Love Forever

Description

On-U Sound has announced details of a very special album, which closes the label's 30th anniversary celebrations. Led by the legendary Ari Up, it is the band's fifth album, the first since Foundation Steppers in 1983, and the last album Ari worked on before her death in October 2010. Ari, The New Age Steppers, Adrian Sherwood and On-U Sound have a long history together. As a producer, Sherwood first met Ari Up in 1978. As he explains, "Ari really stood out, partly for her appearance but even more for her almost crazy enthusiasm for music." Sherwood and Ari Up (the lead singer of the all-female English punk band, The Slits) built a long-lasting friendship and musical collaboration. Ari Up was part of the original On-U collective that recorded under the name New Age Steppers. The culmination of 30 years of friendship and love between England's two most gifted and creative cult talents, the recording of Love Forever began a few years ago when Sherwood and Ari reunited in the UK and started working on the track Conquer. In 2008, Ari Up was diagnosed with cancer, but her inextinguishable passion for music remained intact and she was determined to complete the album they had started. Sherwood flew to Jamaica where Ari had lived since the early 80s and where they finished the recording; Sherwood then completed the production in the following years. Love Forever is a track from the very first New Age Steppers album, and often, when Ari signed something, you would read Love Forever... Ari.