Released on: 31st December 2025
On their fourteenth album Ulver give new meaning to old scores. With an ocean of experience behind them the Collective packs a triage of IDM, New Age and Jazz. Offered up as an extension, or a more comprehensive iteration, of their masterful production skills. Honed from their millennial editions. If 2000’s Perdition City was Music to an Internal Film, Neverland would be Theater for the dreamers who are still sleeping.
Neverland continues the tradition of asynchronous genre mixing. What is often seen as a protestation against labeling from the pack, and common music chart politics, is perhaps just a misunderstanding. The guys from Ulver seem to just simply enjoy music. And, while their influences might seem all over the place their compositions are certainly not. With this new album sharing a bleeding heart melancholy coupled with a loyal devotion to shape and form; a modern day Venus in Furs for those who uphold their marriage to the groups discography. But, that painful struggle, of change and renewal, is exactly what will keep you coming back. Listen after listen, after listen.
The instrumentation on Neverland is heavily edited, distorted and manipulated into forms that resonate hard. Where synth waves cascade over analogue recordings like shadows. Darkness coils around bright leads as granular lifeforms burst and disappear to herculean rhythms. With beats that drive the evolution of harmonic bass lines over glitch-esq painted counter rhythms. There are passages that seem familiar but they will not go to where you have been before. These binaural patterns open up a foundation towards the within.
Another heel tapper, this is a weird album amplified in wonder while tuned to whimsy. Ulver are always subverting expectations. So the best way to approach their music is to expect nothing. And for nearly forty-two minutes Neverland will become everything. You need to let it take you flying into its marvel. Not to Get It, but to Let Go, and Go With It. It is ultimately a breathtaking recording worthy of your imagination; absolute (mental) Cinema!
9/10
