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Sunn O))) - Announce New Album Details


A few months ago we announced that the drone titans in Sunn O))) are working on a new album. Today the band is peeling back the curtain significantly, and unveiling many new details about their upcoming work.

Sunn O)))'s sixth full length album (or seventh, for you fans who like to count The Grimrobe Demos) will be titled Kannon, and is scheduled for a December 4th release via Southern Lord Records. The label elaborates in great detail:

"Composed in the aftershadow of Sunn O)))'s most recent successes in immersive collaborations, and also from the broad and influential wake of their epitomic Monoliths & Dimensions, Kannon emerged both independently as a conceptual entity, and with roots in the legacies of those projects, yet was fully realized years later, in 2015. The album consists of three pieces of a triadic whole: Kannon 1, 2 and 3.

"The album celebrates many Sunn O))) traditions. Kannon was recorded and mixed with Sunn O)))'s close colleague and co-producer Randall Dunn in Seattle, in Studio Litho, Aleph and Avast!, and the LP includes performances by long time allies and collaborators Attila Csihar, Oren Ambarchi, Rex Ritter, and Steve Moore, to name a few. At the core, the composition centers around the dynamic and intense guitar and bass interplay of Sunn O)))'s founders: Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson.

"It is possibly the most figurative album Sunn O))) has created, which is unusual as they usually dwell in layers of abstraction and subjectivity. On the other hand the album is the most outright ametala? in years, drawing personal associations and memories of cherished albums like Panzerfaust and Twilight Of The Gods again to the forefront of consciousness. Kannon is also very close to the cyclical character of mantra which the band has evolved into as a living creature, the enormity of intense sensate detail and manifestation of the live in concert element of Sunn O))), the organism that has flourished, metamorphosed and transcended tremendously over the past ten years.

"The literal representation of Kannon is as an aspect of Buddha: specifically a goddess of mercy? or perceiving the sounds (or cries) of the world?. She is also sometimes commonly known as the Guanyin Bodhisattva, amongst a plurality of other forms. There is a rich lineage behind this idea tracing back through many Asian belief systems, with many names and cultural personifications of the idea. Sunn O))) commissioned critical theorist Aliza Shvartz to write text/liner notes around these ideas and topics. She also explores the relations and perceptions of the band's approach to these ideas via the metonym of music and Sunn O)))'s place/approach within the framework of music and metal overall.

"Sunn O))) also commissioned Swiss designer/artist Angela LaFont Bollinger to create the cover artwork, an abstracted sculpture of Kannon. French photographer Estelle Hanania captures portraits of the core trio (Csihar, Anderson, O'Malley) in the impressive and obscurant Emanuel Vingeland mausoleum in Oslo."

Kannon will be available on gatefold LP, CD and digital formats worldwide on December 4th, with a limited number of clear vinyl available on Black Friday RSD, Friday 27 November.

After multiple collaborations and six years after Monoliths & Dimensions, what are your expectations for this new album?

Source: facebook.com
Band profile: Sunn O)))
Posted: 30.09.2015 by Apothecary


Comments

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Comments: 9   [ 2 ignored ]   Visited by: 122 users
30.09.2015 - 17:32
Auntie Sahar
Drone Empress
See, this is the kind of band announcement about new material that I like... don't overhype it, don't call it your best release ever... just tell us about the overall theme you're working with and how you think it relates to the rest of your discography.

Anyway, I'm very excited for this. Especially if Attila and Ambarchi are involved in it. I'm very curious to see what the transition from Monoliths & Dimensions will be like though... that album was extremely expansive with its sound, so it'll be cool to see if the band stuck to that, or went back to a simpler approach. The Buddha theme is extremely interesting, I know O'Malley especially is into that kind of stuff and I'm sure it'll translate wonderfully into the music. Can't wait to see that artwork either, which I'm sure will be the next reveal about this piece of work.

HIGH anticipation!
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I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go.

~ II. VII
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30.09.2015 - 20:58
3rdWorld
China was a neat
I hope I enjoy it as much as my favourite (and the only full spun album apart from Terrestrials) Sunn O))) record, Soused.

Apart from that, I really like how detailed these guys promote their album.
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30.09.2015 - 22:13
Auntie Sahar
Drone Empress
Written by 3rdWorld on 30.09.2015 at 20:58

I hope I enjoy it as much as my favourite (and the only full spun album apart from Terrestrials) Sunn O))) record, Soused.

Yes, I remember you kind of being in the minority here of people who actually liked that one
It's not terrible, but was just very disappointing to me. I think part of the reason it felt very unlike a collab, and more like "Scott Walker feat. Sunn O)))" was because Walker actually wrote a lot of that music years before actually doing the collab, so they didn't work on composing it together in the traditional way of collaboration.

You say the only other Sunn O))) album you've spun though is Terrestrials. I'd highly suggest you look into Altar (the collab with Boris). It's pretty highly regarded, and some even suggest it's the best material from either band's discography.
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I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go.

~ II. VII
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30.09.2015 - 22:31
Jaeryd
Nihil's Maw
I am vibrating with excitement!
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30.09.2015 - 23:36
3rdWorld
China was a neat
Written by Auntie Sahar on 30.09.2015 at 22:13

Yes, I remember you kind of being in the minority here of people who actually liked that one
It's not terrible, but was just very disappointing to me. I think part of the reason it felt very unlike a collab, and more like "Scott Walker feat. Sunn O)))" was because Walker actually wrote a lot of that music years before actually doing the collab, so they didn't work on composing it together in the traditional way of collaboration.

You say the only other Sunn O))) album you've spun though is Terrestrials. I'd highly suggest you look into Altar (the collab with Boris). It's pretty highly regarded, and some even suggest it's the best material from either band's discography.

Haha, I just said that to trigger a response. But seriously though I didn't really hate it as much as the general Sunn O))) audience here did. I enjoyed Sunn's electronic parts in that record but I could see where everyone was coming from, that Walker didn't mix in the sound much and that he stuck out like a sore thumb. I could see it but it didn't really spoil me from having fun from it.

Thanks for the rec and I do remember your SOMA list as well. Will get on it soon enough.
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30.09.2015 - 23:48
Auntie Sahar
Drone Empress
Written by Alakazam on 30.09.2015 at 23:28

Rather amusingly, I find it to be one of their most simplistic and accessible work. In similar vein to that of The Grimrobe Demos.

Nah dude... they used over 30 guest musicians on that thing, for everything from bass clarinet to fucking conch shell
Definitely not simplistic
----
I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go.

~ II. VII
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01.10.2015 - 02:33
Auntie Sahar
Drone Empress
Written by Alakazam on 01.10.2015 at 02:30

I don't even remember hearing 30+ people on there . But structurally it sorta captured bits and pieces from everything they did before and then simplified into a more straight-forwardly accessible jaunt. I found it honestly fulfilled after only a fewer amount of listens (compared to the Boris compilation, the or White/ Black albums) for it to be recognized across throughout.

It's very interesting how peoples' interpretations differ... that's part of the beauty of music I guess!
You're right, it definitely captures pieces of everything they had done up to that point, especially the collab with Boris, because I feel like they took the use of horns that they used there and developed it even farther. But I still think the sound got expanded considerably with it. It could possibly even be their most experimental album to date
----
I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go.

~ II. VII
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01.10.2015 - 02:51
Opethian

BRING IT!
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01.10.2015 - 07:20
Desert Father

Yay!
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"Truly, my child, if I were allowed to see my sins, three or four men would not be enough to weep
for them." - Abba Dioscorus
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