Stereolab Announces First Studio Album In 15 Years

04-08-2025

(Orienteer) Stereolab announces their new album, Instant Holograms On Metal Film, due May 23rd via Duophonic UHF Disks / Warp. Their first new record in 15 years includes 13 new studio recordings as well as guest contributions from Cooper Crain, Rob Frye, Ben LaMar Gay, Ric Elsworth, Holger Zapf, Marie Merlet and Molly Read. Alongside the announcement, the group shares a first glimpse into their forthcoming project with "Aerial Troubles" paired with a Laurent Askienazy-directed music video.

Ahead of the album's official announcement, a select number of fans received a package last week stamped "unsolicited Stereolab material." Inside was a 7" single containing "Aerial Troubles" on one side, an instrumental version on the flip, with a cryptic wordsearch insert. Similarly, posters with the band's name appeared in several major cities with the same word grid printed on them.

The band's sign-up website has also begun slowly revealing the album cover art on the Lab Report sign-up page, with different layers gradually appearing. The 7" started landing with people on 2nd April 2025, sixteen years to the day after the group announced they were going on indefinite hiatus. As online speculation continues to grow, fans continue their attempts at solving the word search and fill-in word puzzle, wondering whether the single contained new music or something uncovered from the band's archives.

Instant Holograms On Metal Film will be available on double vinyl LP in standard and colour variants, as well as compact disc and digital formats. The album will arrive two days ahead of the launch of their world tour in Brussels on May 25th. They will then take their discography across Europe with dates in Berlin, Amsterdam, and Paris, among others. They'll be kicking off the North American leg of the tour this coming October with shows across the United States before heading back to perform a string of shows across the UK, including a newly announced London date at Brixton Electric on December 14th.