Today, the iconic and influential Tortoise share their first new music since 2016: the digital single “Oganesson,” in anticipation of a larger body of work to be released soon via International Anthem & Nonesuch Records (details TBA).

The track is out just hours before the group perform at the adventurous and esteemed Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee, playing  several new pieces of music in addition to classics from their more than three decades-deep catalog of boundary-defying, vanguard-defining music.

Listen to “Oganesson” here.

Tortoise is widely considered one of the most influential music groups of the last 40 years, with a wide-reaching impact on the contemporary music scene. Pitchfork says: “Imagine a graphic showing all the bands the five members of Tortoise were in before they came together and then all the bands they went on to play with after. At the top of the funnel you have groups ranging from dreamy psych-rock to earthy post-punk crunch, including Eleventh Dream Day, Bastro, Slint, and the Poster Children; on the ‘post-Tortoise’ end are groups focusing on electro-jazz and twangy instrumental rock like Isotope 217, Chicago Underground, and Brokeback. In this graphic, Tortoise is the choke point, the one project that has elements of all these sounds but is never defined by nor committed to any of them. Instead, Tortoise floats free, a planchette moving over a Ouija board guided by 10 sets of fingers, where everyone watches the arrow float in one direction but no one is quite sure how it gets there or who is doing the pushing.”

The band, which originally formed in Chicago, comprises Jeff Parker, Dan Bitney, Douglas McCombs, John Herndon, and John McEntire.

Photo by Todd Weaver

Initially hailed as pace-setters of the then-emerging, so-called “post-rock” sound, the Chicago Tribune called Tortoise’s sound “mood music that refuses to be shoved into the background, as inviting as it is challenging.” Releasing just seven albums since 1990 — including classics like 1996’s Millions Now Living Will Never Die, 1998’s TNT, and 2001’s Standards — Tortoise has steadily and intuitively evolved across its life, creating genreless music that is as timeless as it is ahead of the curve.

The band’s legacy goes beyond its recorded output, as well. Per the New York Times: “While Tortoise’s albums have experimented with the editing and overdubbing possibilities of the studio, the band thrives performing in real time.” Rolling Stone deems Tortoise “a live marvel,” while Pitchfork further says the band’s performances reveal that “at heart, they’re a supremely fun band, wide open to all sorts of sonic possibilities.”