"Progressive rock is not background music. It reveals itself over time, and with each listen you can find a new detail, motif, or connection. Shakespeare's sonnets work the same way — humanity has been reading these immortal lines for more than four hundred years, yet their layers, subtexts, and contradictions can always be rediscovered," said Pantokraator founding member and album producer Erik Sakkov.

"Love, desire, aging, loyalty, betrayal, beauty, reputation, death, and the human need for another person are the themes running through Shakespeare's texts. They are just as relevant today as in his lifetime and connect beautifully with rock music."

Shakespeare is not a new discovery for Pantokraator. The band's first attempts to combine famous sonnets with rock music began in 1984, when they were introduced to the texts through Harald Rajamets's Estonian translations, and sonnets were even read aloud at a concert. Sonnets 127 and 129 were set to music in 1989. Decades later, Pantokraator returned to the material, and the old idea grew into a complete album.

Sakkov said "William Shakespeare's Sonnets" is a rare album in the global music landscape, because Shakespeare's sonnets have been combined with rock music surprisingly little, and full rock albums built on sonnets are almost nonexistent. "Pantokraator plans to release the album in its original language in 2028, targeting progressive rock listeners in England first and later in the Netherlands, Italy, Japan, and Poland," Sakkov said.

"William Shakespeare's Sonnets" is the second part of Pantokraator's album trilogy. The trilogy began with the 2025 album "Déjà vu." It will conclude in fall 2027 with the album "Eesti," which brings Pantokraator back to poetry describing Estonia.

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