Morphine :: Cocoon
It can feel strange to imagine a band like Morphine poetically pursuing their precious pilgrimage within the high intensity of the 1990s grunge era. It was such a shocking scene, and for so many of the kids that got swept up in the flannel fever of the times, members Mark Sandman, Dana Colley, and Billy Conway, who passed away in 2021, were eagerly exploring the dark depths of the human spirit, by way of a transcendent trio. The late singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Mark Sandman would have turned 74 this year, on the 24th of September to be exact, since his devastating passing in the summer of 1999 in Palestrina, Italy, at the young age of 46, nearly ten years after the group first formed in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His lyrical legacy burns brighter now than ever before and still pulsates through the melodic marrow of listeners new and old. And while the band needs no investigation into their past work, and with the exciting news of a brand “new” album on the harmonious horizon, we might make it after all. Between 1997’s “Like Swimming” and their last studio album “The Night,” the band’s posthumous album, the trio began working on material that would eventually fall through the creative cracks and lie dormant in the holy hallways of the band’s captivating chambers for nearly three decades. “Cocoon” was originally released as a blissed-out collection of bootlegs and the 2004 compilation “Sandbox (The Music Of Mark Sandman).” Brooklyn-based label Partisan Records has carefully compiled this meditative material for an exclusive release this winter, and fans can rest assured it will be one for the shelves.
“Coming back to these recordings years later was a surreal experience. It was like having one foot in the past and one in the present, with my saxophone bridging the gap.”
“Mark loved performing and traveling the world, but he also loved to come home and cocoon. 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. This thread of space travel runs through the album, so I imagine the cocoon as a kind of spaceship for two who leave the world and return to it,” says Sabine Hrechdakian, writer, editor, restaurateur, and Sandman’s life partner. Drawing from the band's vibrant vaults, a splendid body of work that began to shift internally, “Cocoon” takes on a life of its own through its varied instrumentation and eager explorations into what many could only romanticize as the group’s future findings. With production overseen by Paul Q. Kolderie and Sean Slade (Radiohead, Pixies, Hole), the original tapes and mixes were under the unique supervision of Kolderie and Sabine Hrechdakian, with some recordings featuring fresh saxophone parts from Colley himself. The overall anatomy of the album also features never-before-seen photos and liner notes by American poet and essayist Hanif Abdurraqib, and piano and drumming tracks from friends and creative collaborators. Set for release on December 4th, this collection of vintage vibrations is a perfect send-off of 2026.
