columbia has no plans to re-release them. Those albums were Vital Information, Orion (only released on records and cassette tapes), Global Beat, and Fiafiaga (released on records, cassettes, and CD.)

We then recorded Vitalive!, which Manhattan (Blue Note) released in the U.S. and that, too, is currently out of print. I licensed the master to Intuition (Vera Bra) Records for European release, and it is still available there. You can get your hands on it through Audiophile Imports at (908) 996-7311.

(Audiophile, in fact has all of the Tone Center and Intuition releases as well.)

The next recording we did was Easier Done than Said on Manhattan (Blue Note) and -- you guessed it -- this album is also out of print!

So that brings us to Ray of Hope and Where We Come From, which we have out on Intuition. Those releases are still available.

Recently, I was involved in a DTS 5.1 re-mix of Global Beat, which is scheduled to be released in 1999! DTS 5.1 is a home-theatre Surround system format (which is not stereo compatible). If you’ve got the DTS decoder and 5.1 speakers (the .1 being the sub-woofer), then get ready for an awesome re-mix! Kevin Elson, who had originally recorded and mixed Global Beat, was there for the re-mix into DTS, and he did an awesome job! (Kevin mixed the live sound and was co-producer for our Journey albums.)

There you have the answers to all those questions regarding the ‘old’ Vital
recordings. Hopefully someday they’ll all be re-released!

-- Steve