Saturday 14 November 2026
Irish experimental collective Robocobra Quartet have released Hundred Pieces, an album of 100 songs that lasts five hours. They have also announced Ten Easy Pieces, a ten-track physical edition from Dinked, out on 5 March 2027, along with two Irish shows in March. Before that, London fans can see them at the ICA on 19 November as part of the London Jazz Festival. Here’s what you need to know.
1. A 100-song album that started as a joke
The idea of a 100-track album began as an off-hand remark, but the band soon started writing specifically for “the hundred”, as they call it. They were inspired by the long-form art of Marina Abramović, especially her memoir Walk Through Walls, and set out to make the whole album work as one composition. Releasing it was a challenge in itself. “It has been a serious journey to get this over the line,” says drummer and vocalist Chris W Ryan. “We’ve even had pushback from places like Spotify etc. because there are some things that their system wasn’t able to deal with.”
2. Five hours of music, made without AI
At five hours long, Hundred Pieces goes against the attention economy. It moves from harsh saxophone blasts to thoughtful, post-hardcore-tinged miniatures, then slowly breaks down into dub mixes and stark ambient pieces. Some songs, like the singles “Haha” and “Nothing”, became complex studio productions worked on for months. Others, like “Gilded” and “Ashes Again”, were moments captured during writing that lasted just a few minutes. The album was made with absolutely no use of AI, and it is meant to celebrate creative work as a form of joy. You can listen straight through, skip around, or jump to track 100 to see how it ends.
3. Artwork grown in petri dishes
While the band were writing, saxophonist Thibault Barillon began growing fungus in petri dishes at home to create the album artwork. This became an improvised process that ran alongside the music-making, feeding the band’s fascination with chance. Like the organisms in the dishes, some songs grew slowly and others came and went quickly. Ryan says: “It feels fun to be experimenting not only musically but also with delivery and release of music. I’m excited to have this record exist as an artefact of our cheeky and playful ambition.” The current line-up is Ryan, Finn McCarthy, Ryan Burrowes, Peter Howard, Tom Tabori and Barillon.
4. Ten Easy Pieces, for those who’d rather start small
Ten Easy Pieces is the band’s “classic album” version of the project. It’s a physical Dinked edition mastered for vinyl by Matt Colton at Metropolis, out on Friday 5 March 2027. The band voted on the tracklisting, which includes “Gilded”, “Haha”, “Nothing”, “Everything Broken”, “Walk Through Walls”, “Sing Heavenly Muse”, “Bell Tower”, “Gabriel”, “Needles” and “I Hear”. “We did a vote amongst the band and some of us were surprised by each other’s picks. It felt like solving a puzzle,” says Ryan. “Matt Colton at Metropolis mastered the record for vinyl so it sounds great for the nerds.”
5. A cult band you can see live in London
Robocobra Quartet have built a cult following since their 2016 debut, Music For All Occasions. They were formed by Chris W Ryan, who is also an in-demand producer with recent credits including Chalk, Just Mustard and TTSSFU. The band mixes members with no musical training and others with conservatoire backgrounds. They have played everywhere from Montreux Jazz Festival to living rooms, pub basements, boats and the Arctic Circle. Drowned in Sound called them “Fugazi meets Mingus”, and The Guardian called them “Incantatory”. Catch them at the ICA on 19 November, then at Other Voices in Dingle, Dublin’s Bello Bar and Belfast’s The MAC.
Tickets and info
Hundred Pieces – out now
Ten Easy Pieces (Dinked edition vinyl) – out Friday 5 March 2027
Thursday 19 November 2026 – ICA, London (London Jazz Festival)
28–29 November 2026 – Other Voices, Dingle
Friday 12 March 2027 – Bello Bar, Dublin
Saturday 13 March 2027 – The MAC, Belfast