Wiki
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Release Date
1 October 2007
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Length
9 tracks
Shadows of the Sun is the seventh studio album by the Norwegian experimental collective Ulver. Produced by Ulver, the album was issued in October, 2007, via Jester Records and The End Records. Officially announced on July 13, 2007, Shadows of the Sun received critical acclaim on release, and was described as "dark and tragic," with "soothing electronics and natural percussion," and featured contributions from Pamelia Kurstin on theremin and Austrian white noise musician Christian Fennesz, adding supplemental shimmer; helping Ulver to correspond with their vision on the final product.
The release of Shadows of the Sun was delayed in Europe and the United States, possibly caused by problems with the vinyl manufacturing. The album was distributed by Plastic Head, the UK's 10th largest distributor in Europe.
The entire album was leaked to the Internet on September 17, 2007.
The track listing and the album sleeve was released to the public in a press statement by Ulver's American record label The End Records, and a teaser for the song "Vigil" was released on MySpace on August 29, 2007. On August 30, Ulver announced a release party for the album to be held at the Europa Night Club in Brooklyn, NY on September 20, 2007 with Kristoffer Rygg and Tore Ylwizaker were DJing, while The Austerity Program and Lapdog of Satan were playing live.
On 13 September, Jester Records made it possible to pre-order the album, including a limited vinyl edition, with alternate front cover by David D'Andrea. The collector's deal also included a 10" red vinyl edition of A Quick Fix of Melancholy. The End Records also released a special deal consisting of the CD edition of the album, a T-shirt, and a screen print by Tomi Lahdesmaki in a limited run of 200.
On MySpace, "Vigil" was replaced by the song "Funebre," on 14 September 2007.
"Solitude" is a Black Sabbath cover; the original version appears on their 1971 album Master of Reality, while "Eos" is a revisited version of "Gravferd," from the soundtrack of the Norwegian film Uno. "What Happened?" contains approximately 1 minute and 40 seconds of silence at the end.
The front photo is taken from the 1978 October issue of Natural History Magazine.
Shadows of the Sun is the first album without an appearance from Håvard Jørgensen, a full-time member on Ulver's first four albums and a guest on their last two.
In February 2008 the album won the Oslo Awards for album of the year 2007. The album was also voted best album of 2007 at the website Sonic Frontiers.
In December 2014, Shadows of the Sun was released as a sheet music album by Raven Music Editions. All the songs, except for the Black Sabbath cover "Solitude", were included in the songbook.
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