Sunn O))) - Sunn O))) 2XLP [Sub Pop]

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 recognizable 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 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.

The eponymously titled SUNN O))) was tracked at Bear Creek Studios, Woodinville, Washington with Brad Wood (HuM, Tar, Sunny Day Real Estate, Liz Phair). This location would prove crucial to the recording process.

“The vast tracking room had big windows looking out on trees,” says O’Malley. “We could go hiking and be out in the woods, spend time outdoors. That became a big part of it.”

“It was very inviting and very comfortable there,” adds Anderson. “There was no stress, no worry about the timeline or anything like that. We just let ourselves go, and let the music come out.”

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.”

Recording exclusively as a duo should not be interpreted as SUNN O))) limiting or restricting themselves. To the contrary, it has opened up new possibilities for their music.

“What’s been happening with our performances over the last couple years with the two of us and no other collaborators or players has been really fresh and exciting,” says Anderson. “There’s been a lot of development. A lot of that was unexpected. And a lot of things that happened in the studio were really exciting and different from what we had been playing live, as well.”

The six compositions on SUNN O))) are expansive and panoramic yet finely detailed, reflecting the arboreal setting in which they were recorded. Opener “XXANN” enters with howling feedback before crunching into what might at first seem familiar territory – until one registers the sound of water trickling beneath. “Mindrolling” likewise incorporates field recordings, as does “Glory Black”, which in addition introduces piano, by turns sonorous and delicate, into the mix, lending the already formidable piece a hushed, solemn feel. The Newcastle-forged originators of black metal get a shout out in the title of “Does Anyone Hear Like Venom?” which seems to position Cronos, Mantas and Abaddon as deep listeners, attuned to their Tyneside surroundings in much the same way as SUNN O))) are to the forest enfolding Bear Creek Studios. Throughout the album, the interplay between O’Malley and Anderson attains fresh heights of telepathic intensity as they shape a music that itself breathes the bracing, earthy air of the Pacific Northwest.

“It’s always developing,” says Anderson. “That’s a constant, and that’s what sustains my interest and passion. There’s a movement that’s happening, whether it’s forward, backwards, to the side, whatever.

That’s what makes playing in this group, at least for me, different and unique and special.”

In October 2025 SUNN O))) released the first fruit of a new deal with celebrated US label Sub Pop in the form of a maxi 12” featuring “Eternity’s Pillars”, “Raise The Chalice” and “Reverential” – three monumental tracks from the same sessions that produced the new album. The alliance with Sub Pop makes perfect sense, as Anderson explains.

“We decided that we should approach Sub Pop, after I’d had some great conversations with Jonathan Poneman,” he says. “So I called him up and before I could get the words out of my mouth, he said, ‘We’d love to do it. Tell me what you guys need.’ He was really excited and supportive.”

SUNN O))) are no strangers to striking cover art – as illustrated by their collaborations with Joanne Ratcliffe for Black One, Richard Serra for Monoliths & Dimensions, Angela LaFont Bolliger for Kannon and Samantha Keely Smith for Life Metal and Pyroclasts. For SUNN O))) they have been granted permission by the estate of the late American artist Mark Rothko to reproduce two of his paintings on the album’s sleeve.

“Over a few years, I developed a correspondence with Christopher Rothko via the Rothko Foundation’s Henry Mandell,” explains O’Malley. “It’s such an honour to be in the proximity of art on that scale, which has moved me personally so much for decades. Standing in front of a Rothko painting you can experience landscapes, worlds and environments subjectively in the abstraction.”

Liner notes for the album are provided by award-winning British writer Robert Macfarlane, famed for his works concerning landscape and the multifaceted relationship between humanity and nature. Macfarlane negotiates the peaks and valleys of the SUNN O))) sound in a poetic, philosophical manner that will be familiar to readers of Mountains Of The Mind: A History Of A Fascination (2003), The Wild Places (2007), Underland: A Deep Time Journey (2019) or Is A River Alive? (2025).

“I’ve been very interested in Robert’s writing for a long time,” says O’Malley. “He was very up for engaging with this project. And what he ended up turning in was mind-blowing. It’s part of the creative process, framing our music in a certain way, visually and with language, before presenting it to the world.”

All of which adds up to a fully immersive experience, uniting sound, word and visual into something that is undeniably, completely SUNN O))).

Joseph Stannard, January 2026