LEPROUS’ DARK NEW RECORDINGS
Norwegians team up with Canadian cellist for their atmospheric fifth album.
Leprous are to showcase a new sound on Malina, which is out via InsideOut on August 25.
“We didn’t want any digital effects, and we wanted everything to sound as it really did in the studio,” says frontman and keyboard player Einar Solberg. “The songs are more atmospheric and it’s got a completely different vibe to [previous album] The Congregation. This has more of a rock feel – some of the songs are super-fast and completely chaotic but it’s still very Leprous. The overall mood is even more melancholic than what we’ve done before.”
The album also includes strings from Canadian prog cellist Raphael Weinroth-Browne, who caught Solberg’s attention when he supported Leprous in Ottawa last year.
According to the frontman, the 11-track takes its name from the old Slavic word for ‘raspberry’. “I wrote the lyrics to the title track when I was in [the Eastern European country of] Georgia and I saw this very old lady selling raspberries. She was very poor and could barely walk, but she still had to go around selling raspberries just to make a living. I felt very sad about it so I wrote the song, and we thought it would make a good album title.”
Leprous will be heading out on tour this autumn with support from Agent Fresco, and the frontman teases, “We have something very special planned. I’m not going to reveal any more, but it will be a very different Leprous show to what we normally do.”
For the full list of dates, visit www.leprous.net. NRS