Former Nightwish singer Tarja Turunen will release her new album, "Colours In The Dark", on August 23 via earMUSIC, the Hamburg, Germany-based international rock label which is part of Edel Group.

Despite her light and shiny personality, Tarja's music has always been dressed "in black" — the color of heavy rock, of mystery and elegance.

With Tarja's new album, fans will find out what happens when a splice of color is added to the mix. Or — better said — when the full-color spectrum enters the picture it does not cover the black but makes it shine through with many emotions and landscapes.

Following up on the success of the multi-platinum and gold-awarded previous records "My Winterstorm" (2007) and "What Lies Beneath" (2010), Tarja finally returns with her long-awaited new rock album.

Mixed and mastered by Tim Palmer (Pearl Jam, U2) in Austin, Texas, the songs on "Colours In The Dark" do not shy away from taking a risk and surprising musical turns, introducing new sounds and new musical atmospheres. Still, they maintain a heaviness that will surely bring a big smile to the hardest of rockers. With its grand orchestra and choir arrangements, Tarja's next milestone emphasizes once again the impressive vocal range of the Finnish artist and shows her artistic growth. With ten brand new songs and over one hour of music, "Colours In The Dark" is definitely going to be one of the brightest moments for rock in 2013.

"Colours In The Dark" will feature cover artwork by Dirk Rudolph and will contain the following songs, among others: "Lucid Dreamer", "Neverlight", "500 Letters" and "Never Enough".

A lyric video for the song "Never Enough" was recently filmed in Zlin, Czech Republic and will make its online debut soon. Tarja says: "I didn't want to make a traditional, boring lyric video for the song, so I am going to appear on the video not just the lyrics of the song…. This video is not what we can call the official first music video from my new album, but just an improved version of a lyric video. The filming took only couple hours with Martin, who worked also on directing my first solo live rock Dvd, 'Act I'."

In a recent interview with the Music Legends web site, Turunen stated about her upcoming Cd: "I have just recently found my style and sound so I would like to establish it with the third studio album. The elements on the album will remain the same as in my previous albums, also the versatile style of songs. I like to keep the big dynamic changes between my songs, so that album songs feel radically different from each other.

"I am not stressed at all this time, even though I am producing the album on my own again. I have been lucky to gather around a group of musicians who are willing to work with me, so everything is going smoothly."

Tarja and her husband/manager Marcelo Cabuli recently became the parents of their first child.

"Act I" was released in North America on September 4, 2012 in 2-Cd, 2-Dvd and Blu-ray format via the Eagle Rock imprint Armoury Records, in conjunction with earMUSIC.

Tarja's sophomore solo album, "What Lies Beneath", sold around 1,300 copies in the United States in its first week of release. The Cd landed at position No. 24 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top 100 of The Billboard 200.