With Christmas fast approaching, here's the second video from Sunturns' new record Christmas II, "Sunni".
Buy Christmas I & II on double vinyl or download.
We've also launched an advent calendar, curated by Sunturns, who'll be guiding you through their favourite Norwegian acts every day in the run up to Christmas. So if you're on the look out for some more Scandinavian sounds, head over to the Sunturns Christmas advent calendar here.
SUNTURNS are a Norwegian super-group devoted to Christmas, featuring members of Making Marks, Moddi, The Little Hands Of Asphalt, Monzano and Einar Stray Orchestra.
The new Sunturns album Christmas II is not a normal Christmas album. Consisting of 10 original Christmas songs and one Ramones cover, five of Oslo’s finest singers, musicians and songwriters join forces once again to portray their take on Christmas. The songs, inspired by everything from My Bloody Valentine to A-ha, sung both English and Norwegian, delves in to Christmas, combined with family fights, death, emptiness, an amateur tennis champion, expensive beer, the axial tilt, shopping malls, nostalgia and forgiveness. Shimmering guitars, snow filled piano lines, gentle strings, springy vocals and dynamic drums - all steady conducted by Sunturns’ very own Sjur Lyseid in the producer’s seat.
While 2011’s debut was full of humorous, festive charm Christmas, Christmas II is a much darker and more adult affair. The bands’ all along gravitas is clear throughout: the sound is more mature, more electric and tighter. Having written none of the songs on the first album, youngest band member Einar Stray can claim credit for half the Christmas II songs, while Ola Innset has successfully written his first Christmas songs in Norwegian.
The album was recorded in the summer of 2015 deep in the woods of Sweden in the legendary Silence Studio, with guest appearances from Ofelia and Hanna of the Einar Stray Orchestra providing string accompaniment.
The Axial Tilt is the first track taken from the album, reflecting on the eventual parting of December’s despair as the sun finally turns and the days start to get longer.
Would You is released as a single on October 31st, just as the lonely and desperate winter nights draw in as you reflect on your teenage emo self.
Sunni is a piano ballad that evolves in to a post-rock tune about meeting a girl called Sunniva, and is the final single taken from Christmas II, released on the 21st of November.
And all good Christmas albums need a murder ballad about an amateur tennis champion in Bergen, right? [Mount Kenya]
Sunturns consist of Eivind Almhjell (Psyence Fiction/Monzano), Jørgen Nordby (Moddi/Making Marks), Sjur Lyseid (The Little Hands Of Asphalt), Ola Innset (Making Marks) and Einar Stray (Einar Stray Orchestra/Moddi).
The band christened themselves Sunturns, harking back to the pre-Christian celebrations marking the winter solstice; the point the dark Norwegian days start to fall back and give way to the light.
The seasonal band formed back in 2011, under the direction of Oslo based label Spoon Train. They immediately recorded and released their debut album Christmas to rave critics among Norwegian press, and went on tour in Norway and England to spread their somewhat different Christmas gospel. With both serious and humorous songs about many of the holiday’s backsides, the album became a hit record amongst indie fans both in Norway and abroad. The single The Sun Turns was listed on Norwegian radio station NRK P3’s official Christmas list and has been played heavily every December since. Sunturns’ come together once a year for an annual Christmas show in Oslo, and is for many a dear festive tradition.
New album Christmas II is released on vinyl, alongside 2011’s album Christmas on vinyl for the very first time, in a double LP package in a gatefold sleeve, including a download code of both albums. 18 original Sunturns tracks and covers of Low’s Just Like Christmas, Swearing At Motorists’ Losing Mine and The Ramones’ Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want To Fight Tonight) make up this double album package.
We've got two new things out now to whet your appetite ahead of the release of Sunturn's second Christmas album in December. Kicking things off, feast your eyes on the video for Would You, recorded towards the end of summer at Silence Studios in central Sweden as Sunturns convened to channel all that summer excitement into a sparkling festive album!
If that's not enough to get you geared up for the approaching holiday season, we've released another track from the album for you to listen to. Sunni is the opening track of Christmas II - starting off as a piano ballad before evolving into a post-rock tune about meeting a girl called Sunniva...
Pre-order your copy of the gatefold double vinyl package or download here.
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Would You is the first single proper taken from Sunturns' new album Christmas II. Written by Einar Stray [Moddi, Einar Stray Orchestra], it's a reflective look back at those teenage emotions swelling and brooding as the clocks go back, the nights draw in and the isolation of winter descends.
Would You appears on the second album from Sunturns - an album I was desperate to make happen, having absolutely adored their debut record "Christmas" from a few years back. They're a band that don't get together very often (one of the hardships that occurs as a result of forming a band devoted to Christmas, those summer festival tours are bloody hard to come by!), and having worked with Ola and Jorgen as part of Making Marks previously, we're slowly plugged away, planting the seeds of suggestion of making a second album until that that email arrived at Fika HQ: "Hey Tom, we're thinking of recording a second Sunturns record, are you in?". It was just like Christmas.
So yeah, we're chuffed this album is happening - and it'll be a real beauty. Two 12" records, one on red vinyl and one on white vinyl, in a gatefold sleeve, encompassing 2011's album Christmas on vinyl for the very first time and 2015's Christmas II. If you prefer your Christmas music a little bit melancholic, a little bit jaded, and really rather gorgeous, then I'm sure you'll love these records as much as I do.
Pre-order your copy of Christmas I & II from the Fika Recordings shop.
Sunturns are a Norwegian super-group devoted to Christmas, featuring members of Making Marks, Moddi, The Little Hands Of Asphalt, Monzano and Einar Stray Orchestra.
Christmas may still be a couple of months away, but we just can't wait any longer to announce our Christmas release from Norwegian indie supergroup Sunturns! Come December we'll be putting out a double vinyl album featuring their 2011 album Christmas and a brand new album Christmas II.
A follow up Sunturns Christmas album has been on our wish list for a long time; the original album has been a festive favourite alongside those classics from Low, Sufjan Stevens and The Just Joans. If you find yourself putting those on the stereo every year to get yourself through another mince pie and another anecdote from a misinformed and slightly racist distant relative, you'll be in for a treat with this pair of albums.
For those of you who've not come across Sunturns before, you should be familiar with Making Marks from their album A Thousand Half-Truths on Fika back in 2013. Ola Innset and Jørgen Nordby from Making Marks appear as part of Sunturns, alongside Jørgen's Moddi band mate Einar Stray (also of Einar Stray Orchestra), Sjur Lyseid (of The Little Hands Of Asphalt, which also featured Ola, and Eivind Almhjell of Monzano - a true Norwegian indie supergroup. Sunturns are a band devoted to Christmas - they come together annually for some much loved festive shows in December, before disappearing with the hazy memories of glogg fuelled nights for another year...
So here's a track for you to hear, taken from the new album. It's called The Axial Tilt, and like the band's name, reflects on the the lifting of December's dark despair as the nights get shorter and daylight starts to make a reappearance.
You can pre-order the double vinyl from us here now, as well digital pre-orders for both album or the new album Christmas II. But you'll be wanting the physical really, it comes on red and on white vinyl, in a gatefold sleeve with download code, in a beautiful sleeve designed by Allo Darlin's Paul Rains.
