TOMORA

[Einyen]

I don't know if this is accurate, but it is interesting if it is:
https://www.dansendeberen.be/2025/12/04/debuutsingle-tomora-ring-the-alarm/

Autotranslated with Edge:

Together they started working on an album, which will see the light of day sometime in the spring of 2026 and with which they will travel the world.

[wrclaguna]

[Einyen]

We never heard the full "lost-in-the-woods" story. Maybe she's spelled a cast on Tom?

Hi.

Aurora (and Tomora) fan here.  I don't have anything more on the lost-in-the-woods story, besides what she said in that old NME interview.

But she did briefly talk about her trip to England to record the No Geography tracks, when she hosted a Norwegian radio show in July 2017, and the trip apparently cured her first and maybe only writer's block.

The tracks was apparently made/recorded early 2017, ~2 years before the album release. Which is not really a surprise to Aurora fans, since she has her 2017 long hair style in the Eve of Destruction video.

14:38 - 18:24  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a5AnMcZAo8&t=14m38s 
(CC for Eng Subs) or here is the transcription:

I'm Aurora, still. Hello. I am still here, and you are listening to NRK P3.

And as maybe some of you may know, last year was a very wonderful and hectic year for me. And I remember I was very excited and looking forward to finally being in the studio again. And get to start writing more music, and release more.

And when I then was in the studio in January this year, it was just completely empty. I had nothing to give. And I was really terrifying. It is actually my first encounter with "writer's block".
I felt like that my opinion... It was like for a... in a way a lion to have no teeth. And I was pretty empty, really. It's scary to be empty. Not hungry and not full and not tired or awake, just nothing. But you just are here in like a body, and then it's empty.

But then there was a journey for me that was to become incredibly important. And it has something to do with the next song I'm going to show you. It's called "Escape" (Escape 700) by "The Chemical Brothers". And I have been friends with them for a long time.
And especially since "Tom Rowlands", he who makes the music in "The Chemical Brothers", after he made the soundtrack for the film "Hanna", which is one of my favorite films, then I became completely like... it was so lovely to hear. How many pieces of sounds you can put in layers, and how beautiful it is. And how raw and lovely. And it was so incredibly inspiring.

And then I got an email this year from Tom from Chemical Brothers. He asked if I wanted to work a bit with him in the studio. And then of course I said yes. It was really fantastic.
And then I traveled down to the coast in England. I took the train. And then I lived with a host family from India. And I taught the children to play the piano. And I helped the mother fix the garden. And it was so beautiful. It was completely quiet, no mobile coverage. I didn't have TV or computers or mobile for five days.

And then I got to be in his studio. And he lived in a huge house. He had a basketball court and four pools. 12 turntables. It was amazing how big the house was. And he was so incredibly kind. He had a wonderful wife and two wonderful children. And we wrote some really, really fun music that maybe they'll have on their next album.

And it was such an important journey for me. Because I was just... that host family didn't know who I was. It was so nice to meet someone with such a blank slate.
And be so fond of someone. And in a way be with a child. And work in a garden. Such simple things I never do. Collect pebbles to make gravel outside the door. It is just so tiny things. And bathing in the water, and petting ponys and... I milked a cow. And it was very, very, very nice.

And when I came back home from that trip, then something had to open up. I felt me... I felt like I had been on a really long journey. I was totally like... I had gotten the break I needed then. And then it came. Everything at once. And after that I have written really a lot of songs. And now I have very nice and big hopes for the second album.

And now you're going to hear a song by "The Chemical Brothers". It's called "Escape" (Escape 700).

[whirlygirl]

Whooo boy am I obsessed with Ring The Alarm! What a bubbling seismic burst of energy that song is. I absolutely dig it!!

[Csar]

Directed by Adam Smith

I like how Adam almost always finds such a nice way to represent each element/effect of a track through his visualisation, like this ascending sound at 1:04 where the dancers radiate those pink waves.

Disculpe, ¿está mal preguntar por la fuente? ¿Podrías decirnos dónde está esta información?

No te sientas mal nunca por hacer calcquier tipo de pregunta aqui! No creo que molestes a nadie. Eres bienvenida/o!

Hi
Aurora (and Tomora) fan here. I don't have anything more on the lost-in-the-woods story, besides what she said in that old NME interview.

Hi and welcome! Thanks for that anecdote. Also nice to listen to her speak in her mother tongue.
Are you by any means familiar with this documentary "Once Aurora"? Seems like this falls into that time period. It was really weird to watch and I could just make it halfway through because of her distress (want to finish it one day, though). Have you watched it?

[Csar]

Interview (behind a paywall, though)

What does a new beginning look like? For Ring The Alarm, the debut single from Tomora – a new collaborative entity formed of The Chemical Brothers' Tom Rowlands and Nordic artist Aurora – their long-time shared visual architect, director Adam Smith, has the answer: a neon-tinged, otherworldly promo brimming with the frenetic visual energy that has defined his collaborations with both artists over the years.

"Tom and Aurora started playing me stuff quite early on, and it was brilliant," Smith enthuses. "I think I first presented them with 300-400 images – far too many. But that's kind of the nature of how this project has worked. It's been very collaborative between the three of us. From a load of images, Tom and Aurora picked the ones that spoke to them and spoke to the music."

Pairing Rowlands' dependable brand of floor-shaking electronica with Aurora's soaring, ethereal vocals, Ring the Alarm echoes the duo's previous collaborations across three tracks on 2019's No Geography. But Tomora is an altogether different beast. It's already sparked fierce speculation on Reddit, following an ambiguous appearance on the 2026 Coachella line-up in September, long before this week's big reveal – something that both had been unaware of.
https://www.creativereview.co.uk/tomoras-world-inside-tom-rowlands-and-auroras-new-musical-project/

And

"We wanted TOMORA to be a band, not two individuals. It's our musical feeling come to life," Rowlands and AURORA said. As for "Ring the Alarm," it has been stealthily included without a proper introduction during recent Chemical Brothers DJ sets, leading to robust online discussion about its identity.
https://www.spin.com/2025/12/chemical-brothers-aurora-new-group/

No real source yet on where that statement was made

[Einyen]

Hi and welcome! Thanks for that anecdote. Also nice to listen to her speak in her mother tongue. Are you by any means familiar with this documentary "Once Aurora"? Seems like this falls into that time period. It was really weird to watch and I could just make it halfway through because of her distress (want to finish it one day, though). Have you watched it?

Yes, I have seen it, and it was recorded 2016-2018 and released in Dec 2018.
It can be hard to watch, and really can make you angry at the music industry.

Aurora actually posted 2 "statements" about the documentary, when it was released, and they can be comforting to read:
https://x.com/AURORAmusic/status/1071846367205691395
https://x.com/AURORAmusic/status/1071465025318121472

I also recommend the "Nothing Is Eternal" short "documentary":

and the TV show "HAIK" where the host drives Aurora around in a van to different surprises, while we learn about her life, and it ends with a concert in the forest.

This is the best quality of it (not my channel and not monetized): (CC for Eng Subs):
Stop watching part 1 at ~35min when she starts singing, because the rest of Part 1 is just the concert in an abbreviated version, while Part 2 has the full concert.

Part 1 "Documentary":

Part 2 Concert:

[Einyen]

Together they started working on an album, which will see the light of day sometime in the spring of 2026 and with which they will travel the world.

Apparently this information was not correct after all, unless she (Aurora's manager) is trying to cover up a leak 

From the W&W forum (Aurora forum):

They modified the article:
Together they've started working on a joint project, the last of which they'll undoubtedly be taking on a global tour

Apparently, Aurora's manager "crueljamila" has been asking to remove references to an album on IG (and is probably the cause of this edit too), saying "it's not right".

[Einyen]

Similarities with Aurora's "Cure For Me" music video:

https://i.ibb.co/4Rm6fGdj/RTA.jpg

[ThePumisher]

It's on Youtube too =>

Has anybody noticed that the "Album Version" on Youtube is overmodulated (is that the right translation? => The sound is at peak, it is clipping most of the song...) compared to the "Radio Edit"?

Take a look at the waveform for it =>

You cannot view this attachment.

The above on is the album version, the lower one is the radio edit / video edit.

Can someone check if this is the same on other sites/services? Maybe Bosco for Apple Music?

[WhiteNoise]

It appears to just be the level they were mastered to. That's not clipping - you'd hear it in the track and it would sound ugly, especially in the kicks - it's hard and fast limiting at the mastering stage, so the track can achieve an appropriate amount of loudness. This mostly softens the transients (the initial click) of the kick & other percussive elements. That way the rest of the track can be heard at a good level without clipping. There might be a small amount of saturation added to the master as well.

The difference you're seeing in the two is that the music video was left with headroom, while the album mix was mastered up to 0db. It's the same master, just one is quieter.

I'm only looking at what ya sent of the waveforms though.

[Einyen]

You cannot view this attachment.

from r/auroramusic

From this paywalled article:
https://www.creativereview.co.uk/tomoras-world-inside-tom-rowlands-and-auroras-new-musical-project/

[feedmevinyls]

From this paywalled article:
https://www.creativereview.co.uk/tomoras-world-inside-tom-rowlands-and-auroras-new-musical-project/

Some highlights from that article:

Adam Smith's involvement

For Tomora, Smith's involvement came about following an invitation from Aurora to join the duo while they were in the midst of recording in Norway.

"I remember saying, 'I don't know if Tom will necessarily want me there'," Smith laughs. "But Tom was like, 'No, come out.' And it was just brilliant.

"But it was such a gift to have it presented by Adam, because he's so detailed and really goes into it with his whole mind and soul, just like me and Tom."

Narrative of the music video

The central thread follows a loose narrative based around a journey from repression to freedom, embodied by the character of Ora, portrayed by Aurora.

"She has arrived on Earth or become conscious of being on Earth, but has no idea what Earth is like," Smith continues. "It's a sort of Poor Things, Man Who Fell to Earth scenario – but also neither of those things. She's in a kind of factory setting and she's disrupting the whole thing, by ringing the alarm."

Starting a new band

"We both come from places that have a very clear identity that's been established over years – decades, even – but we have faith in ourselves," he states. "The music is there, obviously, but doing this thing that you would normally do over a process of years, finding your identity and what it is, that's quite daunting."

These photos we took the other day of the two of us together, seeing those and going, 'Oh, that does look like it could be a band, right?'" "It was like, 'Oh, there we are. That's Tomora'," Aurora interjects.

Tom's cameo in the music video

"We used to go to our video shoots a lot and there would maybe be a little cameo, or something, but it was fun being on the set," he says. "I think it was really cool that you did a small thing though," Aurora adds. "It makes me very happy. It's my favourite part of the video."

Performing live

"I think we're very secure people that are good at their craft, that also don't know what they're doing," Aurora states playfully. "It's a very nice place between a lot of certainty and the unknown, but we're very calm about it, because we know that when we get there, it's gonna be fine. We'll know what to do, Tom, don't you think?"

"I think I'm gonna need this little pep talk before we walk out on stage," Rowland laughs. "But also, it's a kind of imperative to play live. I just felt that the joy we had in making it and in the studio and the feelings it was giving us, it was like, 'This needs to be shared out.'"

[Csar]

Yes, I have seen it, and it was recorded 2016-2018 and released in Dec 2018. It can be hard to watch, and really can make you angry at the music industry. Aurora actually posted 2 "statements" about the documentary, when it was released, and they can be comforting to read:

Thanks for the quotes! That's indeed comforting in a way, because I watched it and it felt a bit surreal. I remember this one scene where she runs off to a restroom trying to hide from all the people around her in that club, but there was also a camera and I kept thinking "is this a real docu or more like movie?".

and the TV show "HAIK" where the host drives Aurora around in a van to different surprises, while we learn about her life, and it ends with a concert in the forest.

Yep, I've watched the HAIK concert already, beautiful place she played there!

Some highlights from that article:

Ooh, thanks a lot! Did you put those 200 bucks on the table they want for their cheapest subscription?

[feedmevinyls]

Ooh, thanks a lot! Did you put those 200 bucks on the table they want for their cheapest subscription?

Article was leaked on Reddit (paywall was very easy to bypass). Was reluctant to post the full thing here because of the forum copyright rules.