a-ha Announce New "True North" Film & Accompanying Album - Autumn 2022

Always excited to have new a-ha material forthcoming...

True North: New a-ha Film and Album out in Autumn 2022

'True North' is a filmed live-performance for future streaming release with new music from a-ha.

Set in the awesome landscape of Northern Norway and recorded in the town of Bodø up above the Arctic Circle, the music from the film will be made available as a new album from the group for the first time since 'Cast in Steel’ (2015).

"We chose this location as a way to showcase some of Norway’s most spectacular nature - where majestic mountains meet the raging sea - far up north, but right at the centre of the dramatic effects of climate-change."

"We want this film to be a poetic homage to the importance that nature holds in Norwegian culture, and in particular the ocean, which has provided us with a privileged life up here, from the early fishing boom to the troublesome riches extracted from the seabed in the form of oil," says Magne.

Well aware of the dualistic aspect of such practices in light of today’s climate crisis, a-ha has been interested and involved in various initiatives in this regard both individually, and as a band, over the years.

"As artists born here, nature plays a big part as backdrop to and inspiration for their creativity, and by choosing this location, they aim to also be part of the discussion for a model of sustainability for coming generations", a representative for the band says.

"Our aim is to try and create a thing of beauty and foster hope for the future in bleak times. As Norwegians, we are acutely aware that our own welfare has made our hands black from oil. Facing these challenges going forward is a global affair, but also something that we in particular will have to find ways to contribute to."

The Film is made in collaboration with Bodø 2024 and the The Arctic Symphony Orchestra.

TRUE NORTH - film and album scheduled for release autumn 2022.

 

Promo pic they're using for the announcement:

 

Wow! Just saw this announcement. Some initial questions that we might (or not) get answers to soon:

- Why such an early announcement? To give space for "a-ha - The Movie"?

-It says first since "Cast In Steel", not first since Unplugged, so this is all new material?

- New album, recorded live in a studio and filmed, or a studio album with an additional filmed live performance (perhaps with new and old material)?

 

First ABBA
Now A-HA...

Scandinavian pop at its finest.

Great news !!!!!!!

 

And also very curious about the creative part behind it. The usual individualistic approach or fleshing out things together?

 

Details are a bit murky, alright. I was wondering if the long delay was because they don't have streaming agreements in place yet - at least not in all territories - and they want to build interest leading to exclusive deals with some of the streaming platforms.

I'm also curious about the music - based on the write-up, I honestly wasn't even sure at first if it was truly an a-ha album or not! It sounded more like a nouveau-classical kind of thing à la Max Richter or Ólafur Arnalds. But I've come around to it definitely being an a-ha album, albeit one that may have some really interesting influences and diversions. An exciting new direction may be just what they needed to get past their usual tensions and issues when making an album.

Regardless, they certainly have me intrigued. But damn that's a long wait.

 

Ok... So here I found a newspaper article based on a interview with Magne.

Ny musikk fra a-ha - første på syv år

Some additional details:
- 12 brand new songs all featuring Arktisk Filharmoni
- Performance to be filmed in November
- Only new material set to a cinematic backdrop focusing on nature
- Furuholmen wishes to perform parts of the new songs on the delayed world tour
- From his perspective: The songs emerged naturally without time pressure

What I read out from this is that this time around Magne is really on board. This is also a collaboration with Bodø as a European cultural capital in 2024 (the type of thing he likes to be involved in). So what about the two other guys? Paul casually providing stuff he have been laying around or really emotionally involved in the project itself? Haven't seen a word from him or Morten yet.

 

Excellent sleuthing! So they haven't even shot it yet - no wonder there's such a delay!

Glad to see Magne so engaged this time around - the whole concept seems very geared toward his interests, so let's hope that the other two are just as excited by the material as he is.

 

A”filmed-live performance”? So like a concert but with new music rather than the hits?

Whatever it is, it sounds exciting!

 

As I understand it, the album should be a proper studio album, to be recorded in November, and there will also be a streamed live-performance (band + orchestra), leading up to the film. But I guess we'll have more info soon.

 

That's what I assume from the article here: a-ha spiller inn album med Arktisk Filharmoni | Arktisk Filharmoni

"For første gang siden Cast in Steel i 2015, skaper Norges mest suksessrike popgruppe ny musikk. I tillegg til albumet som skal spilles inn, vil det også bli laget en musikkfilm med band og Arktisk Filharmoni på scenen, og a-ha gjennomfører produksjonen i Bodø.

Prosjektet heter TRUE NORTH, og bandet ønsker altså å gjennomføre sin første studioinnspilling med ny musikk siden 2015 i Nord-Norge.

Bodø2024, Arktisk Filharmoni og Svømmehallen Scene har inngått et samarbeid som sikrer at a-ha møter et apparat av musikere og teknikere på toppnivå. Og Svømmehallen får en skikkelig ilddåp som produksjonssted når huset transformeres til et filmsett i starten av november."

=> For the first time since Cast in Steel in 2015, the most popular popband in Norway creates new music. On top of the album which will be recorded, there will also be a music film with the band and Arktisk Filharmoni onstage, which will be produced in Bodø.

The project is called TRUE NORTH, and the band thus wishes to make its first studio album with new music since 2015 in the North of Norway.

Bodø2024, Arktisk Filharmoni and Svømmehallen Scene have started a collaboration which allows a-ha to meet an apparatus of top-level musicians and technicians. And Svømmehallenwill will be on fire as production place when the house is turned into a film-set early november.

 

This is exciting news. Agree with those who suggest that this likely to have been Magne-prompted.

I suspect we'll hear Morten singing this demo that Magne put up on Instagram in February -

Bluest of Blue - Login • Instagram

There are a few more of those Magne demos that you could imagine suiting this album/project.

I'm hopeful that we'll see more collaboration on this one - at the end of the day, this is pretty much a concept album, there are no real questions about what sort of record it should be ie. guitar based/synth based etc. There's a common goal - it should be more focussed - I think we've a chance of hearing a great a-ha album come of this.

 

More info here from the Bodø and Arctic Philharmonic side of things - a-ha spiller inn album med Arktisk Filharmoni | Arktisk Filharmoni

 

@myker linked this above. It seems to be 3 things: an album, a live performance and a movie. The movie might consist of the two other elements perhaps?

 

Something else to look forward to in fall 2022 (already have tix to the twice postponed PSB/New Order tour)!

 

Possibly the movie, but also to give time to get the HHAL tour completed as much as anything else I'd imagine. There are dates to the end of May 2022 and festival dates in June as it stands and they seem to be adding the odd festival date here and there.

It'd be quite confusing messaging to be selling HHAL tickets and promoting a new record at the same time, or in close proximity, I expect.

 

This all sounds more and more promising. An engaged band; a new, conceptual direction that might help them work as a whole entity rather than all going off, doing their own stuff and then trying to compile a consistent album; a new medium and new musical influences; and an altruistic, nature- and future-oriented impetus. I'm excited! And annoyed by the delay!

My rescheduled HHAL concerts aren't until April - a year and eight months since they were originally supposed to take place. I hope that we might end up with a bonus preview of some of the new material, though - that would make the delay more than worthwhile.

 

Wish it was sooner, but just glad they're still interested in making new music. Wasn't that impressed with Cast In Steel but they'll always be a band where I'll give their new material a fair shot. Maybe the HHAL shows will have provided a spark to do some more uptempo material this time around.

 

Via @ahalive_com on Twitter

The album and film will be recorded live during two days in November in Bodø. All three guys have written songs for it. There will be no audience, just the crew. But 36 musicians on stage. The goal is to sell the film to Netflix or other streaming service.

And some Harald Wiik quotes via Avisa Nordlys and @tTrovik on Twitter

- The only thing I can say is that this is a-ha anno 2021. They have not stopped being themselves.
- This (...) will fit into the aesthetics of a-ha. The album, film and the subsequent world tour will be called #TrueNorth

 

Subsequent world tour! Yay!!

I love all the Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew investigations going on here. Famous Five/Secret Seven? (Personally I was always more into Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators...)

 

So it will be a-ha’s Rust Never Sleeps then? Live/only new material.

 

Nice summary as always by Jakob S on his website:

True North: New a-ha album, film and world tour | a-ha live

 

This makes me happy (although I quite like studio polish!):

“Long periods in the studio has usually lead to quarreling and frustrations for us. In deciding to create a film and do it as a live performance I think it will be much easier. Initially we planned to do it with an audience, but for logistical reasons it will be a film instead – with only the crew as “audience” and the finished film being the concert experience for our audience”.

“This is a live performance that will be filmed, and the music from that film will then be released as a new a-ha album. If we achieve what we’re hoping for, I think it will appear considerably more spontaneous and fresh than years of studio polishing”, Magne says.​

This, not so much (they'd better release a CD - I'm sure they will given their fanbase, but these days you just never know):

“The ways of releasing music has changed in recent years, and physical formats are almost completely gone. That’s why a-ha wants to release the music as a film experience first. We’ll have a crew of 100 people during the recording and aim to have the film available on Netflix or one of the other major streaming services. In addition to the material from the live performance, we’ll use footage from the nature around Bodø”, Harald Wiik says.​

 

This seems to be a continuation/expansion of the MTV Unplugged idea. Glad it’s bigger and with new music though. It really does sound like the album will be a live recording without an audience, kind of like a BBC Session.

 

Are we there yet?