North Atlantic Oscillation - Fog Electric
North Atlantic Oscillation have released a brand new track online, taken from their new album ‘Fog Electric’ which is set for release on April 30th through Kscope.
To accompany the record’s release, they will also be playing an album launch show at The Tabernacle in London's Notting Hill on Wednesday 2nd May.
‘Savage With Barometer’ is the first track from ‘Fog Electric’ to make it’s way online, it’s shimmering and foreboding crescendos giving a taste of what’s to come.
‘Fog Electric’ was recorded & co-produced by Tony Doogan (Super Furry Animals, Mogwai, Teenage Fanclub, Belle & Sebastian) and is the follow-up to Grappling Hooks, NAO‘s highly acclaimed debut, which was released in 2010.
The title, 'Fog Electric’, taken from the lyric of album track 'Mirador', introduces a stormy theme that runs throughout the record’s sounds - in the crashing electronics, delicate lulls, mystery and hidden soul beneath the surface: a leitmotif also reflected in the typically stylish and dramatic artwork.
"It's an album about doubt and loss, but there's a counterbalancing sense of resignation and even optimism too." explains singer Sam Healy.
"One of the main themes is that of searching for meaning in a scientific, post-religious world. Science is absolutely a force for good, but after it showed us that the physical world is all there is, and that far from stripping experiences of their mystery this revelation actually makes them more mysterious, it sort of left us to our own devices in terms of producing the unscripted, improvised drama that is life-minus-god."
North Atlantic Oscillation is the climactic phenomenon caused by fluctuations in the atmospheric pressure between the Icelandic low and Azores high; a clash of hot and cold.
It seems a perfect tag for a band of such contrasts; - the contrast of melding timeless rock moves with sequencing and the latest laptop technology, and the contrast of dark foreboding tones and blissed-out serotonin-fuelled pastoral sweeps. There’s a surprise around every corner.
NAO are based in Edinburgh. They are Sam Healy (vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, programming) and Ben Martin (drums, synths, programming). They are joined live by Bill Walsh (bass, vocals) and Chris Howard (bass & synths).
The first single from the album, ‘Soft Coda’, will be available from April 16th.