Revision as of 10:20, 15 June 2026

Inferno
Label(s)	Warp Records
Catalogue No(s)	WARP496
Release date(s)	29 May 2026
Format(s)	Gatefold 2xLP Deluxe 2xLP + Flexi Disc CD Cassette Digital Merch Bundles
Running time(s)	69:51 70:00 (Continuous Mix)

Inferno is the fifth studio album by Boards of Canada, released on May 29th, 2026, via Warp Records. It comes thirteen years after their previous album, Tomorrow's Harvest, the band's longest gap between albums to date.

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Tracks

All tracks are written and produced by Mike Sandison.^[1]

1. "Introit" – 0:36
2. "Prophecy At 1420 MHz" – 5:04
3. "Hydrogen Helium Lithium Leviathan" – 4:44
4. "Age Of Capricorn" – 3:52
5. "Father And Son" – 3:24
6. "Somewhere Right Now In The Future" – 2:26
7. "Naraka" – 5:01
8. "Acts Of Magic" – 1:18
9. "Memory Death" – 2:37
10. "The Word Becomes Flesh" – 5:20
11. "Into The Magic Land" – 4:35
12. "Blood In The Labyrinth" – 4:55
13. "Deep Time" – 3:18
14. "All Reason Departs" – 6:14
15. "Arena Americanada" – 5:22
16. "The Process" – 3:01
17. "You Retreat In Time And Space" – 5:25
18. "I Saw Through Platonia" – 2:39

Bonus flexi disc (Red 2LP vinyl edition only):

1. "Vol.4 - P. Primers - 177 Giraud's Mirror" – 3:24

Leadup

Main article: Road to Inferno

Speculation for the album's release preceded its official announcement by over a decade, with the band and its associates sparsely giving out new information. Activity notably increased in 2025, including the band's Instagram account liking comments related to a new album, a Tomorrow's Harvest-era website coming online once again, and new merchandise being put on sale. For a more detailed look on the band's activities during this period, see the article Road to Inferno.

Promotional Campaign

Main article: 2026 Promo Campaign

In early April 2026, multiple fans received unmarked VHS tapes through the mail, with sender addresses related to Warp and their online storefront Bleep. About a week after, posters with imagery reminiscent of the band started appearing in multiple places around the UK and US. For an in-depth look at the days preceding the album's announcement, see the article 2026 Promo Campaign.

Title and Themes

As a word, Inferno references hell and places reminiscent of it. It is the most explicit reference to religion and the occult since their 2002 album Geogaddi and 2000 EP In a Beautiful Place out in the Country. The album's titles also heavily refer to concepts in cosmology and physics.

• An "Introit" is a song or psalm that is sung or recited at the beginning of a Christian mass.
• "Father And Son" could reference the Holy Trinity, which consists of the two and The Holy Spirit.
• "The Word Becomes Flesh" is a quotation from verse 1:14 of the Gospel of John.
• "Naraka" references the realm of hell seen in Indian religions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism.
• "The Process" could refer to the Process Church of the Final Judgement, a new religious movement which briefly existed in the 1960s and 70s. The Process was the title of their magazine.
• "Prophecy At 1420 MHz" references the hydrogen line, a specific wavelength of radiation emitted by hydrogen as it undergoes a quantum transition. It has been used to investigate the properties of the universe, and search for extraterrestrial life.
• "Hydrogen Helium Lithium Leviathan" refers to the first three elements of the periodic table and the mythical sea creature.
• "Age Of Capricorn" refers to the tenth sign of the astrological zodiac, and is the astrological age that follows the Age of Aquarius. The symbol of capricorn is the goat, which is symbolic in christian and pre-christian beliefs.
• "I Saw Through Platonia" could refer to a concept by Julian Barbour of a realm called Platonia, which contains every possible configuration of the universe.

Trivia

• Inferno has been assigned the catalog number WARP496. This seems to be a deliberate request from the band themselves, as preceding Warp releases such as Squarepusher's Kammerkonzert and Oneohtrix Point Never's Tranquilizer have catalog numbers of 417 and 411, respectively.
  • 496 is a perfect number and a hexagonal number.
  • 496 also holds significance in gematria (Jewish numerology). Representing Kingdom (Malkhut / מלכות). It should be further noted that 496 is the 31st Triangle number, which holds further significance as 31 is the gematria of the word God (El / אֵל).
• The Continuous Mix version runs for exactly 70 minutes. This seems to be deliberate, as 70 has carried meaning to the band in the past. For example:
  • Music70 is the name of Mike and Marcus's own label.
  • Sixtyten from MHTRTC reads out as 70.
  • The Smallest Weird Number from Geogaddi directly refers to 70, which is the smallest weird number. Even though the track runs for 1:17, it cuts out at exactly 1:10, which is 70 seconds.
• On May 27th, 2026, the White House posted a promotional video for the Trump administration that featured an audio excerpt from Tape 05/Deep Time with a familiar degraded VHS tape aesthetic. They received heavy criticism from fans, with Warp and BoC condemning the "unauthorised use of their music for political messaging."^[2]
• The font used in the front cover of the album resembles the one used in the title frame of Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1979 film Stalker both in color and design. The main plot of the film revolves around a pilgrimage of a kind walked by the trio of the Stalker, the Writer and the Professor. In the film, the Stalker (who guides tourists through the Zone, which he believes possesses the magical properties of wondermaking and wish fulfilment) plays a role of a mentor and/or a chaperon for the Writer (who has lost any motivation to live and work and who genuinely doesn't believe in the miraculous properties of the Zone yet wants to try making a wish there) and for the Scientist (who believes that the Zone is dangerous and wants to destroy it). The film itself is based on Brothers Strugatskys’ book The Roadside Picnic. Both the book and the film take place in a post-apocalyptic world, which might be a reference to the previous Boards of Canada album Tomorrow's Harvest. Furthermore, alike to an album, both the book and the film touch upon the topic of miracles and magic that cannot be fully explained by a conventional scientific knowledge.

Release Notes

All personnel credits adapted from Inferno's liner notes.^[1]

• Mike Sandison – electronics, synths, tapes, programming, audio evocations, drums, percussion, guitars, bass, string instruments, processes, sound design
• Marcus Eoin – electronics, synths, tapes, processes, sound design
• Boards of Canada – recording, artwork, films, photo collage, design
• Matt Colton  – mastering engineer

See Also

• Road to Inferno
• 2026 Promo Campaign
• Inferno listening parties
• Discography
• Timeline
• Statements from Hexagon Sun

External Links

Press

Reviews

Shops

• Bleep
• HHV
• Crash Records
• Jumbo Records
• Norman Records
• Rough Trade
• The Vault Collective ltd

Various

• bocpages: Inferno Survey Results
• Keyosc discussion: "Inferno" May 29 2026
• Twoism discussion: General New Release Speculation Topic Part II
• Twoism discussion: LP5 - Inferno
• Twoism discussion: Inferno Sessions
• Twoism discussion: Inferno Reviews

References

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} "Boards Of Canada – Inferno" on Discogs
2. ↑ "The White House uses new Boards of Canada track for promo video", Michael Lawson, Resident Advisor, 2026

Artwork

The listing below is generated dynamically, based on: Category: Inferno artwork.

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  Inferno Hexagon Flexi-disc.jpg 4.46 MB
  

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  Introit-Prophecy At 1420 MHz cover.jpg 2.1 MB
  

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  Inferno-family-logo.png 60 KB
  

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  Inferno-seven-hexagons-logo.png 180 KB
  

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  Inferno-sessions-2026-05-22.jpg 759 KB
  

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  Bleep-inferno-artwork-07.png 1.47 MB
  

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  Bleep-inferno-artwork-06.png 2.05 MB
  

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  Bleep-inferno-artwork-05.png 3.5 MB
  

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  Bleep-inferno-artwork-04.png 4.25 MB
  

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  Bleep-inferno-artwork-03.png 4.1 MB
  

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  Bleep-inferno-artwork-02.png 1.7 MB
  

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  Bleep-inferno-artwork-01.png 424 KB
  

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  Inferno cover.jpg 2.38 MB