The Tangent have announced they’ll release their 11th studio album later this year.
The follow-up to 2018’s Proxy is titled Auto Reconnaissance and it’ll launch on August 21 through InsideOut Music.
The record is said to celebrate the “golden age of prog, while bringing it to the present and exploring new paths for the music to take in the future,” and will feature the sprawling 28-minute track Lie Back & Think Of England.
The Tangent leader Andy Tillison says: “I utterly refuse to accept that progressive rock music is some kind of museum piece. It is actually a living and breathing movement that has a past, a present and above all, a future.
“It once had an album chart-topping golden age, but the genre was never about that. It has subtly and virally kept itself alive for decades where many new musical genres have risen to glory and faded away.”
Tillison will be joined on Auto Reconnaissance by Luke Machin, Jonas Reingold, Theo Travis and Steve Roberts.
Speaking about the lineup, Tillison says: “In the past six years, the lineup of The Tangent has become more stable than at the beginning. I think that the identity of The Tangent as a group rather than a project started to come together on A Spark In The Aether in 2014.
“Essentially Luke, Jonas, Theo and myself have appeared on the last four albums, and we added Steve Roberts for the tour that supported The Slow Rust Of Forgotten Machinery in 2017 and we’ve settled on this lineup. I hope for a while because I find this unit to be productive, in tune with the band’s purpose and manifesto and a lot of fun to boot.
“Auto Reconnaissance is the first time that the core band has been identical in structure to its predecessor. For the first time I feel that everyone is in tune with the fusion of jazz, prog, punkishness and electronica that The Tangent likes to cook up.”
Tillison adds: “We are a good group of friends and although we don’t meet up often, it’s a real blast when we do. I’ve always considered Ed Unitsky the cover artist to have been a recurring member of the cast – his artwork has been a huge part of our story and although we move away, we always return.”
Auto Reconnaissance will be released on limited edition CD Digipak featuring the bonus track Proxima, gatefold 2LP/CD with booklet, and on digital and streaming platforms.
The Tangent: Auto Reconnaissance
1. Life On Hold
2. Jinxed In Jersey
3. Under Your Spell
4. The Tower Of Babel
5. Lie Back & Think Of England
6. The Midas Touch
7. Proxima (Bonus track)
