After 35 years, the iconic music group Abba have announced that they have written and recorded new songs.

In a statement that was released on their official Instagram page, the band said ““The decision to go ahead with the exciting Abba avatar tour project had an unexpected consequence. We all felt that, after some 35 years, it could be fun to join forces again and go into the recording studio. So we did. And it was like time had stood still and we had only been away on a short holiday. An extremely joyful experience!”

The songs were made for a two hour television special, which will air I December. It is co-produced by the BBC and NBC and the four piece will perform as CGI avatars.

Band member, Bjorn Ulvaeus said that that he and his bandmates were digitally scanned and then their avatars were made to look younger and similar to how they looked during their last tour appearance in 1979.

The avatars are also set to do a world tour next year.

Abba is one of the world’s best-selling recording artists. They were formed in Stockholm, Sweden in 1979 and were composed of two couples, Bjor Ulvaeus and Agnetha Faltskog and Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad.  They rose to fame after winning the 1974 Eurovision song contest with the song “Waterloo”. Since then they have produced hits which includes “Take A Chance On Me”, “Knowing Me, Knowing You”, “Dancing Queen” and “Mamma Mia” which was used as the title of a Broadway musical that used their songs for all of the numbers.

The musical was adapted into a film of the same name starring Meryl Streep on 2008, and will be followed up by a sequel Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again which will be released in June.

Abba chose to split following the divorce of both couples, afterwards the men of the group Ulvaeus and Andersson who served as the band’s songwriters have gone on to write a couple of musicals. Lyngstad has kept a low profile so did Faltskog, although she did release a new album on 2013.

The band is known for outwardly rejecting any offers to regroup, so kudos to the avatar project that somehow ushered in this era of new music for one of pop’s most legendary groups! And I for one can't wait to hear their new singles, how about you?