SunnO))) and Ulver Collaborate on New Release
I guess what I find so interesting about this latest collaboration from SunnO))), which partners the American masters of drone with Norway’s post-black metal progenitors Ulver, is that I have no idea what it might sound like. Drones? Big riffs and moody vocals? Acoustic folk ballads? It’s wide open for different avenues of exploration on the part of both acts, which is likely why they decided to team up for the album, which will be called Terrestrials, in the first place.
Also interesting in that although SunnO))) have put out live records and even another collaboration with Nurse with Wound, it’s been more than four years at this point since their expansive 2009 outing, Monoliths and Dimensions (review here), was released. That album was hardly just Greg Anderson and Stephen O’Malley, but still, they’re about due for a SunnO))) proper outing, so one wonders if maybe Terrestrials isn’t the only SunnO)))-related project in the works.
The PR wire’s mum on that but has plenty to say otherwise:
SUNN O))) & ULVER: Collaborative Work Entitled Terrestrials Due For February 2014 Release Via Southern Lord
SUNN O)))’s most recent studio album, 2009’s Monoliths and Dimensions, and ULVER’s 2013 album, Messe I.X-VI.X,found both evolving and longstanding groups venturing into the world of acoustic arrangement and contemporary orchestration. Besides arriving at this seeming parallel in vision, the pair’s long standing camaraderie was initiated during SUNN O)))’s 2003’s White1 sessions with the track “CutWOODED” which was produced by ULVER, in tribute to deceased film director Ed Wood.
ULVER’s decision to emerge from the shadows into live performance, in 2009, unveiled a new facet of showmanship and presentation which took their audiences to an unforeseen level. SUNN O)))’s presence has continuously been felt — whether in the prospect of their hundreds of legendary live concerts, the reissue of out-of-print albums in devotion to their loyal fanbase, or the recent unveiling of their new website — and the anticipation of something new was heightened beyond belief recently when the label posted online the words, “SUNN O))) & ULVER 2014”.
Yes. At long last they have come together for a more developed collaborative work.
Today, it comes with great pleasure to confirm that these words, SUNN O))) and ULVER, together, represent an astonishing yet somehow totally tenable matrimony of these two earthshakingly powerful forces, coming together like tectonic plates. The result of this union is a three-track recording entitled Terrestrials; a trio of movements which flow like magma beneath the Earth’s crust, sonically uninhibited, unpredictably cosmic, haunting and stirring, yet simultaneously ceremonious and beautiful.
Southern Lord shall release Terrestrials in February 2014. Over the course of the next month we shall be revealing the story of how this alliance and recording came to be, revealing the insight of the musicians involved, attempting to answer some of the burning questions which we have, for now, left hanging in the air.
http://sunn.southernlord.com
http://www.jester-records.com/ulver
http://www.southernlord.com
http://www.ideologic.org
