Dim Gray: Written on piano!

Avalon is the eighth and final studio album by the English pop, rock band Roxy Music, and this album I really enjoyed when I was young. Now the Norwegian art rock trio Dim Gray have a new single entitled….. Avalon | The Tide.

 Avalon | The Tide is the second single from the forthcoming album Firmament by Norwegian art rockers Dim Gray.

Writing it was where here the album really started, as it became a blueprint for the entire record. The expansiveness in its Lydian harmonies and modulations, the prevalence of piano and strings, as well as the lyrical themes, all came to influence the rest of the songs.

As with several other tracks on Firmament, the music was written by our guitarist Håkon Høiberg on piano rather than his main instrument, with singer/keyboardist Oskar Holldorff then adding words. Holldorff explains that «the music felt like it was constructed as a story, so I thought the lyric should depict some sort of journey. Avalon, the mythical island from Arthurian legend, felt like an appropriate metaphor for reaching an impossible goal or destination; like a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, or, as these particular words mean to me, peace of mind».

«They are about trauma, wanting to forget, and the futility of fighting against the overwhelming forces and inherent dynamics of the world, hence the reference to King Canute and the tide in the second verse. I couldn’t decide whether the song should be called Avalon or The Tide, but when we later wrote Meridian, which ends the album and suggests a split globe, the joint title was suddenly justified».

Dim Gray will be on tour supporting Big Big Train in September 2022.

«Firmament will be released by English Electric Recordings on CD and digital services on 2nd September 2022. The vinyl release of the album will be through our partner label Plane Groovy».

Dim Gray is:

Håkon Høiberg – electric and acoustic guitars, mandolins, vocals

Oskar Holldorff – vocals, keyboards, electronic percussion, programming, orchestration

Tom Ian Klungland – drums, acoustic and electronic percussion, backing vocals

with:

Ellen-Martine Gismervik – cello

Hanna Nicoline Krohn-Moland – violin

Halvor Rollag – bass

Guro Røvik Marstad – flute

Avalon | The Tide was recorded in Oslo in 2021

Drums, percussion, violin, cello, grand piano and electric guitars recorded at Stable Studios, engineered by Leif Johansen

Music and words by Høiberg / Holldorff / Klungland

Produced and arranged by Dim Gray

Edited by Oskar Holldorff and Håkon Høiberg

Mixed by Anders Bjelland

Mastered by Espen Høydalsvik at Oslo:Fuzz

On Tour with Big Big Train:

SEPTEMBER 202202.09.22  AYLESBURY (UK) Waterside Theatre

05.09.22  ZOETERMEER (NL) Cultuurpodium Boerderij

06.09.22  BONN (DE) Harmonie

07.09.22  MAINZ (DE) Kuz

08.09.22  BERLIN (DE) Frannz Club

10.09.22  BASEL (CH) Z7, Pratteln

11.09.22  PARIS (FR) Café de la Danse

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