Sonic experimentalists Stereolab are preparing to release their eighth studio album, Sound-Dust, on August 28, according to Elektra Records.

Recording of the 12-track LP, the successor to 1999's Cobra & Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night, primarily took place in Chicago, with longtime Stereolab collaborator John McEntire of Tortoise and Jim O'Rourke of Gastr Del Sol fame serving as co-producers and musical collaborators. A third Chicagoan, former Stereolab member Sean O'Hagan of the High Llamas, contributed keyboards to the album and arranged the brass and flute portions.

As is expected from the eclectic quintet, famed for its spacey, looped trip-hop and revolutionary Marxist views, a pair of the album's songs are sung entirely in French, with a third, "Captain Easychord," containing portions sung in the romantic language.

Coinciding with the release of the LP, Stereolab's UK label, Duophonic, will issue the four-song EP Captain Easychord.

Stereolab's new lineup — singers Laetitia Sadier and Mary Hansen, drummer Andy Ramsay, bassist Simon Johns and multi-instrumentalist Tim Gane — is without Morgane Lhote, who departed to pursue other projects. Lhote replaced keyboardist Katherine Gifford prior to the recording of 1996's Emperor Tomato Ketchup.

A North American tour will kick off October 21 at the U.S. debut of the All Tomorrow's Parties festival, which also features musical curators Sonic Youth, as well as Stephen Malkmus and Eddie Vedder, among others (see [article id="1444366"]"Sonic Youth Invite Vedder, Malkmus To Their Party"[/article]).

Sound-Dust's track listing, according to Elektra:

• "Black Ants in Sound-Dust"