Bonobo, aka Simon Green, has released his highly-anticipated new album, Fragments, via Ninja Tune.
The twelve-track release features Jamila Woods, Joji, Kadhja Bonet, Jordan Rakei, O’Flynn, and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson. Fragments arrives with tremendous momentum and rave reviews, including coverage from The Observer, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Loud & Quiet, The Fader, NME, Hypebeast, and Creative Review, as well as a DJ Mag cover and placement on numerous key playlists and radio programmes globally.. The release also arrives on the heels of two 2021 GRAMMY Nominations that Green earned in the Best Dance/Electronic Recording category last month, making him a five-time GRAMMY nominee.
Several songs from Fragments were shared in advance, including “Tides” featuring Jamila Woods, which was a catalyst for the album, “From You” featuring Joji, and “Shadows” featuring Jordan Rakei, which Green describes as “old school, Detroity, Moodymann and Theo Parrish-inspired.” The first official music video for the album was released in November: “Otomo” was shot over three days in South Africa using a 360 camera that follows a roller skater as he glides through stunning natural settings and cityscapes. As the 360 camera twists and turns, the effect is both dazzling and dizzying, as if the viewer is sent hurtling through a vortex. Lead single “Rosewood” also landed at #3 on Spotify’s Best Electronic Songs of 2021.
After coming back from touring for two years, Green felt a sense of everything shifting and unravelling with the California wildfires and ongoing pandemic as he set out to make this new album. Born first out of fragments of ideas and experimentation in his Los Angeles studio in 2020 and 2021, the album ultimately was fused together in a burst of creativity, fuelled by collaboration, Green’s solo adventures into the deserts of California and even his use of modular synths for the first time. Fragments is the sound of struggle and isolation, personally and collectively – and of a surging, joyous return. It is a reminder that creativity and hope can emerge out of struggle and disillusionment, even at the most unexpected of moments.
You can pick up a copy from HERE
