Canadian electro-goth-pop act Austra stole our attention in 2011 with a string of great singles and a strong debut album Feel It Break, which left us excited as to what they would do next.
The answer has come today as Katie Stelmanis’ act has announced that they will return on June 18th (the day before in Europe) with a new album called Olympia, which is set to be released on Domino.
The press release tells us that Olympia was worked on more as a whole band project, and this has brought about “a quantum evolution in the Toronto-based band’s sound, structure and style.” While based in electronic music, the album features no programmed loops; it was all played live in studio by the band, including all the percussion which features “a wild set up of marimbas and congas.”
The themes of the album are beginnings and ends of relationships, addictions and struggles for motivation. It’s a much more confessional album, according to Stelmanis, and you get a taste of that in the first track to be aired, “Home.”
Listen to “Home” below, and you can find the track list for Olympia beneath. Austra have a string of tour dates lined up, starting next week in Austin for SXSW and continuing through to the summer in Europe, with more to be added. The announced dates are listed at the bottom.
Olympia track list:
01. What We Done?
02. Forgive Me
03. Painful Like
04. Sleep
05. Home
06. Fire
07. I Don’t Care (I’m a Man)
08. We Become
09. Reconcile
10. Annie (Oh muse, you)
11. You Changed My Life
12. Hurt Me Now
Austra tour dates:
03-13 Austin, TX – Vice Land (Vice SXSW)
03-14 Austin, TX – Hype Hotel (Hype Machine SXSW)
03-15 Austin, TX – The Mohawk (Windish SXSW)
03-16 Austin, TX – Elysium (Moog SXSW)
03-16 Austin, TX – Old Emo’s (Brooklynvegan SXSW)
06-02 Dublin, IE – Forbidden Fruit
06-06 Zurich, SE – Plaza
06-07 Luzerne, SE – Sudpol
06-08 Yverdon-les Bains, SE – L’Amalgame
06-10 Amsterdam, NL – Bitterzoet
06-12 Paris, FR – Le Nouveau Casino
06-14 Berlin, DE – Lido
06-17 London, UK – Hoxton Bar & Grill
06-20 Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg
06-23 Los Angeles, LA – Troubadour
06-26 San Francisco, CA – The Independent
