True North (2022)

For True North, a-ha decided on a new approach. Their first collection of new songs since 2015’s Cast In Steel is more than a straightforward album – and unique for a-ha. While True North is a new album, it is also a film capturing a-ha recording the songs during November 2021 in Bodø, the Norwegian city located 90km above the Arctic Circle. “With every album we tweak it, to see if there’s a different way to go about it,” explains Paul.

With what at once is their 11th studio album and also a very immediate document of its creation, a-ha have entered a new world. “First, we had the idea to record a studio session live,” says Paul. “Then, to film a studio session. That grew into more of a production with the Norwegian orchestra, the Arctic Philharmonic, who we have collaborated with.” It is all there in the film. The deeply affecting and inscrutable film accompanying “I’m In” is extracted from the long-form film integral to True North.

In the True North film, a-ha perform and record with the orchestra. Also caught on camera in the landscape around Bodø, Magne, Morten and Paul discuss True North. In recurring vignettes, actors portray life in the north. The multidimensional film describes a narrative arc embodying the spirit of the new songs, showing how all of us are connected to the environment. Long-time a-ha collaborator Stian Andersen is the director. “True North is a letter from a-ha, from the Arctic Circle, a poem from the far north of Norway with new music,” says Magne.

About what is coming and where we all are now, True North’s songs are imbued with a sense of place and a deep connection with how we interact with the environment. With this unadorned dispatch from Norway, a-ha show where they are from and who they are, and how the connection between the two is unbreakable. It’s no wonder that True North is a-ha at their most revealing, most personal, most affecting. Never before has the spirit of a-ha been so exposed.