AceShowbiz - Rufus Wainwright is planning to close out the year by performing all of his albums side-by-side as part of a new virtual concert initiative.

"The Rufus-Retro-Wainwright-Spective" will launch on 9 October (20) with the singer/songwriter performing side one of his self-titled debut album in its entirety. A week later, he'll play side two and a week after that he'll move on to the first side of his "Poses" release.

"Special times need special artistic ideas," he says. "They also need leadership and unity but we are far from that here in the U.S.. So we as musicians, can give the world our voice, to offer reflection and vision at the same time."

"I cannot tour my new album, Unfollow the Rules, which is why I have had ample time to reflect. I consider Unfollow the Rules a bookend to my first album - both were recorded and produced in Los Angeles, in a lot of the same studios and with a lot of the same session musicians. I consider Unfollow the Rules my first album of maturity as a songwriter, following in the footsteps of the greats a lot of them have left us already or will very soon."

"So, it's time to look back to look forward. I'm excited for fans to join me on my trip into the past and on this virtual world tour of my entire studio album catalogue."

Wainwright will play a side from his first four albums every week for the eight weeks leading to the end of November (20), and then announce a new schedule for December.

He recently debuted his new album by staging a virtual listening party for fans, during which he performed the tracks from "Unfollow the Rules".