Nightwish's Tuomas Holopainen teases a new Auri album

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Nightwish's Tuomas Holopainen confirms he's working with Troy Donockley on another Auri album

Auri on Tintagel beach
(Image credit: Auri/Nuclear Blast)

Nightwish leader Tuomas Holopainen has revealed that he's working on a follow-up to Auri's acclaimed self-titled debut. The side-project features Holopainen, multi-instrumentalist Troy Donockley, and Finnish vocalist Johanna Kurkela (who's also Holopainen's wife).

"A new Auri album is in the pipeline and the idea is to get it recorded and released some time during 2021," he says. "We already have about seven or eight songs done so it's only a matter of finding the time and the place to record those songs, but it's sounding excellent so far!"

The trio came up with the idea for Auri back in 2011 as a means for combining their passion for folk, celtic music and soundtracks .

Meanwhile, Nightwish will release their new double album Human. :II: Nature. on April 10. Check out the video for first single, Noise, here!

Natasha Scharf
Natasha Scharf
Deputy Editor, Prog

Contributing to Prog since the very first issue, writer and broadcaster Natasha Scharf was the magazine’s News Editor before she took up her current role of Deputy Editor, and has interviewed some of the best-known acts in the progressive music world from ELP, Yes and Marillion to Nightwish, Dream Theater and TesseracT. Starting young, she set up her first music fanzine in the late 80s and became a regular contributor to local newspapers and magazines over the next decade. The 00s would see her running the dark music magazine, Meltdown, as well as contributing to Metal Hammer, Classic Rock, Terrorizer and Artrocker. Author of music subculture books The Art Of Gothic and Worldwide Gothic, she’s since written album sleeve notes for Cherry Red, and also co-wrote Tarja Turunen’s memoirs, Singing In My Blood. Beyond the written word, Natasha has spent several decades as a club DJ, spinning tunes at aftershow parties for Metallica, Motörhead and Nine Inch Nails. She’s currently the only member of the Prog team to have appeared on the magazine’s cover.