Avicii’s family and collaborators have revealed that the late EDM star’s first posthumous LP, Tim, will arrive this summer. A single titled “S.O.S.” that features Aloe Blacc on vocals will precede the album, the New York Times reports; Blacc also sang on Avicii’s 2013 hit “Wake Me Up.” “S.O.S.” is out April 10th.
Tim, which takes its name from Avicii’s birth name Tim Bergling, boasts music that Avicii was working on in the final three months of his life; Bergling died by suicide in Muscat, Oman in April 2018.
“I was trying to produce through someone else’s eyes and ears — someone who’s not here,” producer Carl Falk told the New York Times of Tim. “It was really hard not to criticize yourself the whole time. Would he like this? What would he have done?”
The songs on Tim were “75 to 80 percent done” at the time of Avicii’s death. “He left behind a collection of nearly finished songs, along with notes, email conversations and text messages about the music,” Avicii’s team said in a statement.
In addition to Blacc, Avicii collaborators like Kristoffer Fogelmark, Albin Nedler, Salem Al Fakir and Vincent Pontare worked on the album, as did Coldplay’s Chris Martin, who provides vocals on the leaked song “Heaven.”
“The album felt coherent and personal,” Johnny Tennander, Avicii’s publisher at Sony/ATV, said of Tim.
The New York Times articles also includes the first interview with Avicii’s father Klas Bergling since his son’s suicide, a word that the family is finally coming to terms with.
“I use the word as often as I remember to use it. I have to get used to the word,” Klas Bergling said; he declined to tell the Times the circumstances of how his son died. “There is no letter… Nothing points in the direction that he was planning it.”
Earlier this month, Avicii’s family launched a foundation to address mental health and suicide prevention. “Avicii’s net proceeds from the album will go to the nonprofit Tim Bergling Foundation and the purposes it will work for,” Avicii’s team added.