"We made it without obligation or expectation, just a joy in creation," the duo said of the new record
Aurora and The Chemical Brothers' Tom Rowlands have announced their debut album as Tomora, along with news of two intimate debut shows in Manchester and London.
Before forming the band and dropping epic single 'Ring The Alarm' earlier this week, the pair had collaborated several times, first with Aurora lending vocals to a few tracks on Chems' 2019 album 'No Geography' and later on 'For That Beautiful Feeling', before Rowlands returned the favour by "puking and vomiting" ravey flourished to 'My Body Is Not Mine' from 2024's 'What Happened To The Heart?'.
Now, their shared creative energy has culminated in a full-length album, which you can pre-order/pre-save here. The 12-track record is set for release on April 17 via Fontana and will include their aforementioned debut single, as well as 'THE THING', and new single 'COME CLOSER'.
"This is our album 'COME CLOSER', it is everything we dreamt of," Tomora said of the new record. "We made it without obligation or expectation, just a joy in creation. It's the sound where we meet, the landing zone of our musical escape pods. It is a special place to us. We hope you dig it as much as we do."
As well as being made available digitally to stream and download, 'COME CLOSER' will be released physically via CD, standard black vinyl LP and a limited-edition colour vinyl LP - which you can check out here.
The 'COME CLOSER' tracklist is:
'PLEASE'
'COME CLOSER'
'A BOY LIKE YOU'
'RING THE ALARM'
'MY BABY'
'HAVE YOU SEEN ME DANCE ALONE?'
'SOMEWHERE ELSE'
'I DRINK THE LIGHT'
'WAVELENGTHS'
'SIDE BY SIDE'
'THE THING'
'IN A MINUTE'
Also announced today (February 6) are the first-ever live shows from the duo, which include dates at at Manchester's New Century Hall on March 25, and at London's EartH Hackney on March 26.
Tickets for the UK shows - which come ahead of their first ever festival performances at Coachella in April - go on general sale next Friday (February 13) at 10am. You can find your tickets here.
Before the identity of the duo was unveiled, they'd already appeared on the line-ups of several summer festivals, including Down The Rabbit Hole, and Øya in AURORA's native Norway.
Tomora's 2026 tour dates are:
MARCH
25 - New Century Hall, Manchester
26 - EartH Hackney, London
APRIL
12 - Coachella - Indio, USA
19 - Coachella - Indio, USA
JULY
3 - Down The Rabbit Hole - Ewijk, Netherlands
4 - Open'er Festival - Puck County, Poland
5 - Down The Rabbit Hole - Ewijk, Netherlands
9 - NOS Alive, Lisbon, Portugal
9 - 11 - Bilbao BBK Live - Bilbao, Spain
16 - Colours Of Ostrava, Czechia
18 - Dour Festival - Dour, Belgium
AUGUST
11 - 15 - Sziget Festival - Budapest, Hungary
14 - ØYA Festival - Oslo, Norway
In their first exclusive interview as Tomora, the duo told NME they'd taken a step back from working on solo material to focus solely on writing new music, which they promised was "going to be wild".
"It's all about this, really," Rowlands said. "We got together last week, and we're making new music already. We can't stop!"
Aurora added that it felt "so nice just to get this part of you out", adding: "It's so refreshing, fun, and I can't wait. I'm also making more music for me now, but I like to do both. You get to be hot and cold, awake and asleep, hard and soft. The multitudes make me feel very complete as a human being."
Rowlands agreed that a change in creative pace was welcome. "It's nice. Every day has been spent working towards The Chemical Brothers. I love working with Ed and the music we've made together," he said.
"It's been my life, and it still is my life, but with the last tour and making 10 albums, there was a bit of a feeling of, 'I need to just have some other thing happen and something else to think about'. I needed to wake up with a new challenge. The experience of working with Aurora on 'No Geography' was such a beautiful thing to me, and I thought, 'I want to have that feeling again'."
The last time we sat down with the Norwegian alt-pop star fell ahead of a massive gig at Wembley, and at the time, she touched on working to make arenas feel more intimate to foster a deeper connection with the audience.
As for how that might play into Tomora's upcoming live dates, she said: "I feel like I can experience Tomora in the same way as anyone out there can; both from the inside and out.
"There's something about this album that is easier to listen to without judgment. It's very enjoyable. It's a freeing thing, and it's been very easy to live with it. It's the same with the live performance: I'm going to feel like I'm also in the audience, and not just entertain, but play.
"I think I'm going to learn some things."
