New single ’13:13′ marks Project-X’s first release since ‘Needles and Control’ (2010)
New single '13:13' marks Project-X’s first release since 'Needles and Control' (2010)
Sweden’s electro duo Project-X is back after 16 years of studio silence. The new track “13:13” was written and performed by long-time members Torny Gottberg and Björn Lager in January 2026. During the recording, mixand, and mastering they were assisted by engineer Hans Olsson at Svenska Grammofonstudion in Gothenburg.
A second, alternative mix of the track has been created in collaboration with producer Carl Nilsson, better known from his industrial project Lucifer’s Aid.
Their previous EP “Needles and Control” was released in February 2010 via Memento Materia and included four tracks, among them “Needle (2010)” and a cover of Joy Division’s “She’s Lost Control”.
The new single will be out on 30 January 2026 via Progress Productions.
Live plans: festivals and club dates in 2025–2026
Since the vinyl reissue of “Modus Operandi” in 2023, Project-X have gradually returned to the live circuit. The band marked their first live appearance in roughly two decades at Sweden’s Subkult Festival, followed by a show at Germany’s NCN (Nocturnal Culture Night) festival.
In 2025, Project-X continued with selected festival appearances in Germany and Belgium, including a slot at Bimfest in Sint-Niklaas, Belgium. For 2026, the band is confirmed for the E-Only Festival in Leipzig and is planning a series of club shows in Sweden, marking their first domestic club dates in many years.
About Project-X
Project-X is a Swedish EBM formation from the Stockholm area, active since the mid-1990s. Over time the project has centred on vocalist and songwriter Torny Gottberg and musician/producer Björn Lager, with earlier line-ups also featuring Jouni Ollila, known from Pouppée Fabrikk and MZ.412.
From the outset, Project-X positioned themselves inside the harder, club-oriented side of Scandinavian EBM. Early releases appeared via the Swedish cult label Energy Rekords and later via Memento Materia and Trisol.
In the late 1990s they debuted with the album “Forbidden Desires” and the single “Fearless”, which held key tracks such as “The System Is Dead”, “Fearless”, “Cyberdome” and “Forbidden Desires”.
Around 2000, Project-X dropped the remix release “All Systems Dead EP”, featuring extensive reworks of “The System Is Dead” by acts such as Funker Vogt, Pouppée Fabrikk, The Nine, Deadjump and Rational Youth, plus additional tracks like “Ocean of Thoughts” and “Humanity”. This period also saw the compilation “Closing Down The Systems” and the “Infected/Reminder (Total Edition)” release.
In 2003 the band issued their second full-length album “Modus Operandi” on Energy Rekords in Sweden and on Trisol in Germany as a special two-disc edition. The album collected club tracks such as “Infected”, “Reminder”, “Last Notes” and “Lies 2k2”, several of which later appeared on EBM compilations including “Endzeit Bunkertracks“.
The mid-2000s period brought the “DJ Operandi EP” and “10 Years Anniversary EP”, consolidating ten years of activity with alternative versions and additional material. Their last studio release before the current comeback, the “Needles and Control” EP, arrived in February 2010 on Memento Materia, combining a Joy Division cover with new tracks and a remix by Claus Larsen (Leaether Strip).
Their 2003 album “Modus Operandi” was reissued in 2023 as a hand-numbered red vinyl edition limited to 300 copies, including a previously unreleased remix of “Infected” by Evil’s Toy. The reissue coincided with their first live shows in roughly twenty years and paved the way for festival appearances and the new 2026 single “13:13”.
Outside Project-X, key members have remained active in the Scandinavian electronic scene. Torny Gottberg founded the label Progress Productions in 2004, releasing artists such as Spark!, Xenturion Prime and Wulfband. In a 2021 we also published an interviews with Torny Gottberg in which he explicitly described his release strategy as “quality over quantity”.
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