VNV Nation’s ‘Automatic’ turns 15 on 16 September
VNV Nation released “Automatic” on 16 September 2011 through Anachron Sounds, recorded at the band’s own studio between May and August that year.
VNV Nation, the British-Irish futurepop and EBM project led by Ronan Harris, released “Automatic” on 16 September 2011 through Anachron Sounds. The album turns 15 this year. Harris recorded it at the band’s own studio between May and August 2011, wrote the words and music, produced it, and made the artwork.
It was the eighth VNV Nation studio album, issued in Europe as a CD digipak, with the North American physical CD following on 25 October 2011. In its first week it entered the German Media Control chart at number 8, the duo’s first top ten placing there, and stayed three weeks. It also reached number 66 in Austria, number 77 in Switzerland and number 50 in Sweden, and spent four weeks at number 1 on the Deutsche Alternative Charts.
VNV Nation’s ‘Automatic’ tracklist and credits
The record runs ten tracks: “On-Air”, “Space & Time”, “Resolution”, “Control”, “Goodbye 20th Century”, “Streamline”, “Gratitude”, “Nova”, “Photon” and “Radio”. “Control” went out as a free download ahead of the album without being issued as a single, and “Nova” picked up German radio airplay.
VNV Nation at the time were Harris and Mark Jackson. André Winter handled additional mix production and mixed the album with Harris, and Miles Showell mastered it at Metropolis Mastering in London. Ben Wolf shot the photography. Copies sold on the road during the Automatic tour in 2011 were signed and hand-numbered by the band.
The album stayed in the live set long after that. Across December 2016 and late 2017 the duo ran the Automatic Empire tour, playing “Automatic” and “Empires” almost in full, leaving out only “Photon” from the former and “Firstlight” from the latter. A double vinyl edition followed in clear and black pressings, reported here in VNV Nation reissues ‘Automatic’ on double vinyl (clear/transparent + black).
About VNV Nation
Ronan Harris grew up in Dublin, where radio introduced him to Kraftwerk, DAF and The Human League. He joined a band called Die Fabrik in 1983, moved to London in 1989 and began writing under the name Nation, then relocated to Toronto in 1990. In 1994 he revived the project as VNV Nation, taking the initials from his motto “Victory Not Vengeance”.
The first release, “Advance and Follow”, appeared in 1995. Harris has described it as a set of demos rather than a finished album, and a 2001 reissue, “Advance and Follow 2.0”, added re-recorded vocals and five bonus tracks, two of them Front 242 covers. “Praise the Fallen” followed in 1998. Through the same period Harris wrote for Side-Line and served as the magazine’s webmaster until 1999.
“Empires”, released in 1999, spent seven weeks at number 1 on the Deutsche Alternative Charts. “Futureperfect” arrived in 2002, built entirely with software synthesizers, and around that point Harris and Apoptygma Berzerk‘s Stephan Groth were credited with coining the term futurepop. Mark Jackson, the band’s live drummer since the mid-1990s, was by then the second half of the studio line-up. “Matter + Form” came in 2005 and topped the DAC albums chart, and “Judgement” followed on 4 April 2007, written and recorded in the band’s own room inside the Soundfactory Studios complex in Hamburg.
The box set “Reformation 1” reached Europe on 24 April 2009, which pushed the next album back. Harris told Side-Line the title referred to the 3 things that people desire and which can make you or destroy you, and “Of Faith, Power and Glory” reached Europe on 19 June 2009. “Automatic” followed in 2011 and “Transnational” in 2013. The orchestral collection “Resonance: Music For Orchestra Vol. 1” was recorded at the Babelsberg Studios outside Berlin in February 2015 and released that 15 May, reaching number 7 on the official German album chart.
Jackson’s departure in November 2017 was reported in Exclusive : Mark Jackson leaves VNV Nation. Read full statement., with the band’s statement saying he had left to pursue other paths in life. Harris continued alone. “Noire” arrived in 2018, covered in VNV Nation releases new album ‘Noire’ – Out now, on Anachron outside North America and on Metropolis Records in the United States, and it carried the project’s first official music video, reported in VNV Nation debuts official video for ‘When is the future’. “Electric Sun” followed on 28 April 2023, covered in VNV Nation has a new album out, ‘Electric Sun’, 5 years after previous studio album ‘Noire’, and Harris talked through that record in the Side-Line piece VNV Nation interview: ‘Life goes on, the world goes on’. North American dates with Traitrs ran into 2024, announced in VNV Nation launches extra North American tour dates with Traitrs. “Construct” arrived on 9 May 2025.
Fifteen years on, “Automatic” sits in the middle of that run as the record that gave VNV Nation their first German top ten album.
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