Phish [ tickets ] entered the studio this week with producer and engineer Tchad Blake to begin work on a new album, which is expected to hit stores by mid-June.

According to an announcement posted on Phish's website, the popular jam band plans to remain holed up in The Barn--its Vermont studio--through February. In mid-March, the group is tentatively set to mix the new material at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios.

Blake--who often works with influential producer (and Crowded House member) Mitchell Froom--has production or engineering credits on Los Lobos' "Kiko," Tom Waits' "Bone Machine," The Bangles' "Different Light" and Pearl Jam's "Binaural."

Phish's most-recent studio album is 2002's "Round Room."

Meanwhile, Phish singer/guitarist Trey Anastasio [ tickets ] has a new instrumental album in the can that he'll release on April 6. The set, titled "Seis de Mayo," features seven compositions that he wrote and recorded over the last two years.

According to Phish's website, "[t]he seven tracks are performed by a variety of ensembles--string quartets, brass quintets, small and full orchestras--and though some of the titles may be familiar to Phish fans, the settings are radically different."

The track "Guyette," first performed by the Vermont Youth Orchestra, is played on "Seis" by the 66-piece orchestra Seattlemusic. "Prologue," which appears on the Phish album "Pebbles and Marbles," is "performed here as the orchestral miniature Anastasio originally scored in his basement," according to the album announcement.

The solo-guitar piece "The Inlaw Josie Wales," from Phish's "Farmhouse," is reworked on "Seis" as a guitar and string-quartet composition. The track "All Things Reconsidered" from Phish's "Rift" album is presented on "Seis" as a fugue for a string quartet.

"Seis" opens with the track "Andre the Giant," which features Phish's Mike Gordon on bass. He and Anastasio are backed by "musicians playing the djembe and balifon, an African gourd instrument that sounds something like a marimba," according to Phish's website.