Sunn O))) & Ulver announce collaborative LP, 'Terrestrials'

by Doug Moore

Sunn O))) at Power of the Riff 2012 (more by Greg Cristman)

All-star musical collaborations are famously hit-and-miss. Once in a while, though, news comes along of a notable collab that’s so instantly engaging that it demands acknowledgement even before it produces a note.

The just-announced Terrestrials collaboration between LA drone kings Sunn O))) and long-running Norse explorers Ulver isn’t technically their first; Ulver produced the song “CutWOODED” on Sunn O)))’s White 1 album back in 2003. The two bands are going full-length for this one — or, at least, that’s what the press release implies, with its promise of “an astonishing yet somehow totally tenable matrimony of these two earthshakingly powerful forces, coming together like tectonic plates” that “flow like magma beneath the Earth’s crust, sonically uninhibited, unpredictably cosmic, haunting and stirring, yet simultaneously ceremonious and beautiful.” So yeah, they’re giving it the hard sell.

In all seriousness, this collaboration is exciting because it’s hard to get a clear read on what it’ll sound like. Ulver in particular are changelings; it’ll be interesting to hear which side of their personality shows up to work around Sunn O)))’s monolithic drone.

Terrestrials will have three tracks and will drop in February 2014. Check out the cover art and try to figure out WTF this is gonna sound like by streaming music from both bands below.

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