SUNN O))) – Sunn O))) (Sub Pop) – You can’t really be doing other things while listening to Sunn O))) and you certainly can’t be listening to them quietly, this is not doing the washing up music, this is art that demands your intensity as much as it demands its own, is not merely decorative or passive, but rather an active, immersive experience that demands a high degree of emotional engagement. It is about the power of it all, the engagement, much more than just a drone, far more than just the art of noise and one of the very few bands who really could justify a Rothko painting as an album cover, one of the few bands big enough to handle it. We have covered that artwork already back in early January when news first broke and the album first landed here – New Sunn O))) and who better than Sunn O))) for a Rothko painting on the cover, that says everything from both sides. Hear the first piece of music from the new album here… 

“For nearly 30 years, Sunn O))) – Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson – have pushed the boundaries of heavy music, straddling the worlds of the avant-garde and rock to forge a style instantly recognisable as their own. Now, Sunn O))) return with their first album of new material since 2019’s acclaimed Pyroclasts. Their tenth album – their debut for their new label Sub Pop – demonstrates the duo’s mastery of time and space, light and dark, and their willingness to evolve their unmistakable sound into bold new forms….”

You might say this self-titled album is typical Sunn O))) and in many many ways it is, but then is anything they do ever typical? Is there ever such a thing as a typical Rothko painting? Can you ever get tired of standing in front of a Rothko painting? It is right that this, of all their albums, that this one should have that big rich dark red Rothko piece as part of it all.

“SUNN O))) have long welcomed collaborators into their self-contained world, including such esteemed fellow travellers as Hungarian vocal explorer Attila Csihar, Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir, Seattle-based multi-instrumentalist Steve Moore, Texan polymath Mark Deutrom, Silkworm co-founder Tim Midyett and legendary singer-songwriter Scott Walker. For the new album, however, O’Malley and Anderson explore the still-fertile, primal territory of the duo format. On this album for the first time all of the instrumentation was performed by Greg and I,” says O’Malley “All of the records have our leadership and direction, of course, but this time around, it was almost like this crucible of ideas that was really at the core of what we’ve been doing.”

It is an album that feel focused, like it needed to be just the two of them this time, just Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson. It isn’t entirely about the volume levels, it is as much about the space you let them and it occupy, the space it demands to occupy, that and the way it breathes, the way it needs to breath properly and the way they never have to overwork that intensity, to fill it all up too much. You can’t say this latest album is a case of less is more but in many ways it is just that as well as everything else. A maximalist less is more maybe? That minimalism/maximalism thing; it isn’t a sonic assault, it really isn’t a drone, it isn’t “captivating” or any of those other words, it isn’t a pleasure, it isn’t difficult, it is maybe oblivion, oblivious, the state of forgetting everything else. It is, and this is meant as high praise, it is that Rothko state of mind, that state of being unconscious or unaware of your surroundings that you can (sometimes) find in the Rothko room of the Tate or indeed when you let this latest Sunn O))) album fill your time and space.

And that piano have way through the closing piece this is Glory Black, well that is just beautiful, there’s something about closing pieces at the moment, and there’s something about the detail that runs through this very imressive body of work. This is indeed completely Sunn O))). Another rather fine body of work. (sw)

Bandcamp / sunn.southernlord.com / / SubPop / Instagram / other links

And yes, seeing as one or two people have asked, I have been painting with this album on (very loudly) in the studio over the last couple of months, there was another Electric Painting when the album first landed here and since then bigger things have been accompanied by a studio full of Sunn O)))

SUNN O))) UK/EU JUNE-JULY 2026 TOUR

Forthcoming dates early summer this year.

16 JUNE Gothenburg Monument tickets

17 JUNE Stockholm Debaser tickets

18 JUNE Oslo Kulturkirken Jakob tickets

19 JUNE Copenhagen Vega tickets

21 JUNE Groningen De Oosterpoort tickets

22 JUNE Neunkirchen Geblasehalle tickets

23 JUNE Zurich Rote Fabrik tickets

24 JUNE Antwerp Trix tickets

25 JUNE Amsterdam Paradiso tickets

26 JUNE Köln Essigfabrik tickets

28 JUNE Bristol Prospect Building tickets

29 JUNE Brighton Corn Exchange tickets

30 JUNE Liverpool The Dome tickets

1 JULY Leeds Project House tickets

2 JULY Birmingham 02 Institute tickets

3 JULY London Troxy tickets

6 JULY Berlin Silent Green Betonhalle tickets

7 JULY Berlin Silent Green Betonhalle tickets

10 JULY Porto Fundação de Serralves tickets

11 JULY Lisboa República Da Música tickets