Morphine: posthumous album "Cocoon" out now, featuring unreleased tracks by Mark Sandman - Listen to the title track

A new Morphine album built around recordings made by Mark Sandman in the final years of his life. It's called “Cocoon” and will be released on December 4 via Partisan Records, more than 26 years after “The Night”, released posthumously in 2000 following the death of the American band's singer and bassist.

Sandman died on July 3, 1999, felled by a heart attack on stage during a Morphine concert at the Nel Nome del Rock festival in Palestrina, near Rome. He was 46. With his deep baritone voice and distinctive two-string slide bass, he was the driving force behind the unmistakable sound of the Boston trio, rounded out by sax and drums, capable of blending rock, blues and jazz without ever using a guitar.
The material on “Cocoon” dates back to the period before work began on “The Night”. Morphine had started a series of sessions with producers Paul Q. Kolderie and Sean Slade, who had already worked with them on “Good”, “Cure For Pain” and “Yes”, and who had also collaborated with artists such as Radiohead, Hole and Uncle Tupelo. Those recordings, however, were shelved and sat in the archives for years. They were rediscovered by Kolderie himself and Sabine Hrechdakian, Sandman's partner, who went through the original tapes, transferred the recordings and selected the tracks for the new album. Kolderie also handled the mixing, while Morphine saxophonist Dana Colley recorded new parts for three tracks. The liner notes are written by author and poet Hanif Abdurraqib.

The title “Cocoon” speaks directly to Sandman's private life and the contrast between long stretches on tour and the return home. Hrechdakian recalls how the musician loved to travel and play, yet was just as drawn to retreating into his own “cocoon”: their home was also his studio, a place where music was a constant presence, with tapes always running, friends dropping by at all hours, and plenty of time spent cooking. The lyrics bring back exactly that: the strain of being away from loved ones and the joy of returning, alongside a recurring motif tied to space travel — in his imagination, the “cocoon” becomes a kind of spaceship for two people drifting away from the world only to return to it.
The album is previewed by the title track “Cocoon”, accompanied by a video made from archival footage (see below). An earlier version of the song had already appeared in 2004 on “Sandbox: The Music Of Mark Sandman”, a posthumous double CD dedicated to the Morphine leader's recordings.

The tracklist and cover art for “Cocoon”

1. Tomorrow
2. Wig
3. Patience
4. Spaceman Charm
5. Justine
6. Moons Of Jupiter
7. Cocoon
8. Pretty Face

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