Morphine will release the archival album Cocoon on December 4, 2026 via Partisan Records. The eight-track set draws on 1998 sessions cut with producers Paul Q. Kolderie and Sean Slade before the band shifted focus to what became 2000’s posthumous album The Night.
Frontman Mark Sandman died of a heart attack on stage in Italy in 1999. Years later, Kolderie and Sandman’s partner Sabine Hrechdakian transferred and remixed the tapes (Kolderie completed new mixes in 2023), while saxophonist Dana Colley added new parts on three songs.
Unlike Morphine’s spare trio template, these recordings lean on piano, guitar, and multiple drummers. The title track is out now; Hrechdakian has described “cocoon” as both homecoming and a kind of spaceship for two.
Tracklist: Tomorrow; Wig; Patience; Spaceman Charm; Justine; Moons of Jupiter; Cocoon; Pretty Face. Liner notes are by Hanif Abdurraqib.
Image: Mark Sandman / Morphine archival photo — Pitchfork — https://pitchfork.com/story/morphine-unveil-lost-album-cocoon/