ABBA‘s comeback album Voyage comes out next week, but even though the group is involved with the staging of its upcoming virtual concert experience in London, don’t expect any more new music from them.
That’s the word from the group’s main men, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson. Speaking to the British paper The Guardian, they explain that they wrote two songs that didn’t make it onto the Voyage album, but they didn’t finish them, and so they won’t be released. “This is it,” Benny says. “It’s got to be, you know.”
Referring to the group’s breakup nearly 40 years ago, Benny adds, “I didn’t actually say that ‘this is it’ in 1982. I never said myself that ABBA was never going to happen again. But I can tell you now: this is it.” Bjorn agrees, saying, “Yeah.”
Of course, that doesn’t mean no more ABBA, period. The virtual show will play in London starting next spring and The Guardian notes that the lease on the purpose-built theater is for four-and-a-half years. In addition, the paper reports that there are “vague plans to build other theaters in other cities” so people outside the U.K. can see it more easily.
The four members of ABBA — Bjorn, Benny, Anni-Frid and Agnetha — spent hours being motion-captured to create the show, which will feature de-aged digital “avatars” performing their hits, backed by a live 10-piece band and other effects. Asked if it’s weird to see themselves digitally de-aged, Bjorn says no.
“You have to realize that we are confronted by our younger selves all the time on television, in pictures and all of that….It’s completely natural,” he says. “Everyone should have their own avatar.”
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