Following Avicii‘s unfortunate passing away earlier last year, the electronic music community continues to come to terms with the shocking news. And come today, we have finally received the first single, ‘SOS‘ featuring Aloe Blacc from the late producer’s forthcoming posthumous album, TIM. Sleek and modern, the song is built on the singer’s soaring voice and a dually spare and brightly layered pop production from Tim Bergling, Albin Nedler and Kristoffer Fogelmark.
Before Tim’s untimely death back in April 2018, he was already working on tons of new music. “Afterwards, finishing them was … I just get paralyzed by talking about it, but everything was about completing Tim’s vision,” says Fogelmark. And so they began. Through FL Studio, Albin and Kristoffer were able to track and preserve Tim’s exact keystrokes. “He had a completely different way of playing piano and keyboard,” says Nedler. “As a result his fingers would sometimes strike an unusual key, which added to his unique sound. Tim’s fingerprints are literally across the entirety of “SOS”.” In the personal notes recovered after his passing, Tim wrote that he wanted to work with Aloe Blacc, the vocalist on the giant hit song ‘Wake Me Up‘, so they invited him to record. Said Blacc,
“I feel like SOS was a song that was probably ahead of its time for when he wrote it. He wrote these lyrics obviously about some of his battles and I think it’s a really important topic to approach and to share, especially with his visibility and his access to ears and hearts. To give people the words to be able to say ’I need help.’”
Listen to ‘SOS‘ below. ‘TIM‘ is due for release on June 6 and all the proceeds from the record will go to the Tim Bergling Foundation which works to prevent mental illness and suicide.