The jazz-meets-South-America-meets-rock Pat Metheny Group, which went on hiatus after 2005's ambitious The Way Up album, will reunite next year to record a new album.

"I've already started writing," Metheny, 58, tells USA TODAY. "Part of the longevity of the group has been to have breaks. We've had a few other long breaks."

The group — whose core is guitarist Metheny and keyboardist Lyle Mays — first recorded in 1978 with the self-titled Pat Metheny Group album. The band had its biggest hit with 1987's million-selling Still Life (Talking), a mix of contemporary jazz, Brazilian rhythms and wordless vocals. The group took a break between 1997's Imaginary Day and 2002's Speaking of Now, then dove into the idea of recording an album of one long composition, the 68-minute opus The Way Up.

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"The (Pat Metheny) Group has been this open-ended thing," Metheny says. "It's been this incredible range of things, with a specific sound."

Metheny used his hiatus to plunge into electronic music. His one-man band Orchestrion album, in which his guitar and feet power drums, bottles, vibraphones and other instruments, was released in 2010. The Orchestrion Project, a 3-D film of the Brooklyn church concert he staged at the end of his Orchestrion tour, will open in select theaters Wednesday, with a DVD and Blu-ray release (Eagle Rock Entertainment, $20-$25) on Oct. 9. Metheny is currently touring with the Unity Band which plays New York City's Town Hall on Oct 12

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