Canterbury prog legends Soft Machine have announced they will release their latest studio album, Thirteen, through Dyad Records on March 13. The band have also shared a video trailer for the new album, which you can watch below.
As the title implies, Thirteen is the band's thirteenth studio album, the follow-up to 2023's Other Doors. It also marks the studio debut of drummer Asaf Sirkis, who replaced the departed John Marshall, who retired from music having completed work on Other Doors, but sadly died in September of that year.
"I’ve known Asaf’s gifts for years, certainly enough to say that as far as I can see there’s nothing he can’t do when he puts his mind to it," former Soft Machine drummer and songwriter Robert Wyatt said of Sirkis. "His kit skills just keep expanding but what really gets to me are his ethereal, haunting compositions."
The album also features a cameo appearance by Soft Machine founding member, the late Daevid Allen, whose guitar part on Daevid’s Special Cuppa was recorded years earlier, and the track was built around it.
Other notable tracks include Pens To The Foal Mode, which is a completely free group improvisation; Open Road, a rocky track which sees the band soaring on all burners with fiery solos by both John Etheridge and Theo Travis; the ballad Disappear, which starts with ethereal looped flutes and develops into a beautiful piano led and drum less miniature; Turmoil, penned by bassist Fred Baker which brims with deranged fuzz bass, manic solos and an almost unhinged clamor and the longest most progressive track of the set, The Longest Night, clocking in at just over 13 minutes.
Thirteen was recorded by Ru Lemer at Temple Music Studio, Surrey in April 2025 and produced by multi-instrumentalist Theo Travis, with mixing and mastering by Andrew Tulloch. The new album artwork, which you can see below. is by Turkish artist Esra Kisir Gokcen.
Soft Machine will play the following dates in November:
Nov 20: Hull Wrecking Ball Arts
Nov 23: Bristol Jam Jar
Nov 27: London Cadogan Hall (with Colosseum)
Nov 29: Sutton Sound Lounge
Nov 30: Southampton 1865 (with Colosseum)
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