Laibach announce new pop-leaning studio album ‘Musick’
Laibach (Photo by Nika H. Praper & Ludvik)
Slovenian collective Laibach will release their new studio album “Musick” on 1 May 2026 via Mute Records on a neon pink vinyl, CD and digital formats. The record is said to be the bands’s “most pop-oriented work to date” and is their first original studio album since 2014’s “Spectre.”
Thematically “Musick” tackles an era of constant audio oversaturation and AI-generated content while also reflecting what the band call a “pathological devotion” to music itself. The title plays on being “sick of music” in a world where more than 100,000 new tracks appear online daily, including large amounts of AI-generated music, while simultaneously pointing to music as “an obsession, a kind of drug” that continues to drive the project.
The album was recorded in the group’s Ljubljana studio, using a deliberately maximalist setup that ranged from analogue synths and toys to computers loaded with sound apps. Collaborators include long-time vocalist Donna Marina Mårtensson and producer Richard X (known for his work with Sugababes, Goldfrapp, New Order and Kelis).
A first teaser of this new direction is the single “Allgorhythm,” featuring Ghanaian singer Wiyaala on vocals. Apparently Slovenia’s public broadcaster RTV flagged “Allgorhythm” as a potential candidate for the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 before later withdrawing from the competition.
‘Musick’ tracklist
“Musick” will be released with the following tracklist:
- “Musick”
- “Fluid Emancipation”
- “Singularity”
- “Resistencia”
- “Love Machine”
- “Luigi Mangione”
- “Keep It Reel”
- “Yes Maybe No”
- “Allgorhythm”
- “Das göttliche Kind”
Laibach ‘Musick’ tour dates 2026
Laibach will support “Musick” with an extensive European tour running from May through October 2026. The tour opens on 18 May at Orpheum in Graz and continues through club, theatre and festival venues across Europe.
Confirmed dates currently include:
- 18 May – Graz (AT), Orpheum
- 19 May – Schorndorf (DE), Manufaktur
- 20 May – Cologne (DE), Essigfabrik
- 22 May – Aarhus (DK), VoxHall
- 23 May – Gothenburg (SE), Filmstudion
- 24 May – Stockholm (SE), Nya Cirkus
- 26 May – Helsinki (FI), Savoy Theatre
- 27 May – Tallinn (EE), Kultuurikeskus
- 28 May – Riga (LV), Spelet Concert Hall
- 29 May – Vilnius (LT), Loftas
- 30 May – Warsaw (PL), Progresja
- 31 May – Prague (CZ), Palac Akropolis
- 2 June – Leipzig (DE), Täubchenthal
- 3 June – Munich (DE), Muffathalle
- 4 June – Klagenfurt (AT), Burghof
- 27 June – Maribor (SI), Festival Lent
- 24 July – Castle (SI), Kolpa Music Festival
- 25 September – Ljubljana (SI), Kino Šiška
- 26 September – Ljubljana (SI), Kino Šiška
- 29 September – London (UK), Islington Assembly Hall
- 30 September – Manchester (UK), Ritz
- 1 October – Southampton (UK), 1865
- 2 October – Canterbury (UK), The Gulbenkian
- 4 October – Gent (BE), Democrazy
- 6 October – Bochum (DE), Zeche
- 7 October – Nijmegen (NL), Doornroosje
- 8 October – Hamburg (DE), Große Freiheit 36
- 9 October – Oslo (NO), Rockefeller Music Hall
- 11 October – Copenhagen (DK), Bremen Teater
- 13 October – Berlin (DE), Huxleys Neue Welt
- 14 October – Dresden (DE), Reithalle
- 15 October – Brno (CZ), Fleda
- 16 October – Zagreb (HR), Boogaloo
About Laibach
Laibach originated in 1980 in the industrial town of Trbovlje (then part of Yugoslavia) and later became closely associated with the broader Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK) collective. The name itself uses the historical German term for Ljubljana.
The band’s early work in the 1980s combined industrial sonics, martial rhythms and appropriated iconography. Albums such as “Laibach” (1985), “Nova Akropola” (1986) and “Opus Dei” (1987) established a trademark sound that mixed original compositions with heavily reworked versions of existing songs, including “Live Is Life” and Queen’s “One Vision,” which became “Leben heißt Leben” and “Geburt einer Nation.”
Through the 1990s and 2000s, Laibach extended this approach across releases including “Let It Be” (a full-album rework of The Beatles), “NATO,” “Jesus Christ Superstars,” “WAT” and “Volk.”
From the 2010s onward, they released “Spectre” (2014), the theatre-derived “Also Sprach Zarathustra” (2017), the North Korea-related project “The Sound of Music” (2018), “Wir sind das Volk (Ein Musical aus Deutschland)” (2022), “Sketches of the Red Districts” (2023), the country-inflected EP “Love Is Still Alive” (2023), the rework set “Opus Dei Revisited” (2024) and the symphonic work “Alamut” (2025).
Laibach have also pursued large-scale collaborations and performances, including becoming the first Western rock group to stage a full concert in North Korea in 2015 and working with orchestras and visual artists on projects that connect music with broader political and historical narratives.
Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil.
Since you’re here …
… we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading Side-Line Magazine than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news organisations, we haven’t put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as open as we can - and we refuse to add annoying advertising. So you can see why we need to ask for your help.
Side-Line’s independent journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we want to push the artists we like and who are equally fighting to survive.
If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps fund it, our future would be much more secure. For as little as 5 US$, you can support Side-Line Magazine – and it only takes a minute. Thank you.
The donations are safely powered by Paypal.
