• LP IARC99LP£25.99
      Expected 24 OctPreorder
    • CD IARC99CD£13.99
      Expected 24 OctPreorder
      • 1. Vexations
      • 2. Layered Presence
      • 3. Works And Days
      • 4. Elka
      • 5. Promenade à Deux
      • 6. Axial Seamount
      • 7. A Title Comes
      • 8. Rated OG
      • 9. Oganesson
      • 10. Night Gang

      Today, Tortoise announces Touch, the first new album from the groundbreaking group since 2016. This new record from the post-everything icons comes via International Anthem and Nonesuch Records on LP, CD, and digital download on October 24, 2025, and on streaming services on November 11, 2025. Lead single "Layered Presence" — an exercise in tension that pairs its moody pulse with a ringing, searching melodic theme — is out on all DSPs now.

      With Touch, the Tortoise bandmembers — Jeff Parker, Dan Bitney, Douglas McCombs, John Herndon, and John McEntire — harness their collectivist songwriting approach, a slightly anarchistic but resolutely egalitarian process where ideas triumph over ego towards an abstracted muscularity. While there are still excursions into the dusky, elegantly gnarled jazz ambience that flourished on landmark works like Millions Now Living Will Never Die and TNT, Touch is perhaps most remarkable for Tortoise's unapologetic embrace of grand gesture. Aerodynamically re-engineered Krautrock, hand-cranked techno rave-ups, and pointillist spaghetti western fanfares are all imbued with Tortoise's now-signature internal logic — equally alluring and confounding, a puzzle to be savored rather than solved.

      The stylistic diversity is also a reflection of the band's current operating circumstances: With two members now in Los Angeles, another in Portland, and just two remaining in the band's Chicago hometown, their creative process has shifted dramatically from when they lived together in a loft space in the late 1990s, honing their sound over endless hours of collective experimentation.

      Recorded between the three cities — Los Angeles, Portland, and Chicago — Touch is the result of an intentional effort by these five musicians to reconnect, recenter, and reinvigorate their sound for what is perhaps the group’s most diverse release to date.

      Touch is the culmination of a long-gestating reunion, the results of which Tortoise first shared this past March, when they released "Oganesson" — "an off kilter, 7/4 funk tune with a spy-movie ambience" ( New York Times) that is included on the new album — ahead of a career-spanning opening night performance at the boundary-crossing music festival Big Ears. They followed that with the Oganesson Remixes EP, which featured reworks of the track from poet and activist Saul Williams, prolific mastering engineer Heba Kadry, Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney, indie music icons Broken Social Scene, and International Anthem labelmate Makaya McCraven.

      A series of special shows is planned through the end of the year, including The Broad Museum in Los Angeles, multiple nights at NYC's Bowery Ballroom, and a landmark show at The Auditorium in Chicago, where Tortoise will play with the Chicago Philharmonic for the first time.

      Other Releases by Tortoise

      TortoiseOganesson RemixesInternational Anthem
      The Oganesson Remixes EP follows the March 2025 release of the “Oganesson” digital single, which was the first new music released by Tortoise since...

        Other Releases on International Anthem

        Makaya McCravenIn The MomentInternational Anthem
        Nearly 48 hours of live improvised performance recorded at 1 venue over 12 months and 28 shows - culled, cut, rendered, and remixed into 19 potent pieces...
          TortoiseOganesson RemixesInternational Anthem
          The Oganesson Remixes EP follows the March 2025 release of the “Oganesson” digital single, which was the first new music released by Tortoise since...
            Saul Williams, Carlos Nino & FriendsSound then WordsInternational Anthem
            Saul Williams meets Carlos Niño & Friends at TreePeople is the first collaborative album from poet/vocalist Saul Williams and percussionist/producer Carlos...
            • – Sound Then Words
            • – We Are Calling Out in This Moment...
            • – The Water Is Rising / As We Surpass the Firing Squad…
            • – We Have Work to Do... (Speaking After the Concert)
            • 1. – Sound Then Words
            • 3. – We Are Calling Out in This Moment...
            • 4. – The Water Is Rising / As We Surpass the Firing Squad…
            • View full info and tracklisting
            Chicago Underground DuoHyperglyphInternational Anthem
            Hyperglyph is the first new album in 11 years from composer / trumpeter / synthesist Rob Mazurek and composer / percussionist Chad Taylor's long-running...
              Angel Bat DawidThe Oracle (IA11 Edition)International Anthem
              Angel Bat Dawid's International Anthem debut The Oracle introduced her multifaceted voice to the world. The response to its modest, initial cassette/digital...
                Ben Lamar GayYowzersInternational Anthem
                The latest album from Chicago composer and improviser Ben LaMar Gay is his most fluid and assured to date. Backed by his long-time quartet of Tommaso Moretti,...