The wait is almost over: Anthony Gonzalez is back with M83‘s tenth studio album. On September 4th, he released “Blister Sunrise” the first single from I Wrote You A Letter, out September 25 on his own label, Other Suns.
THE FIRST SINGLE: “BLISTER SUNRISE”
“Blister Sunrise” opens the album, and it sounds like a statement of intent. The song starts with waves of synths that keep climbing higher, with more and more distortion piling on, until it reaches the big, sweeping sound M83 is known for. This time, though, there’s a rougher edge underneath, closer to shoegaze, and the song slows down near the end into a simple, raw piano part. It’s the kind of build M83 usually does, just heavier and less polished than usual.
That rougher sound is deliberate. “This record reflects my state of mind over the past few years,” Gonzalez said in a statement. “I’m deeply disillusioned by the world we’re living in. I wanted something less calculated, more spontaneous. More punk, in a way.”
THE CONTEXT: A LETTER WRITTEN OUT OF DISILLUSIONMENT
I Wrote You A Letter grew out of demos Gonzalez started writing in the summer of 2024, with the goal of working faster and more instinctively, closer to how M83 sounded in its early days. The sessions brought back Benoît de Villeneuve, who first worked with the project back in 2003 on Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts, alongside newer collaborators Joe Berry and Clément Libes. For the artwork, Gonzalez turned to Jean-Philippe Talaga, M83’s original designer and the founder of Gooom, the label that released the band’s very first records.
Rather than sticking to one chapter of the M83 story, the nine-track album moves between guitars, dark electronics, ambient passages and pop. It’s M83’s first album since 2023’s Fantasy, though Gonzalez hasn’t been idle in between: he scored the 2025 soundtrack A Necessary Escape (Dakar Chronicles) and the sci-fi film Resurrection, both released on Other Suns.
FROM ANTIBES TO “MIDNIGHT CITY”: THE M83 STORY SO FAR
Gonzalez formed M83 in Antibes in 2001, initially with Nicolas Fromageau, naming the project after the Messier 83 spiral galaxy. Early albums like Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts (2003) and Before the Dawn Heals Us (2005) built M83’s reputation on dense, shoegaze-tinged electronics, while 2008’s Saturdays=Youth brought a warmer, more melodic sound steeped in ’80s teen-movie nostalgia.
Everything changed with 2011’s Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming. Its lead single, “Midnight City,” became a genuine global hit, going multi-platinum in the UK and Australia and platinum in the US, and the album earned M83 a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Album. The song’s success turned Gonzalez into an unlikely festival headliner, even if he’s been open about his mixed feelings toward the EDM crowd it brought him. He followed it with the brighter, more playful Junk (2016), the instrumental set DSVII (2019), and a run of film scores including Oblivion and Knife+Heart, before returning with Fantasy in 2023.
I Wrote You A Letter arrives as M83’s tenth studio album, and this first single suggests Gonzalez is chasing something rawer this time around.
KEY FACTS
- Single: “Blister Sunrise” — out now (September 04, 2026)
- Album: I Wrote You A Letter — out September 25, 2026, on Other Suns
- Tracklist: Blister Sunrise, Opera, Siren / Behold… Beasts, Aged, Losing Ground, Soldiers of Lust, Heart Motion Foto, Feeding Time, Traces of Love
- Collaborators: Joe Berry, Clément Libes, Benoît de Villeneuve
- Artwork: Jean-Philippe Talaga