Eric Prydz - Opus (2016)

Eric Prydz releases his debut double album ‘Opus’ on February 5 via Virgin Records. ‘Opus’ is a personal narrative through the diverse and rich soundscapes that make up one of electronic music’s most unique and respected producers.

Producing under multiple aliases and straddling house, techno and more, Prydz is a twice Grammy nominated artist, who has risen to the very top of electronic music. He’s headlined solo shows at iconic venues like Brixton Academy and Madison Square Garden, yet refused to give up his roots in underground club culture. For the breadth of his career his productions have walked a delicate and admirable path, straddling the increasingly divided world of electronic music, drawing admiration from chart toppers and underground icons alike.

‘Opus’ eschews hyperbolic concepts, reinvigorating the electronic music album format by showing a record can still be smart and anchored by the dancefloor. Refusing to be pigeonholed or constrained, Opus is filled with the same spirit that saw an 8 yr old Prydz reject formal piano training due to its rigidity. From breathy melodic euphoria to stripped back dark minimalism, Opus is quintessentially Eric Prydz, immaculately produced, soaring but intimate, euphoric and melancholic, and underpinned by those singular Prydz melodies.

Prydz released over 30 tracks in 2015, celebrating decade long milestones of his most popular aliases, the melodic house of Pryda and the dark techno of CirezD. But despite this prolific year that underscored the popularity of his signature sounds, Prydz refuses to look backwards, and surprises on Opus, imbuing the record with a real sense of discovery.

From the golden-age of Swedish techno that dragged him into club culture, to the synth-pop of the 1980s that sparked his love affair with electronic music, Opus reveals the influences that have shaped Prydz, while also being his most personal and intimate work to date. It’s not calculating or contrived, its Eric’s story.