VNV Nation - Electric Sun (2023)

VNV Nation is an alternative electronic project led by Irish-born, German-based Ronan Harris in the roles of singer, songwriter, and producer. The music blends thought provoking lyrics with melodic dance beats, indie-electronic anthems, haunting ballads and post-classical pieces. The last three albums have charted top 10 in Germany. Harris says of the new record - " Making this album was a different affair from the usual. I'd been building a new studio from the end of 2019, which the "lost years" turned into a frustratingly slow process. VNV Nation and the label are a solo endeavour so I used the time to change a lot about the label and how I work, which was time well spent.

Whenever I had an idea, I'd make voice notes, record the screen on my phone while playing a synth app, add to a pile of paper scribbles or, if I was in the office, sketch out a very basic demo in some music software. Demos started to evolve in 2021, as well as the ideas for impossible orchestrations. When I got around to sitting down and thinking of Electric Sun as a concept, I found myself living in a different world from the one I'd left in 2019. The album is the product of change and reflection, love, loss, toil, not-toil, learning and a pinch of soul-searching. I described it to my friend as the impressions left on me, these last years, left by what is right in front of everyone's face but always seem to be missed. What's truly important and how superficial everything had been were there in technicolor. Electric Sun resonates deeply with me. There have been revelations and epiphanies in its making. There are sides to it where I've expressed things in ways I hadn't until now. It's allowed me to explore and reach new levels in the kind of music I make. I said on stage a few times that the next one would be darker. It was more a feeling than a conscious choice. A lot was waiting to come out, I guess. I think you'll understand what I mean once you've heard it. From the title track "Electric Sun" to songs like "Prophet", "Run", "Sunflare" and "At Horizon's end", there's a cinematic-size scale to what I've made here. If you want, the album will make you dance, or ask you to think or make you smile and, at times, it might well put dust in your eye. I find it hard to grasp what I've achieved on this and I can't wait for you to hear it."

Tracklist
1 Electric Sun
2 Before The Rain
3 The Game
4 Invictus
5 Artifice
6 In The Temple
7 Prophet
8 Wait
9 At Horizon's End
10 Run
11 Sunflare
12 Under Sky