Finally Moving: Pretty Lights Surprise Releases 1st Album In 13 Years & Announces 2026 Tour Dates

Pretty Lights (Derek Vincent Smith) made the first 15 of 45 tracks featured on A Trip Thru Time Fantastic, his first new album since 2013, available to stream for free on his revamped website. The treasure trove of new music arrived with the announcement of his The Fantastic Pretty Lights aboard the Soundship Space Bus Tour, which includes a trio of three-night stands across the U.S., along with previously confirmed festival appearances.

The 45 tracks on A Trip Thru Time Fantastic were recorded between 2017 and 2026. Pretty Lights split the material on the long awaited follow-up to 2013’s A Color Map Of The Sun into nine “constellations” of five songs each, with the first three released on Wednesday night. The remaining tracks will be shared by November 25, Smith’s 45th birthday.

Smith is joined on nearly all of the tracks by frequent collaborator Michal Menert on keys, guitar and additional production. Pretty Lights Live Band keyboardist/bassist Borahm Lee appears on the majority of the 15 songs. Other contributors to the first three constellations include drummer Alvin Ford Jr., turntablist Chris Karns, keyboardist Brandon Butler and horn player Scott Flynn.

Pretty Lights will kick off his The Fantastic Pretty Lights aboard the Soundship Space Bus Tour with three nights at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York August 21 – 23. Smith then headlines Secret Dreams, Yawn Dawn, Mempho Music Festival and Hulaween in September and October. The tour resumes at The Fillmore in New Orleans November 6 – 8 and concludes with shows November 19 – 21 at Oakland’s Fox Theater.

An artist presale for the tickets to the new headlining dates begins Wednesday, July 8 at 10 a.m. local time. General on-sales follow on Friday, July 10.

Find the link to purchase, Smith’s statement about the new music and the tracklist by scrolling below:

Smith shared the following about A Trip Thru Time Fantastic on Pretty Lights social media channels:

Big news ya’ll

The PL posse has tuned in, inspected alignment, & wiggled its way into a fantastic metamorphosis & now we can crack the code on dropping the first Pretty Lights album in over a decade.

✨A Trip Thru Time Fantastic✨
A decade of tunes imagined & chiseled by a family of dreamers 🎶🎨
9 shimmering constellations of sound over time 🌌

I said I didn’t want to focus on albums after ACMOTS over 10 years ago & shifted my energy towards living creative systems & conscious cohesion via the Soundship Space System and the Swirlbridge. So much music was made over those years with my bestest friends, for the purpose of swirling and experimenting with journeys into expressive flow state transmissions & reaching new depths of connection with our beloved cosmic caravan, the PLF.

In the last 9 years of timeline weavery, I built a home with the love of my life, found a spiritual path, reunited with my eternal soul brother Michal Menert, formed an AV ensemble to power a traveling laboratory, and been blessed with the most beautiful experience of my life… meeting my son Ayahn.

The time has come to release our musical swirl fodder in the form of the next PL album. A galaxy of 45 songs in 9 constellations before my 45th birthday. Today is constellations 1, 2, and 3.

Oh & also:

Pretty Lights Soundship Space System has been deconstructed & reassembled into a magic school bus 🚌✨ The metaphysical gravatronics in outer dime zones proved the vimana could be reimagined with original scope and age old lofty heights travectories 🌌🚀

After all, Pretty Lights is an iridescent umbrella under which sometimes 1 candle glows, sometimes 2 bulbs hum, & sometimes a bus load of lights pioneer til dawn 🌈✨💡

It has been a true honor, being a part of the universe coalescing this squad together & I am absolutely blissed on the next iteration. The bran spankin new Soundship Space Bus has been optimized for off the grid swirlage by the good folks at Bridge Industries and our new powerhouse production team (on poster) as well as the…
Wait for it… 🥁💫✨⭐️

💡FANTASTIC PRETTY LIGHTS⛵️
dvs, mm, bL, afj, 96🌀🛸

+ MT & The PF
All aboard the SSSB!¡ 🪐🚌

https://www.instagram.com/p/DaRHLsFmTmx

A Trip Thru Time Fantastic Tracklist

constellation 01

1. The Sun Spreads In Our Mind
2. Road To The Stars
3. Time To Build A Home
4. How Can You Lose
5. Private Ledge

constellation 02

1. Where Are You Going
2. Thru The Years
3. YNDIO aka AM Glow
4. Chasing Rainbows
5. The World Is A Cinema

constellation 03

1. Wake Up
2. Hot Like Rox
3. Vigs Drop
4. Wheel Within A Wheel
5. Trip Thru Time