The True Union releases ‘Sleepwalk’ album featuring late Tony ‘IT’ Särkkä (Abruptum, Ophthalamia and Vondur)
The True Union
American industrial metal and dark electro project The True Union has released “Sleepwalk” via Alfa Matrix. The 11-track digital album is the project’s first Alfa Matrix full-length under the The True Union name, following the 2022 EP “Love Me Now (Not)“, and was produced by Sebastian Komor.
The album includes known tracks like “Love Me Now”, “Karma”, “Burn In Hell”, “Blinded” and “One By One”, alongside new album material.
Note that “Internal War” features Hellhammer of Mayhem and the late Tony “IT” Särkkä, the Swedish multi-instrumentalist we know from Abruptum, Ophthalamia and Vondur and who died in 2017. An in memoriam video posted by The True Union shows the material as raw vocal tracks recorded by Särkkä for “Internal War”.
“One By One” features Komor Kommando, and “Karma” and “Trvst” feature Jamie Cronander. Cronander is an American guitarist and live musician, best known as a Combichrist live member and as guitarist for Striplicker.
The release is available through Bandcamp, Juno Download, Audiomack, Spotify and all other platforms.
About The True Union
The True Union is an American one-woman industrial project founded in 2009 by Azul Far. Far first released material independently under The Union moniker between 2009 and 2015, including multiple singles, one album and one EP. In 2017, she recruited musicians and began performing regional live dates.
It was Attila from Mayhem who recommended producer and musician Travis Bacon, who worked on tracks that later reached record labels.
The project then appeared on the Alfa Matrix compilation “Sounds From The Matrix 023” with the track “Purousthai”. That compilation placement preceded the project’s Alfa Matrix debut EP “Love Me Now (Not)”, released in December 2022. The EP arrived with the official video for “Love Me Now” and included work with Sebastian Komor, Siggi Bemm, Travis Bacon and guitarist Jamie Cronander. It also featured “One By One” with Komor Kommando and remixes by Alien Vampires, Aesthetische and Acylum.
“One By One” was actually written for a Komor Kommando EP. Azul Far contributed guest vocals to that track after Sebastian Komor worked on production and mixing for The True Union. Komor then said, “I was doing the mixing and production for her new release and after hearing her vocals I just had to ask her to sing on one of my new tracks.”
While Far began working with Sebastian Komor, Siggi Bemm produced and recorded the live drums for “Blinded”. Jamie Cronander recorded guitars after Far met him during a regional tour with Psyclon Nine, where Striplicker also performed.
“Sleepwalk”, her first full album for Alfa Matrix is out now. The 11-track digital album includes “One By One” with Komor Kommando, “Internal War” with Hellhammer of Mayhem and Tony “IT” Särkkä of Abruptum/Ophthalamia, and “Karma” and “Trvst” with Jamie Cronander.
Make sure to read our interview with The True Union.
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