TOMORA is a new collaborative project featuring:
- The Chemical Brothers‘ Tom Rowlands: As one-half of The Chemical Brothers, Rowlands has produced and recorded six widely acclaimed UK #1 albums and won six Grammy Awards.
- Norwegian artist AURORA: AURORA has released four studio albums and has quickly become one of Norway’s most influential and globally recognized contemporary artists. Her single “Runaway” has amassed over one-billion Spotify streams to date.
TOMORA builds upon a creative relationship that can be traced to the recording sessions for The Chemical Brothers’ 2019 album No Geography. AURORA contributed vocals to three tracks, including “Eve of Destruction.” Rowlands then went on to contribute to AURORA’s 2024 effort, What Happened to the Heart?, which landed on the UK Top 10.
Initially, speculation was rife as to who — or what — the then-mysterious TOMORA was or could be, after the name appeared on Coachella’s 2026 Festival lineup post without any additional information last year. Last December, the duo released their debut single “Ring The Alarm,” which received praise from Spin, BrooklynVegan, Stereogum and DJ Mag. “Ring The Alarm” also received DJ support from Erol Alkan, ¥ØU$UK€ ¥UK1MAT$U and a long list of others.
The duo’s TOMORA debut single was then released on a very limited and collectible white label vinyl, alongside B-side “The Thing,” which showcase a glimpse of the tender and hauntingly beautiful downtempo tracks that will appear on the duo’s full-length debut, COME CLOSER.
Slated for an April 17, 2026 release through Capitol Records, COME CLOSER was written and produced jointly by Rowlands and AURORA. The 12-song album sees the duo pairing the Norwegian artist’s distinctive vocal with the acclaimed British producer’s unparalleled studio expertise. While the album sees the duo creating their own unique space, somewhere they can produce the kind of magic that comes from flicking through a perfect record collection, flowing from wigged-out 1960s psychedelia to the hyper-futurism of sounds imagined for the 2060s.
Ultimately though, the album is less about two separate and distinct artists finding a fertile middle ground and more the sound of two tenacious individuals connecting in the studio and hitting massive creative peaks together.
“This is our album COME CLOSER, it is everything we dreamt of. We made it without obligation or expectation, just a joy in creation,” the duo says. “It’s the sound where we meet, the landing zone of our musical escape pods. It is a special place to us. We hope you dig it as much as we do.”
Last month, I wrote about album the hauntingly mesmerizing album title track “COME CLOSER.” Building upon the attention and momentum of the album’s previously released singles, COME CLOSER‘s latest single begins with AURORA’s otherworldly and ethereal melody and pairs it with a blissed out, relentlessly driving, hyper-futuristic production. The result is a song that sounds as though it could have been beamed from a futuristic interplanetary civilization in the year 4239 while simultaneously intimate, yearning and rousingly anthemic.
“’SOMEWHERE ELSE’ is one of the first songs we ever wrote, as TOMORA. And it opened up a big door for us, into our world,” AURORA says. Tom Rowland adds, “Ever since AURORA sang that melody to me it’s been running around my head brightening my day. We played an early version of the song at Glastonbury Festival and it felt like magic. Now we get to share it, it’s a total joy.”
Continuing their ongoing collaboration with Adam Smith and S T A R T !, the accompanying video for “SOMEWHERE ELSE” begins with AURORA waking up under the pier of a beach, not quite sure how she got there with one shoe missing. The rest of the video we see the Norwegian artist on an afternoon at the amusement park, wandering through a town and other adventures, potentially tripping and/or appearing like a humanoid alien trying to figure out human life.
