The Olivia Tremor Control Announce First Album in 27 Years, the Same Place, With 27-Track Psychedelic Return for October
ATHENS, GA — The Olivia Tremor Control are back with The Same Place, their first new album in 27 years. The 27-track set arrives Oct. 23 via The Elephant 6 Recording Co., bringing the cult psychedelic-pop band back with a project fans have been waiting decades to hear.
The record picks up after the group’s celebrated 1990s albums, Music from the Unrealized Script: Dusk at Cubist Castle and Black Foliage: Animation Music Vol. 1. It also arrives as a deeply personal release shaped by the deaths of co-founders Bill Doss and Will Hart.
How the album finally came together
The Same Place has been in progress for nearly 20 years. After the band reunited for a handful of shows in 2005, Doss and Hart started writing together again, and recording began in 2010 as the group returned to active status in 2011.
Work stalled after Doss died in 2012, and the project remained unfinished for years. In 2023, Athens musician and producer Jason NeSmith joined after watching The Elephant 6 Recording Co. documentary, helping push the album forward with the support of the wider Elephant 6 community.
A final tribute to Doss and Hart
The completion of the album became even more emotional after Hart died unexpectedly in 2024. With Hart’s extensive notes, producers Derek Almstead, NeSmith and Ron Kwasman helped finish the record, turning it into what is being framed as a tribute to both founding members.
The opening track, “Begin Now!,” sets the tone with the lyric, “If the time is now, we haven’t really lost time.” The album is described as a meditation on rebirth, time, death and transformation, while still keeping the band’s adventurous psychedelic sound intact.
What fans can expect from The Same Place
Alongside the title track and “Garden of Light,” the album includes songs such as “Advice From the Oceans,” “Meeting Ourselves,” “It’s Not Impossible (Golden Times)” and “Fossil Faun.” The track list stretches across 27 songs, including a seven-part “Path of the Parallels” sequence.
For longtime listeners, the release marks a rare new chapter from one of Elephant 6’s most distinctive bands. After years of starts, stops and loss, The Same Place is poised to arrive as both a comeback and a memorial.
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