The Durutti Colum have announced their first album in 16 years.
by Paul Cashmere
The announcement marks a significant return for one of post-punk’s most influential and elusive acts. Led by guitarist Vini Reilly, The Durutti Column revealed the new album alongside the release of the first single, ‘Liars’, a reflective and sparse track that reconnects with the atmospheric guitar style that defined the band’s early work.
Renascent is the first album of original material since 2010’s A Paean To Wilson and arrives after renewed international attention around Reilly’s catalogue.
The release follows January’s expanded reissue of 1980 debut The Return Of The Durutti Column, a record that has increasingly been recognised as a cornerstone of British alternative music. While The Durutti Column were never a commercial chart force, their influence has steadily grown across generations of artists, with contemporary musicians including Harry Styles, Blood Orange, Frank Ocean and Yung Lean publicly citing Reilly’s work as an inspiration.
Renascent was recorded with longtime collaborator Bruce Mitchell on percussion and producer and multi-instrumentalist Keir Stewart, who has worked with Reilly since the late 1990s. Singer-songwriter Caoilfhionn Rose also contributes to the album. Stewart is additionally involved in the upcoming “For Vini: A Tribute To The Durutti Column” concert at the Meltdown Festival in London, curated this year by Harry Styles.
The new album features 11 tracks, including ‘Liars’, ‘Sargasso Sea’ and ‘For Friends Everywhere’, a revisiting of the group’s 1980 composition ‘For Belgian Friends’. Original Factory Records-associated designers Mark Holt and Hamish Muir of 8vo created the artwork, reconnecting the release visually to the band’s formative years.
The Durutti Column first emerged in Manchester in 1978 as one of the earliest signings to Tony Wilson’s Factory Records. Although the original band line-up dissolved before recording a debut album, Reilly continued the project largely as a solo vehicle, developing a guitar style that stood apart from the aggression and minimalism of late 1970s post-punk.
Reilly’s fluid and highly melodic playing drew from jazz, classical and folk traditions, creating records that often felt more impressionistic than rock-oriented. Albums such as LC, Another Setting and Without Mercy helped establish a distinctive sonic identity during the 1980s, while later works incorporated electronic production and sampling techniques. Producer Martin Hannett played a critical role in shaping the sound of the early recordings, particularly on The Return Of The Durutti Column, whose original sandpaper sleeve became part of Factory Records folklore.
Despite the project’s enduring cult status, Reilly’s career has frequently been interrupted by health struggles. He suffered a stroke in 2011 and later spoke publicly about the physical limitations it imposed on his guitar playing. In a rare interview with The Guardian in 2023, Reilly discussed his long-running battles with depression and arthritis, saying his ability to play had significantly diminished in recent years.
Those circumstances have added weight to suggestions that Renascent could become the final Durutti Column album. Reilly, now 72, has largely avoided public appearances and interviews over the past decade, making the announcement particularly notable for long-time followers of the band.
The renewed interest in The Durutti Column also reflects a broader reassessment of post-punk’s experimental edge. While bands from the original Factory Records roster such as Joy Division and New Order achieved global commercial recognition, The Durutti Column remained comparatively underground, despite influencing generations of musicians across indie, ambient and electronic music.
Brian Eno once described the 1981 album LC as his favourite record, while younger artists have continued introducing Reilly’s work to newer audiences through interviews, samples and curated playlists. Blood Orange recently sampled the band’s music, and Harry Styles’ public admiration has exposed The Durutti Column to listeners well outside traditional post-punk circles.
For London Records, the release also continues the ongoing revival of the Factory catalogue, which has seen renewed vinyl reissues and retrospective attention over recent years. The success of those archival projects appears to have created momentum for new material, something few followers expected after Reilly’s health setbacks.
The first indication of how Renascent will be received may come from the response to ‘Liars’, a track that retains the emotional restraint and spacious production long associated with Reilly’s music. Rather than attempting to modernise the sound, the recording leans into the qualities that made The Durutti Column singular in the first place.
Renascent will be released on July 31 through London Records.
Tracklisting:
01 Echoes In The Memory
02 Your Shadow At Morning
03 Time Present And Time Past
04 Agonistes
05 Liars
06 Vapour In A Matchbox
07 Your Shadow At Evening
08 Sargasso Sea
09 Scammer
10 For Friends Everywhere
11 All They See Is Fire (CD/Digital Bonus Track)
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