2016 has been a year of major upheaval in the life of Tim Bergling, better known to most as Avicii. He ended his career as a touring DJ to focus on producing full time, take time to focus on his health and stop the toll that touring was taking on his body. Now he has split with his longtime manager Ash Pournouri in a very surprising move. In addition to the change in management, Avicii has announced he is expecting to release a new album in 2017.
In a statement via Billboard, an Avicii representative explained that the producer and Pournouri have parted ways and is expected to release an album on Universal Music Sweden next year.
"2x Grammy-nominated songwriter/producer Tim Bergling and his production/publishing entity Avicii Music AB have parted ways with manager Ash Pournouri, At Night Management. Bergling is signed to Universal Music Sweden and is expected to release an album next year."
This is a quite surprising move given how close these two have been having been together for the better part of a decade. They have been used as an example of how to create a superstar DJ from a management perspective. Pournouri was very hands on, becoming something of a celebrity himself.
This is the second high-profile defection from Ash Pournouri's At Night Management in 2016. He signed Axwell /\ Ingrosso at the end of 2015 from their manager Amy Thomson, only for the duo to return to Thomson earlier this year.
The expected album would be the first major project from Avicii since his 2015 album Stories. When he released Stories, he hinted in several interviews that he had another album almost done and he might release it shortly thereafter. That obviously didn't happen, but we will see if this upcoming LP is different or a continuation of Stories.
