time of your life

ABBA returns with 1st new music in decades, will perform as 'digital versions of themselves'

Here they go again.

ABBA has returned to release new music for the first time in almost 40 years, Variety reports. The Swedish group behind hit songs like "Dancing Queen" will release their new studio album Voyage in November, and they debuted two songs from it on Thursday. This will be their first album since 1981's The Visitors. 

Additionally, the group announced a new concert called "ABBA Voyage," in which they'll perform as digital avatars that were designed by George Lucas' visual effects company, Industrial Light & Magic. 

"ABBA have created the kind of concert they always wanted, performing for their fans at their very best: as digital versions of themselves backed by today's finest musicians," according to the concert's website.

The digital avatars were created after "months of motion-capture and performance techniques with the four band members," per the announcement. The group said their "main inspiration" for returning with new music was to create this show, which they dubbed the "strangest and most spectacular concert you could ever dream of." 

"We're going to be able to sit back in an audience and watch our digital selves perform our songs on a stage in a custom-built arena in London next spring," they said. "Weird and wonderful!" 

ABBA also described the concert as involving them traveling "into the future" with the "help of our younger selves," though they admitted it's "not easy to explain." The new album is set to debut on Nov. 5, while the concert is scheduled to begin in May 2022.