Krautrock icons Faust will release a new album, Faust Is Last, on May 24. According to the band, it will be their final release.

This parting LP comes almost forty years after their self-titled debut of 1971, with its brilliant x-rayed fist artwork (‘Faust’ means ‘fist’ in German, though the name also alludes to Marlowe’s possessed Doctor). The x-rayed fist reappears on the cover of Faust Is Last, this time with its fingers slightly opened, adding to the sense of finality.

We’ve not heard the record as yet, so we’re at the mercy of a press release:

“Whatever can happen to a band has happened to Faust. In that sense they are not an unusual group of musicians. What is unusual is that each project, each record, each concert over the last 40 years has been different. On the very first record they made clear (on clear vinyl) that they were in it for destruction. ‘All you need is love’ and ‘Satisfaction’ symbolically were set fire to. That same fire you will hear on this new & last Faust record. The circle will be closed by more circular music.

“A music that seems to come out of nowhere, sonic descriptions rather than songs. Timeless and not rooted in specific places and/or traditions. Maybe influenced by Cage’s idea of chance, Dada, cut-ups, Sun Ra’s free jazz organ playing and the second attempt after the German-American Monks to represent ‘a rock group as total artwork’. faust in 1970 and in 2010 sound aggressive and 100 percent oriented towards the future. There is not a glimpse of nostalgia in Faust Is Last.”

Faust’s current line-up consists of Hans Joachim Irmler, Jan Fride, Steven W. Lobdell, Lars Paukstat, and Michael Stoll. Faust Is Last is already available to order on double-vinyl direct from Klangbad Records; it will be available elsewhere on May 24.