Mountain King is the fourth album by Space March with inspiration derived from the heights of a Norwegian mountain and the depths of a corporate sea – and everything in between!

The title track incorporates a melody from “In The Hall Of The Mountain King” by Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg, written in 1874-76 for the play, ‘Peer Gynt’. Space March has reinvented this 137 year old theme into an unforgettable piece of symphonic synthpop. Whilst a number of popular artists have produced their own arrangements of this famous theme – The Who in the 60s, ELO in the 70s, Erasure in the 80s, through to Trent Reznor for the film ‘The Social Network’ in 2010, no one has ever attempted to turn the theme into a vocal song quite like the Space March version! The Space March interpretation interweaves original melodies with Grieg’s distinctive theme in a similar way to how Malcolm McLaren incorporated fragments of Strauss waltzes into his own songs. In ‘Mountain King’, the battle between orchestra and synthesiser begins, with the Timpani drums straddling the 808 beat, whilst the chorus vocals are vocoded to sound like a choir of operatic robots.

Space March further tributes Norway in a song with that very name. In the song “Norway”, the landscape is personified as a kind of seductive goddess. But the geographic thread extends beyond Scandinavia to the ancient city of “Babylon”, and like the opening track, “Mountain King”, reveal some of the album’s recurring lyrical themes – the corporation, the corrupting nature of power, change and reinvention.

Mountain King is also balanced with a number of positive and even romantic tracks like “Someone Something Sunshine”, “You Are Electric”, “Apple of My Eye” and the twee closing track (appropriately named) – “Twee Song”.

The album was mastered by Robin Schmidt at 24-96 Mastering, Germany. Robin has previously mastered albums for Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) and Two Door Cinema Club.

Mountain King will be released on February 14 (Valentine’s Day) and will be available both digitally and in a special-edition CD pack featuring a folding paper mountain. The album will be released through Hark Records.

LISTEN TO THE ALBUM »