A new album from Morphine built from archival recordings of previously unreleased songs titled Cocoon will arrive Dec. 4. The instantly recognizable alt-rock group, whose lead instrumentation included baritone sax and two-string fretless bass, disbanded after the 1999 death of vocalist-bassist Mark Sandman. But they recorded Cocoon’s music for the album in 1998 with producers Paul Q. Kolderie and Sean Slade in sessions that preceded those for their final album, 2000’s The Night. Kolderie worked with Sandman’s life partner, Sabine Hrechdakian, to transfer and remix the tapes in 2023. Saxophonist Dana Colley also added new sax parts to three of the album’s songs.
The title track, released Thursday, opens with baritone sax dominating a slow-dripping groove that paves the way for Sandman’s lyrics: “Come on in to my cocoon, no one comes in except for you.” The song is jazzy and evocative of late nights in smoky clubs. The group’s trademark sense of space, room for the sax, Sandman’s voice, and ear candy like acoustic guitar, echoey cymbals, and distant piano, and their uniquely chill sense of melody take cente rstage on the song.
“Mark loved performing and traveling the world, but he also loved to come home and cocoon,” Hrechdakian said in a statement. “It was our home and his studio, so there was always music happening, tape running, friends dropping by at all hours, lots of cooking. The lyrics speak to the hardship of being away from loved ones while the band was on tour and the joys of homecoming. There’s also this thread of space travel that runs through the album, so I imagine the cocoon as a kind of spaceship for two who leave the world and return to it.”
The Cocoon sessions found Morphine playing with different instrumentation, including piano and drumming from friends and collaborators. But Sandman abandoned the sessions when he refocused the band for what would become The Night.
Songs on Cocoon came out in different forms on bootlegs and the 2004 compilation, Sandbox, but this release presents them differently. “Coming back to these recordings years later was a surreal experience,” Colley said of adding new parts to the songs. “It was like having one foot in the past and one in the present, with my saxophone bridging the gap.”
In the decade between Morphine’s foundation and Sandman’s death, the group released four albums (not counting The Night, which came out posthumously). Their 1993 album, Cure for Pain, became an indie hit thanks to college radio embracing the title track, “Buena,” and “Thursday.” Their songs were featured in the movie Spanking the Monkey and, more recently, the TV series Beef and Euphoria.
The release also features never-before-published photos and liner notes by essayist Hanif Abdurraqib.
Cocoon Track List
1. “Tomorrow”
2. “Wig”
3. “Patience”
4. “Spaceman Charm”
5. “Justine”
6. “Moons of Jupiter”
7. “Cocoon”
8. “Pretty Face”
