Blur are heading back to Hyde Park with their first album in more than a decade to headline British Summer Time.
The band, who got back together for a pair of reunion shows in the park six years ago, join Taylor Swift, Kylie and The Who on the bill.
Speaking at a press conference in a London Chinatown restaurant, frontman Damon Albarn said: "We've made a new record". Joking about the venue, he said: "I love it because I can cycle to work".
The show, officially called Barclaycard Presents British Summer Time Hyde Park, is on June 20.
Guitarist Graham Coxon said they started recording in Hong Kong when a gig was cancelled. He said: "We thought we'd put a few days, five or six days, to good use".
Albarn said "the whole thing" was Coxon's fault.
Coxon, who said the sessions were "just jamming", got producer Stephen Street involved to see if the recorded tracks could be released.
Street said the band were "just being really free putting down their ideas" and Coxon admitted some of the tracks "may not sound" like Blur of old.
Talking about the initial recording, Alex James said: "Everything just felt right. I don't think we were really thinking of making a record."
Albarn, who admitted the recording had "not been an effort", said some of the lyrics were inspired by the unrest in Hong Kong and a trip to North Korea.
Asked how the Asian recording venue had influenced the record's sound, Albarn said:"I don't know, but it does".
He described the album as "a very urban album", adding:"It's really really nice to have something physically in our hands we can be proud of."
Albarn said because they made the album together as a live band it would be easy to play live.
He said: "Most of them will be pretty awesome live, I reckon."
Talking about the 16 years since the foursome recorded an album, the singer said: "That seems like a long enough time for us to do something fresh."
Asked about the track Pyongyang, named after the North Korean capital and inspired by his trip there, Albarn said:"It's an impression, my impression of the place in a very abstract veiled way".
The album is out on April 27.
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