The reclusive soul singer Sade Adu, who is notorious for taking long breaks in between her releases, has rejoined her band and is recording an album with new material for the first time since her 2000 album “Lovers Rock.”

The band will be in the studio until June. A release date has not been set by Sony yet, however they are hoping the album will be out sometime in 2009.

A Sony source said that they were in the studio recording, and that the album would come out when it was ready. You don’t wait this many years and then rush things.

Stuart Matthewman, the longtime band mate of Sade and also known as Cottonbelly, confirmed as well that they were working on new material. He said the project still was in the early stages and wouldn’t be close to being finished until towards the end of the year.

Rumors that there would be a new album from Sade surfaced last week when sade2009.com, an official looking website went live and had a message that claimed a November 24 release date for a new Sade album. Sony sources denied having any connection with the site, stating that they didn’t know where the fan site got a release date but that it wasn’t true.

The site’s owner was contacted by Billboard who insisted it was an official release date. However, since then the posting on the site has been updated and states that the date had been changed and that a Sony representative had confirmed that the album’s release date was unknown and to check back for updates on the album release from Sade.

No details regarding the new music from Sade have been released yet. However there is one artist who might have heard some snippets. Maxwell, longtime friend and fellow Sony recording artist of Matthewman, is releasing a new record soon after his own multi-year hiatus. In March he sent his fans a message over his Facebook indicating that he had heard new recordings from some label mates. He wrote, trust me, this is so monolithic you will be shaking in your shoes.

“Lovers Rock,” the 2000 release from Sade, sold 3.9 million U.S. copies. “Love Deluxe,” her previous album from 1992, sold 3.4 million copies. According to date from Nielsen SoundScan, since Sade’s debut in 1985 with “Diamond Life,” she has sold almost 17 million units just in the U.S.