New Single Aurora Sets The Tone For Yes’ 24th Studio Album Aurora, Out June 12 Via InsideOut Music And Sony Music
by Paul Cashmere
Yes have confirmed the release of their 24th studio album Aurora, due June 12, 2026 through InsideOut Music and Sony Music. The English progressive rock pioneers have also unveiled the album’s title track Aurora, accompanied by a new video that introduces the sonic and conceptual framework of the record.
The announcement arrives as the band continues its recent period of sustained creative activity, marking Aurora as the second studio release from the current line-up featuring Steve Howe, Geoff Downes, Jon Davison, Billy Sherwood and Jay Schellen.
Yes have released Aurora, the title track from their forthcoming 24th studio album of the same name, scheduled for release on June 12, 2026. The track is now available alongside a video presentation and serves as the formal introduction to the album’s musical direction.
Aurora continues the band’s modern-era trilogy of albums following The Quest (2021) and Mirror To The Sky (2023), reinforcing the current incarnation of Yes as an active studio entity rather than a legacy touring unit. The release underscores the band’s sustained focus on long-form composition, orchestral arrangement and collaborative writing across international locations.
The title track positions itself as the conceptual centrepiece, integrating orchestral writing performed by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra and reflecting the group’s ongoing interest in blending progressive rock architecture with symphonic textures.
Recorded over an extended period beginning shortly after Mirror To The Sky, Aurora was shaped through a hybrid workflow combining home studios and remote collaboration. Guitarist Steve Howe resumed production duties, maintaining continuity with the band’s recent studio approach while guiding the record’s structural and tonal direction.
Billy Sherwood confirmed early-stage development in 2024, noting the accelerated pace of the band’s recent output and attributing momentum to Howe’s creative direction. Following the conclusion of the Classic Tales Of Yes tour in late 2024, the band intensified recording activity, exchanging material across the United Kingdom and United States.
Steve Howe described the collaborative process as central to the band’s identity, noting that individual writing contributions evolve into full Yes compositions through group development rather than isolated authorship.
Jon Davison has characterised Aurora as part of a continuous arc beginning with The Quest and Mirror To The Sky, describing an evolving but connected creative pathway across the three records. Geoff Downes has also noted that the album leans more heavily into progressive structures and detailed musicianship, reinforcing the band’s foundational identity.
The title Aurora emerged early in the writing process and quickly influenced the visual direction of the project. Long-time Yes visual collaborator Roger Dean, alongside Freyja Dean, developed artwork inspired directly by the album’s conceptual framing.
The tracklist includes compositions spanning concise arrangements through to extended works, including Countermovement, which runs nearly 14 minutes and features full ensemble writing across all members. Orchestral arrangements by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra appear on the opening title track, further extending the band’s long association with symphonic integration.
Yes continue to occupy a unique position in progressive rock history, having first emerged in the late 1960s and becoming one of the genre’s defining acts through landmark albums such as Fragile, Close To The Edge and Going For The One. Over more than five decades, the band has undergone extensive line-up changes while maintaining a consistent musical identity centred on extended composition, harmonic complexity and conceptual presentation.
In recent years, the band’s studio activity has accelerated following a long gap between releases in earlier decades. The current line-up stabilised after significant transitions, including the passing of Alan White and the continued evolution of Billy Sherwood’s role within the group. Jay Schellen’s integration as drummer further solidified the present configuration.
Aurora reflects a broader industry trend in legacy progressive acts returning to sustained studio output, often incorporating remote collaboration technologies and orchestral partnerships to expand sonic scale without traditional studio constraints.
The involvement of the Czech National Symphony Orchestra also reflects an ongoing resurgence of classical integration within progressive and cinematic rock production, a technique Yes notably explored on Magnification in 2001.
While the band’s recent output has been welcomed by its established audience, Yes operates within a challenging space where contemporary relevance is often measured against a vast historical catalogue. The group’s modern recordings are frequently assessed in relation to its 1970s output, a comparison that inevitably frames reception.
However, within the progressive rock community, the continuation of new material from foundational acts is generally regarded as significant in sustaining the genre’s evolution. The shift toward remote recording and international collaboration has also been seen across multiple legacy bands adapting to modern production realities.
At the same time, former members including Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman remain active in parallel projects, highlighting the continued creative output of the wider Yes ecosystem rather than a single unified narrative.
With Aurora scheduled for release in June 2026, Yes extend a remarkably sustained late-career recording phase that has seen three major studio albums in five years. The title track positions the album as both a continuation and expansion of their current creative cycle, reinforcing the band’s commitment to long-form composition and orchestral integration.
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