''Yoko Ono Creates a 'Blueprint For A Sunrise'.'' First New Album in 5 Years To Be Released on October 9.

Entertainment Editors

NEW YORK--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--Sept. 10, 2001

Yoko Ono releases a new album "Blueprint For A Sunrise" on Capitol Records on October 9.

The album comes five years after the release of her highly acclaimed studio album "Rising," which led Ono admirers like the Beastie Boys, Tricky and Thurston Moore to remix tracks, subsequently issued as a separate album--"Rising Mixes."

Over the years, this once vilified artist has been embraced by a new generation of admirers and supporters, and has continued to carve her idiosyncratic path through our culture, influencing many, including a new generation of musicians, many of whom have gone on record, proclaiming her inspiration.

Refusing to be constrained by society's expectations, both in her groundbreaking art and music, Ono continues to push the boundaries with this new record, creating an incredibly rich and powerful soundscape.

The genesis of "Blueprint For A Sunrise" lies in three tracks that Ono recorded for inclusion in the extensive book that accompanied her major retrospective exhibition. That show opened at the Japan Society in New York last year and is currently touring the world. On this new CD, she creates a seamless music collage of eleven songs; some live, some studio-recorded performances, which as a body of work give an impression of flying through life's experiences with Ono.

"Blueprint For A Sunrise" is an emotional diary of life, expressing intense pain, anger, fear and some sweet and playful reminiscence. The CD opens with a powerful trilogy, which, in many ways, encapsulates the mood of the rest of the work, expressing hurt, confusion, bemusement, loss and anger, largely at society's treatment of women. All together, expressing the power of survival of a woman, ending with an awareness of meeting the sunrise.

Yoko Ono, a fervent supporter of women's rights, expresses the sentiment of the album in an essay that accompanies it, some of which is quoted here:

"I recently did an art show--HERSTORY--in Berlin. A young woman journalist started an interview by saying that she thought it was interesting that I would bring back such an old theme in 2001. 'Feminism is an old issue now, isn't it? Women do not have to wave flags anymore. That was the sixties.' But I know women who are intelligent, powerful members of their communities who still live in fear because of the position they are put in as women in our society. To some extent, all of us women are living in fear, quietly exercising a caution known only to us, all the time pretending to be sprightly and strong."

"As for me, I wish you would read about the last Chinese Empress, who became the first 'Dragon Lady,' a name specially coined for her by the British press which was fueling Britain's then colonialism. She died disgraced and broken-hearted. Every day I tell myself I'll survive. Yeah, I will. Art is a way of survival. With this album I present to you my metronome, my menu, my blueprint for a sunrise."

Musicians on the album include Yoko's son, Sean Lennon, who creates an incredible and superb interplay with Yoko.

The album was produced by Yoko Ono and Rob Stevens.

For more information, please call Michele Cucci at 212-253-3190 or to send an email, please address to [e-mail] .