Ice on the Dune

Ice on the Dune
Studio album by Empire of the Sun
Released	14 June 2013 (2013-06-14)
Recorded	November 2011 – 2013
Studio	Various Avatar Studios, Downtown Music Studios, Nick's 9th Street, Sear Sound (New York City) The Chateau (Coromandel Peninsula, New Zealand) Circle House (Miami) The Dungeon (Perth) Forgotten Valley Music Studios (Lower Mangrove, Australia) John Hills Studio, Pulse Studios, Sage and Sound Recording, Westlake Recording Studios (Los Angeles) Linear Studios (Sydney) The Muse (London)
Genre	Synthpop electropop disco Eurodance glam rock
Length	42:52
Label	Capitol
Producer	Empire of the Sun Peter Mayes Donnie Sloan
Empire of the Sun chronology
Walking on a Dream (2008) Ice on the Dune (2013) Two Vines (2016)
Singles from Ice on the Dune
"Alive" Released: 15 April 2013 "DNA" Released: 5 September 2013 "Celebrate" Released: 14 February 2014

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	68/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Drowned in Sound	6/10
The Guardian
The Independent
NME	4/10
The Observer
Pitchfork	5.6/10
PopMatters
Rolling Stone
Slant Magazine

Ice on the Dune is the second studio album by Australian electronic music duo Empire of the Sun. It was released on 14 June 2013 by Capitol Records. The album was met with generally positive reviews from music critics, with many commenting on the progression of the group's sound from their debut album.

A trailer for the album debuted on 11 March 2013; it was produced by Kelvin Optical, a production division of Bad Robot, and was directed by J. D. Dillard. Along with this, the band released a fictional story related to the album which described a world looked over by an "Emperor" and a "Prophet".

The lead single "Alive" premiered on 15 April 2013, and the album became available to pre-order on iTunes the same day. The music video for the song, filmed in Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah, was directed by Charles Scott and Alex Theurer and also produced by Kelvin Optical. Both "DNA" and "Celebrate" were serviced as follow-up singles and were also released as official remix singles on iTunes.

To promote the album, the duo played a series of US festival dates, and without Nick Littlemore, Luke Steele returned to Australia on 30 May to perform at the Sydney Opera House for Vivid Sydney. The duo performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on 18 June, marking their first television appearance in the US. The duo also performed at the Australian Splendour in the Grass festival in late July.

The album's cover art, designed by Aaron Hayward and David Homer from Sydney studio Debaser, won an Artisan Award prior to the ARIA Music Awards of 2013, held on 1 December. In addition, the album was nominated for Best Pop Release, Engineer of the Year (Peter Mayes) and Producer of the Year (Steele, Littlemore, Mayes and Jonathan Sloan). Empire of the Sun were also nominated for Best Group for the album, but did not win.

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Wikipedia