Pias news – Bonobo announces ‘distant in static’, new album
BONOBO ANNOUNCES 'DISTANCE IN STATIC', HIS NEW ALBUM OUT SEPTEMBER 11TH ON NINJA TUNE
FEATURING JOY CROOKES, AROOJ AFTAB, NILÜFER YANYA, NICOLE MIGLIS, ICHIKO AOBA AND AANYA MARTIN
DEBUTS BRAND NEW BONOBO LIVE SHOW WITH A RUN OF HEADLINE SHOWS ACROSS NORTH AMERICA THIS FALL
LISTEN TO CLUB-FORWARD FIRST SINGLE "ME AND YOU"
Bonobo - Me and You (Official Video)
Bonobo aka Simon Green returns with 'Distance In Static', his new album out September 11th on Ninja Tune. The record is announced today alongside new single "Me and You", a club-driven track that has been road-tested to great effect in his recent DJ sets including two road-block pop-ups in London and Paris, with fans clamouring for an ID. Alongside this he also reveals a brand new Bonobo Live show – designed by Pierre Claude, renowned for his work with Air, Gesaffelstein, Phoenix, and Caroline Polachek – kicking off this November with a headline run across North America.
Across 'Distance In Static', Green collaborates with a typically striking cast of artists including Arooj Aftab, Joy Crookes, Nilüfer Yanya, Ichiko Aoba, Nicole Miglis (Hundred Waters) and Aanya Martin. Lyrics appear in English, Urdu and Japanese, while historic Iranian samples and guzheng recordings sit alongside Green's own meticulously processed instrumentation, woven together across recording sessions spanning LA, Tokyo, London and beyond – with a significant portion of the record completed at Neil Young's legendary Broken Arrow Ranch in California, where he holed up for several weeks earlier this year.
It's a record that represents the culmination of over 25 years as a recording artist, and one of the leading voices in electronic music. It's a career that has seen him release two Top-10 Albums (2017's 'Migration' and 2022's 'Fragments', which both landed at #5 on the UK chart), plus numerous Gold and Silver certified singles, sell over 900,000 records, rack up billions of streams, collaborate with the likes of Erykah Badu and Damon Albarn, and be both BRIT and GRAMMY-nominated – the latter seven times, with five in the dance/electronic categories, a record number of nominations shared with The Chemical Brothers, Skrillex and Madonna.
His pioneering live show – built around a full live-band, guest vocalists and immersive visuals – has also set the blueprint for how and where an electronic musician can translate their records into the live arena. He has performed to millions of people across the globe, with sold-out shows at prestigious venues like the Sydney Opera House, Alexandra Palace and Red Rocks Amphitheatre – in many cases as one of the first electronic artists to do so – and the world's biggest festival stages including Glastonbury, Coachella, Sonar and Fuji Rock. His last tour also included both a co-headline of London's Field Day (alongside Aphex Twin), and a historic sold-out 5-night residency at the Royal Albert Hall, which was the longest consecutive run there by a solo artist, and the longest ever by an electronic musician.
Alongside this, Green's OUTLIER events and DJ sets have continued to place him at the centre of contemporary dance music culture, connecting with generations of club-going audiences in warehouses, festivals and underground venues alike. He has curated lineups in recent years that featured the likes of Barry Can't Swim, Sofia Kourtesis, salute, Kelly Lee Owens, Mall Grab, DJ Tennis, SG Lewis, Carlita, Elkka, HAAi, John Talabot, Paula Tape and many more, with his 15,000-capacity OUTLIER showcase at Drumsheds in London becoming the fastest-selling event of the season, and a sold-out "homecoming" OUTLIER show at the 10,000 capacity On The Beach (Brighton) proving a highlight of the summer.
"I want to reinforce this idea that you can be more than one thing," Green explains. It's that duality – of live artist and DJ, introspective composer and club-focussed selector – that sits at the heart of 'Distance in Static', a record that is full of depth, detail and emotion; both beautiful and banging; quintessentially Bonobo, yet pushing beyond the contours of what a Bonobo album has traditionally been.
The title of the record – 'Distance in Static' – is perhaps also an appropriate indicator for where Green finds himself now, evoking images of fuzzy transmissions and transient frequencies; fragments of memory and meaning echoing back through more than two decades at the forefront of electronic music. He sees the traces of his own work reflected in a younger generation rediscovering 90s trip-hop, downtempo and leftfield electronic music through a contemporary lens. "I think the front end of what I've done has now become something that's referential to younger people," he says. "I liked the idea of listening for a distant signal — trying to find something in the noise," he continues, and there's a sense throughout the record of searching for transcendence: music suspended somewhere between intimacy and scale, the familiar and the unknown.
The album's visual world, created alongside celebrated designer Trevor Jackson, reflects this shift too. Moving away from the landscape-inspired aesthetics of earlier Bonobo records, 'Distance in Static' instead draws on microscopic photography by renowned photomicrographer John I. Koivula, creating crystalline alien worlds that feel simultaneously natural and otherworldly. Those themes will also run through the brand new live show, designed in collaboration with Pierre Claude – renowned for his work with Air, Gesaffelstein, Phoenix, and Caroline Polachek – to deliver another evolution in the Bonobo live experience.
Buried within the 'Distance in Static' universe, there is also a sense that this record – and particularly the accompanying live tour – marks something quite monumental, too. It's a moment of transition, a celebration of Bonobo's 25 years, but also, perhaps his last record in the traditional sense: complete with expansive guest features and a multi-year full live-band world tour. "It's probably the last go-around the track in this format," he admits. And on the future? "I don't know what that will look like just yet, but It's really about me redefining how to be a musician from here."
Whatever comes next, one thing is for sure: 'Distance in Static' is arguably Green's finest record to date; as ambitious and forward thinking as ever, and a reminder, if ever one was needed, of why Bonobo has remained such an influence on so many, for so long.
'Distance In Static' Tracklist
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