Mark Knopfler, Regina Spektor and Imogen Heap Guest on New Thomas Dolby Album

The album, featuring appearances by special guest artists Mark Knopfler, Regina Spektor, Natalie MacMaster, Bruce Woolley and Imogen Heap, will be available on October 25, 2011 on Lost Toy People Records as a regular and hi-res download, as a physical CD, and in a special Deluxe Edition featuring a second disc of instrumentals and bonus tracks.

Of the album, which is divided into three parts, Dolby says, �The new songs are organic and very personal. A Map of the Floating City is a travelogue across three imaginary continents: In Amerikana I�m reflecting with affection on the years I spent living in the U.S.A., and my fascination with its roots music. Urbanoia is a dark place, a little unsettling . . . I�m not a city person. And in Oceanea I return to my natural home on the windswept coastline.�

�I marvel at the new landscape of the music business � distribution via the Internet and recording technologies I barely dreamed of when I started out,� he continues. �But this album does not sound electronic at all. I have zero desire to add to the myriad of machine-based, synth-driven grooves out there. The Net has made a music career approachable for thousands of bands � but I hear too few single-minded voices among them, so I�m returning to what I do best, which is write songs, tell stories.�

To help tell his stories, Dolby has enlisted an impressive cast of guest musicians. Legendary guitarist Mark Knopfler helps drive the epic �17 Hills,� a song about a pair of hapless lovers and a jailbreak. Natalie MacMaster, the Cape Breton fiddler, adds spice to two songs. Scottish singer Eddi Reader takes a front seat on the ethereal �Oceanea.� Bruce Woolley (Camera Club) plays theremin. And Regina Spektor has a cameo as an East European waitress on �Evil Twin Brother.�