LP (light blue marble) with inside-out printed cover, incl. printed and polylined inner sleeves and protection sleeve (500 copies available).
"Neverland", the fourteenth studio album by ULVER is the sound of an escape. A journey into undiscovered lands.
Following three albums – "The Assassination of Julius Caesar" (2017), "Flowers of Evil" (2020), and "Liminal Animals" (2024) – rooted in more traditional song and production structures, "Neverland" marks a new chapter in the revered Oslo band's history.
"With 'Neverland' we embraced a more 'punk' spirit – more dreaming, less discipline – freer, quite simply", the band comments on the creative process behind the album.
Bursts of daybreak synths and whooshes of sound set the atmosphere, before the wolves start digging into the dynamics of ambient calm and anarchic mysticism. Dreamy and transportive textures develop into trippy percussive energies, and as the album unfolds, a lush and vibrant, and at times exotic space opens.
Apart from a few recurring distant voices and vocal chops, "Neverland" is a largely instrumental record, reminiscent of the mood and structure of that place where late '90s IDM sounds met the meandering structures of post-rock.
The ghost of premillennial sample culture surely haunts "Neverland", and some might even hear echoes from earlier acclaimed works like "Perdition City" (2000), or the "Silence" EPs (2001), or more recently "ATGCLVLSSCAP" (2016).
Still, "Neverland" sounds and feels like something else, something fresh in ULVER's continuous journey of perennial reinvention. Pop music from in-between worlds? A sonic hallucination? Or better: a collage of dreams. It's up to you.
Side A:
A1. Fear in a Handful of Dust
A2. Elephant Trunk
A3. Weeping Stone
A4. People of the Hills
A5. They're Coming! The Birds!
A6. Hark! Hark! The Dogs Do Bark
Side B:
B1. Horses of the Plough
B2. Pandora's Box
B3. Quivers in the Marrow
B4. Welcome to the Jungle
B5. Fire in the End
