[Cover photo credit to Horst Stasny]
Internationally award-winning Canadian singer/songwriter Loreena McKennitt has announced the physical release of The Mask and Mirror Definitive Edition on October 9, 2026, celebrating the original 1994 edition by sharing previously unreleased material. Alongside the announcement, McKennitt also shared a new visualizer for “The Mystic’s Dream”.
The new deluxe limited edition, available for pre-order now, invites listeners to delve more deeply into this seminal work, which came at a major turning point in McKennitt’s multi-platinum career. The launch is being celebrated with a two-continent tour, one in Canada this Fall and in Europe the Spring of 2027.
The Mask and Mirror was McKennitt’s fifth studio album, highly regarded for its mix of Spanish, Celtic and Moroccan influences, and a unique musical palette of instruments, which includes cello, uilleann pipes, doumbek, tabla and oud.
The Mask and Mirror Definitive Edition is a four-disc set, mastered by three-time Juno Award-winner Jeff Wolpert of Desert Fish in Toronto. The set includes two CDs, a DVD and an audio Blu-ray, all housed in a deluxe hard-back book. It contains a 32-page booklet featuring the album’s original artwork, sleeve notes and memorabilia from 1994 and 1995, including photographs, interviews, a dress rehearsal and audio performances, much of it previously unpublished.
It also features a four-part personal essay narrated by McKennitt, where she reflects on the travels that inspired the songs, the album’s unique recording circumstances, the international tour that followed, and what it all means to her now. The package was designed by Grammy Award-winner Jeri Heiden, of SMOG Design, Inc., Los Angeles.
The new release is the second installment in an on-going series of definitive editions celebrating the highlights of McKennitt’s recording career to date. The Visit Definitive Edition was released in 2021.
McKennitt acknowledges the personal relevance of The Mask and Mirror in her career:
By curating and sharing this new edition with collectors and enthusiasts to celebrate the 30th anniversary of our original release, I am inviting the faithful, the curious, and hopefully a new generation of listeners to accompany me into the music and the stories behind the songs in a quest to find the lessons, the commonalities and universal experiences we all share.
