Depeche Mode have announced their 15th studio album, ‘Memento Mori’, and detailed a world tour for 2023.During a press conference in Berlin today (October 4), frontman Dave Gahan and main songwriter Martin Gore previewed a piece of music from their upcoming LP, which they’ve been recording in Santa Barbara, California.The pair are due to head to New York following the event to finish working on the James Ford-produced new record.“We’re quite far into it now, the actual recording process,” Gore explained. “We’ve got all of the tracks finished for the album, without them being mixed.”Gahan said that Depeche Mode had begun writing the material “a couple of years back”, before eventually reuniting in the studio this summer.A “memento mori” is an object that’s kept as a reminder of the inevitability of death – a skull, for example.
According to Gore, the album’s title was in place prior to the passing of founding member Andy Fletcher aged 60 in May.“It sounds very morbid, but I think you can look at it very positively as well,” he continued. “In that [you should] live each day to the max.
I think that’s how we like to interpret it too.”Gore said: “After Fletch’s passing, we decided to continue as we’re sure this is what he would have wanted, and that has really given the project an extra level of meaning.”‘Memento Mori’ – the follow-up to 2017’s ‘Spirit’ – is set to arrive in Spring 2023 via Columbia Records.
An exact date has not yet been confirmed.Additionally, Depeche Mode have announced a world tour for 2023, including a concert at Twickenham Stadium in London.
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