It appears a new album from Boards Of Canada is on the turquoise horizon after 13 years away as new information, as a new song comes to light.
Boards of Canada are a Scottish electronic music duo consisting of brothers Mike Sandison and Marcus Eoin.
We told the story of the band and their seminal modern electronic classic debut album Music Has The Right To Children on the podcast recently, and it’s been 13 years since their last album Tomorrow’s Harvest, and that was it until now.
BOC fans are notorious in uncovering and unearthing lore, sources and information about the band and the latest mysterious series of communications leans into that.
There’s been a lot happening but all in small increments.
June 2022
BOC representative MDG confirms in a private message to a Twoism forum user that a new album is in production: “Nothing specific I’m allowed to share yet unfortunately, just that a new album is on its way.”
April 2023
Bleep, when asked about a new BOC album, responds: “we don’t know when the new BoC album is coming” – notably using “when” not “if.”
July 2023
BOC’s official Threads account posts, inviting followers for “future news and announcements.”
March 2025
The website cosecha-transmisiones.com – originally used to promote Tomorrow’s Harvest in 2013 – is quietly updated. Fans on Twoism forum notice it now reads: “nobody home… /// -. — -… — -.. -.– / …. — — . .-.-.- .-.-.- .-.-.-” (the second part being “nobody home…” in Morse code).
June 6th 2025
New BOC merchandise announced exclusively via Bleep. Widely speculated to signal an imminent announcement. Shipping begins June 11th.
August 15th 2025
BOC post a Twoism celebration video to social media marking the 30th anniversary of their first publicly available vinyl release. New Twoism repress available via Bleep. BOC begin liking fan comments about new music on Instagram.
August 29th 2025
The cosecha-transmisiones.com site is redirected to the Tomorrow’s Harvest Transmission video.
April 6th 2026
Fans begin reporting across Reddit, Discogs and social media that they have received mysterious VHS tapes in the post – imprinted with BOC’s hexagon-mesh logo, featuring static-y cryptic visuals and an ambient soundscape with almost unintelligible speech and droning synths. The campaign is immediately compared to the ARG-style rollout that preceded Tomorrow’s Harvest in 2013.
BOC Pages has all the details.
The text apparently says:
“In every new issue of the monthly magazine for seekers everywhere, devotees arrive with exclusive supersonic flexi-disks bearing voices and music that strike the heart. Subscribe now, every month find a record with devotion with a hexagonal sound disc. Discover the new issue: six-sided flexible carrying high-fidelity recordings from the MBI Institute. Hear the patterns, follow the shapes. This marks the first low of a strange dessert, reflections and source of life. Now with your first issue, you’ll receive the exclusive flexi-hexidisc, a hexagon of sound. Six voices and music to guide your path. Subscribe today, discover the New Month’s journey. Each issue brings insight into devotion and a unique exodus of voices and music to guide your path. The guide is the light that calls them, music and spoken words to make way clear. **The first issue is free**. From the first line to the last word, the message is clear. It’s monthly devotion, revelation, and the exclusive hexasong from the desk. All for only 2.95, call now.”
Reddit establishes this is from an ad for Moody Monthly Magazine which was a publication of Moody Bible Institute (a private Christian bible school based in Chicago) that stopped publishing around 1991.
Footage is drawn from cult and religious fanatical clips as sourced here, including the Oregon cult depicted in the documentary Wild Wild Country, led by Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.
April 15th 2026
Warp Records posts cryptic street posters to their social channels without comment – featuring imagery of zombified children similar to the artwork of Music Has The Right To Children (1998), stamped with the Hexagon Sun logo. Speculation intensifies that an RSD release may be incoming.
April 16th 2026
A mailing list appears on the band’s official website.
Boards of Canada upload ‘Tape 05’ to their YouTube channel, with corresponding uploads on Warp’s social channels. Three minutes and 21 seconds of new music – the first since Tomorrow’s Harvest in 2013. It is an ambient piece featuring a harp melody, which is out of the norm for BOC, with shimmery synth drone textures.
It reminds me a lot of ‘Dayvan Cowboy’ in how it rises in the second half along but also very much like the band’s many interludes when it begins.
No announcement, no press release, no album information accompanies the release. It is unclear whether it is a standalone piece, a snippet, or the beginning of a wider rollout.
April 22nd 2026
Boards of Canada officially announce Inferno – their fifth studio album and their first in 13 years – due May 29th via Warp Records. The announcement is accompanied by a 42-second trailer featuring a hexagonal shape bathed in alternating colours and a snippet of new music.
No single accompanies the announcement, but the 18-track tracklist is revealed:
- Introit
- Prophecy At 1420 MHz
- Hydrogen Helium Lithium Leviathan
- Age Of Capricorn
- Father And Son
- Somewhere Right Now In The Future
- Naraka
- Acts Of Magic
- Memory Death
- The Word Becomes Flesh
- Into The Magic Land
- Blood In The Labyrinth
- Deep Time
- All Reason Departs
- Arena Americanada
- The Process
- You Retreat In Time And Space
- I Saw Through Platonia
Notably, ‘Tape 05’ is not listed by that name but is linked to ‘Father and Son’ on the tracklist – the fifth track, matching the track length. Wikipedia
Physical formats include a special edition translucent red double vinyl, standard black vinyl, CD and digital editions, all including a 16-page booklet.
The title Inferno is the most explicit reference to religion and the occult since Geogaddi (2002) and the In a Beautiful Place out in the Country EP. Several track titles also reference cosmology and physics – “Naraka” refers to the realm of hell in Indian religions, “The Word Becomes Flesh” quotes the Gospel of John, and an “Introit” is a psalm sung at the beginning of a Christian mass. bocpages
April 29th 2026
BOC announce a series of immersive global listening sessions for Inferno, taking place simultaneously on Friday May 22nd across seven cities: Tokyo, Berlin, Barcelona, London, Glasgow, New York, and Los Angeles – one week before the album’s release.
Inferno arrives May 29th. The wait is almost over.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
