Twenty-five years in, and Bonobo gives his anniversary album to seven women

Bonobo has released a new album, Distance In Static, to mark twenty-five years of his career. Fourteen tracks, seven guest vocalists and three languages. It was released on 11 September via Ninja Tune.

The artist has posted the album on his own page on Bandcamp.

Simon Green, who is Bonobo, built the album around other people's voices: Arooj Aftab, Joy Crookes, Nilüfer Yanya, Ichiko Aoba and three more singers. They sing in English, Urdu and Japanese.

What the record is about

The title explains the idea. Green himself says it was an attempt to hear a distant signal through the interference — and to find something in the noise.

“The distance in the title refers to time as well as space and static, the yearning to find those forgotten moments or connections,” Bonobo told EARMILK.

The album was recorded in four places — Los Angeles, Tokyo, London and even Neil Young's ranch. The sound is full of processed instruments, Iranian samples and recordings of a Chinese guzheng.

Tellingly, on his own anniversary album Green barely steps forward himself: the record is carried by the guest singers' voices, while he stays behind the console and in the arrangements.

Who Bonobo is

Bonobo is the British producer Simon Green, one of the key figures in global downtempo and electronic music. Over a quarter of a century he has gone from quiet bedroom recordings to big halls and festival headline slots.

Twenty-five years is also a reason to look back: Green notes that electronic music itself now looks to the past more and more, and that records from a quarter of a century ago are being discovered by younger DJs.

Earlier we wrote about how Amelie Lens released her debut album AURA — another major electronic release this month.