King Crimson are working on their first new album in more than two decades.
The prog rock legends’ singer-and-guitarist Jakko Jakszyk has revealed he, Robert Fripp, Mel Collins, Tony Levin, Pat Mastelotto, Gavin Harrison and Jeremy Stacey have been back in the studio gradually building their first studio effort since 2003’s The Power to Believe.
The news will come as a surprise to fans as it was assumed they were over after their last tour in 2021.
Co-founder Ian McDonald passed away in February 2022, and the group’s songwriter, lyricist and synth player Peter Sinfield died in December 2024. The group was hit with another death when ex-percussionist Jamie Muir passed this February.
Speaking to Goldmine Magazine, Jakszyk said: “It was an amazing thing to have done, and in a way, part of it’s still happening.
“As we speak, we’re doing a King Crimson studio album.”
As for when it will be released, he offered up: “When that will come out and what format or how – that’s beyond my brief.”
He continued: “But yeah, we’ve been doing it piecemeal, and then a couple of months ago, the management said, ‘Can we?’ So, yeah. I’ve been recording that with a view to it coming out in some format at some point. But who knows when?”
The project will boast studio recordings of live releases, alongside “some other bits and pieces”.
Jakszyk also teased the release of his and Fripp’s album, The Scarcity Of Miracles.
He added: “Plus, there’s also an album I made with Robert before I joined Crimson called The Scarcity Of Miracles. There’s a version of it that’s about to come out with loads and loads of extra stuff.”
Fripp – the longest-lasting member of the band – previously insisted King Crimson will end when he decides to retire.
The 79-year-old guitarist is the only member of the band to have played in every line-up of the prog rock band since their formation in the late 1960s until now.
Speaking at a media day attended by BANG Showbiz to announce King Crimson’s 50th anniversary shows in 2019, the musician was asked: “Can King Crimson be King Crimson without Robert Fripp?”
Which prompted the matter of fact reply from Fripp: “No.”
The next question was: “So when you stop performing, is that the end of King Crimson as a band?”
Which Fripp answered with a straightforward: “Yes.”
In 2022, Levin casted doubt on a reunion when he told Metrograph: “The sense I got from Robert [Fripp] was that it’s over. Maybe King Crimson will speak to him in the future in some way, and will revive its head with who-knows-what line-up?”