Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment, has released JOE SATRIANI: The Complete Studio Recordings, a 15 CD library box housing the rock guitar virtuoso's most comprehensive anthology ever. Joe Satriani: The Complete Studio Recordings is also be available as a collectible limited edition USB drive exclusively on Satriani.com.

Following is an excerpt from an interview with Satriani discussing the box set with Mike Ragogna:

MR: Let's start by talking about your complete studio recordings. It has fourteen albums plus a bonus disc of the stray tracks.

JS: "It was everything that you would expect, it was both cathartic and exciting and frustrating at times, but mostly illuminating, especially on the artistic side to have to go back and really pull these original recordings out of the vault to re-archive them. I kind of rediscovered them because of the way that we were able to remaster them, it sort of brought them to life in a way that I thought was impossible. The whole thing, in the end, turned out to be a wonderful experience."

MR: After working on these sonic upgrades, does it feel like you finally got everything out the way you always wanted people to hear it?

JS: "Yeah, absolutely! Each era that we released records in had some parameters that were frustrating. We had a time problem with Flying In A Blue Dream, which was a very long record with eighteen songs, the way that we got around distortion on the LPs was to use this thing called Direct Metal Mastering where you're mastering right to copper, skipping the etching and vinyl process until you're actually starting to stamp out the vinyl pieces for the public. That was one extra step that we took to try to rescue all of that sonic brilliance that's on the two-inch tapes and half-inch masters. But we were releasing records when there were cassettes, LPs, minidiscs, the first generation, very harsh-sounding CDs and then I'm sure you've covered it before in your articles the way that records have been mastered has changed so drastically. When Surfing With The Alien came out, I think it's got something like a 24dB dynamic range. That's unheard of. No one would do that today. Today's pop records come out and they have maybe one decibel of dynamic range. This is like what it sounds like on a video game, where there is no dynamic range, because the music has to sit there with sound effects and people talking over it. But that does not create a good music listening environment, when you have less dynamic range.

Over the years society's anxiety about wanting music to be louder and punchier and more aggressive and more competitive on radio or television would lead to some questionable mastering in retrospect, so we were able to look back and say, 'This is not a collection of number one pop hits, this is a collection of audiophile-created music for people who want to listen to it over the long haul, hours of listening, and we want people to be able to go from record one to record seven, record three to record eleven.' The only way to do that was to let them breathe and sound how they were originally intended, as you said, the way we heard it in the studio."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

(Note that a separate and completely unrelated interview with SEBASTIAN BACH follows on the same page).

Grammy.com has a first listen to the remastered techno mix of the ballad 'Until We Say Goodbye'. The original version of the track was featured on 2000's Engines Of Creation. Listen to the track and read an interview with Satriani at this location.

One of the most influential and respected instrumental rock guitarists to emerge in the past three decades, Joe Satriani is that rare "musician's musician" who's crossed over into the mainstream with music sublime and complex, appealing to a wide variety of tastes. A true master of the six-string, Satriani worked as a guitar teacher in his early career, with a number of his students - among them STEVE VAI, Kirk Hammett (METALLICA), LARRY LALONDE, David Bryson (COUNTING CROWS), CHARLIE HUNTER and more - achieving their own considerable successes.

While in considerable demand as a sideman throughout his career - he's toured with MICK JAGGER, DEEP PURPLE and many others - Satriani has pursued his own musical vision over the years through a series of instrumental rock albums (many of them Grammy nominated) which chronicle his evolution as an artist and his eloquence as a guitarist.

All 14 of Joe Satriani's landmark studio albums, from Not Of This Earth (his 1986 debut) through Unstoppable Momentum (2013's masterpiece), are included in the new collection alongside Added Creations And Bonus Tracks, a newly-curated anthology disc of rare compositions and performances falling outside the purview of Satriani's official album canon, and Surfing With The Alien, 1987's platinum-selling breakout.

"When the good people at Legacy approached me with the idea of a comprehensive box set featuring my studio recordings in their entirety, plus bonus tracks, all re-mastered, I answered with a resounding, 'YES!,'" said Joe Satriani. "The only person who could pull this all together logistically and sonically was mastering engineer John Cuniberti. John and I have recorded quite a bit of music together going way back to the early '80's. I've made more records with John engineering and co-producing than anyone else, so, who better to help me put this box set together the right way? His attention to detail has made this project exciting, illuminating and ultimately awesome sounding."

Joe Satriani: The Complete Studio Recordings presents brand-new digital masters, overseen by Joe Satriani, with each CD packaged in a replica cardboard jacket. The library collection is housed in a specially designed clamshell box with a booklet filled with photos and memorabilia from across the decades.

Joe Satriani: The Complete Studio Recordings is the ideal audio accompaniment to Strange Beautiful Music: A Musical Memoir, Satriani's autobiography, also coming in April. Satriani is extending his decades-long relationship with Sony Music, signing a new multi-album deal with Legacy for future recordings.

Joe Satriani: The Complete Studio Recordings includes:

1986 - Not Of This Earth
1987 - Surfing With The Alien
1989 - Flying In A Blue Dream
1992 - The Extremist
1993 - Time Machine
1995 - Joe Satriani
1998 - Crystal Planet
2000 - Engines Of Creation
2002 - Strange Beautiful Music
2004 - Is There Love In Space?
2006 - Super Colossal
2008 - Professor Satchafunkilus And The Musterion Of Rock
2010 - Black Swans And Wormhole Wizards
2013 - Unstoppable Momentum
2014 - Additional Creations And Bonus Tracks