Biffy Clyro have released the surprise new original soundtrack album to the film ‘Balance, Not Symmetry’. Check it out below.
The Scottish band’s last full-length LP ‘Ellipsis‘ arrived back in 2016, landing at Number 26 on NME‘s Albums of The Year list. It spawned the singles ‘Wolves of Winter’, ‘Re-Arrange’, and ‘Howl’. They’ve since spent recent months teasing progress on new material from the recording studio (as well as making revelations about jamming with DIY SOS host Nick Knowles).
Earlier this week, they confirmed that the film ‘Balance, Not Symmetry’ with their own original soundtrack will be debuted at Edinburgh International Film Festival on June 23. Now, after sharing the title track and trailer, the band have uploaded the full album to streaming services. A vinyl release will arrive on July 26.
The film (by Jamie Adams) will be released July 26, starring Laura Harrier (BlackKkKsman), Bria Vinaite (The Florida Project), Lily Newmark (Pin Cushion), Freya Mavor (The Sense Of An Ending), Tasmin Egerton (The Brothers Grimsby), Kate Dickie (Game of Thrones), Shauna Macdonald (The Descent) and newcomer Scott Miller.
“On meeting Jamie, we realised early on that we’d both had to deal with grief at a relatively young age and so it was interesting to talk about how we’d both dealt with it and the effect it had on us,” said Biffy frontman Simon Neil, “and this is the main crux of the film, delving into the lonely world of grief and loss and coming out the other side.”
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A synopsis reads: “Filmed in Scotland during Autumn, the ‘Balance, Not Symmetry’ film follows American student Caitlin (Laura Harrier) after her father’s funeral, leaving her grieving mother (Kate Dickie) behind to return to her third-year studies at the Glasgow School of Art. There she juggles her grief and end-of-year presentation with meeting a new guy, Rory (Scott Miller), and a rupture in her relationship with her housemate and BFF Hannah (Bria Vinaite). Can she again find balance in her turbulent life?”
The film “Balance, Not Symmetry” with original soundtrack recording by Biffy Clyro will be screened at the @edfilmfest on 23rd June 2019. More soon!! pic.twitter.com/Ni1EzLJdz5
— Biffy Clyro (@BiffyClyro) May 15, 2019
The full tracklist for ‘Balance, Not Symmetry’ is:
1. ‘Balance, Not Symmetry’
2. ‘All Singing and All Dancing’
3. ‘Different Kind of Love’
4. ‘Sunrise’
5. ‘Pink’
6. ‘Colour Wheel’
7. ‘Gates of Heaven’
8. ‘Fever Dream’
9. ‘Navy Blue’
10. ‘Tunnels and Trees’
11. ‘Plead’
12. ‘The Naturals’
13. ‘Yellow’
14. ‘Touch’
15. ‘Jasabiab’
16. ‘Following Master’
17. ‘Adored’
Last year, the band spoke to NME and the film and their plans to potentially release two albums.
“We’ve been working on a lot of new music,” frontman Simon Neil told NME of their year so far. “We’re working on two records concurrently at the moment.
“We’re doing one record for a movie which will be filmed once we’ve finished it. It’s this really cool kind of collaboration with this Welsh director called Jamie Adams. He’s a fantastic director. He makes some really hilarious movies, but this one will not be funny!”
Neil continued: “We’re writing the soundtrack and some of the script will come from some of the lyrics in the songs. It’s this constantly changing thing at the moment, but we’ve got the songs picked. Then at the same time we’re working on ‘Opus 8’, which is our working title for the next Biffy album.
“That’s going great and we’re just doing what we do. “
The movie sets out to be a “a ‘Romeo And Juliet’ story from Juliet’s point of view”.
“[Jamie] doesn’t work strictly from a script, it’s an outline – that’s why it’s doable,” said Neil. “We’ll have all of our music done, then they’ll go and workshop it with the music playing along and things so the ideas can spark off it. It’s really unusual, and it’s tough to explain. Even our label were like ‘only you would be the band to do everything backwards’. That’s what really appealed to us.”
As for the sound of the soundtrack, Neil added: “I see it as six pairs of songs. There are a couple of songs that are acoustic and but Nick Cave-y, there are a couple that are full-on electronic, a couple of songs that are weird hardcore songs, a couple of big epic rock songs, and we’re just trying to approach it in a different way.”
More details on the project are expected to follow in the weeks ahead.
Meanwhile, Biffy were among the special guests to join Frightened Rabbit at a tribute gig to the late Scott Hutchison back in December.