Morphine to Release Archival Album Cocoon in December

Morphine will release Cocoon, an eight-song archival album of previously unreleased material, on Dec. 4 via Partisan Records.

The Boston band confirmed the release on its official website, with Rolling Stone reporting that the music dates to 1998 sessions recorded before the death of vocalist and bassist Mark Sandman in 1999, after which the group disbanded. The band's announcement describes it as a new album three decades in the making.

Morphine were a jazzy rock band centred on baritone saxophone and two-string fretless bass rather than guitar. Sandman sang in a baritone and played two-string slide bass, while saxophonist Dana Colley supplied the other lead voice. Sandman once described the blend simply: his voice, the bass and the sax were all in the same range.

Cocoon was cut in 1998 with producers Paul Q. Kolderie and Sean Slade. Those sessions came before the sessions for The Night, the band's final studio album released in 2000. The tapes captured the core trio stretching beyond its usual formation, with piano and drumming from friends and collaborators joining in.

The material then sat unreleased for more than two decades. In 2023, Kolderie worked with Sandman's life partner Sabine Hrechdakian to transfer and remix the tapes. Colley later added new saxophone parts to three of the songs.

Longtime listeners may recognise parts of the music. The songs circulated in different forms on bootlegs and on the 2004 compilation Sandbox. Some lyrics from the title song "Cocoon" also appear in "Like a Mirror" from The Night.

The eight tracks are "Tomorrow," "Wig," "Patience," "Spaceman Charm," "Justine," "Moons of Jupiter," "Cocoon" and "Pretty Face." The title track "Cocoon" was made available for listening when the album was announced, according to Stereogum.

The package adds visual and written material. It includes never-before-published photos, never-before-seen artwork and photography by Sandman, and liner notes by essayist Hanif Abdurraqib.

For fans, this means a short, self-contained set rather than outtakes placed around familiar songs. Eight tracks. One lost session. A band heard trying different shapes.

The band's official store is offering a bundle with a vinyl LP, an album T-shirt and a poster, with an expected ship date of Dec. 4, 2026.