Pioneering electronic outfit The Avalanches have teamed up with alternative R&B act Blood Orange (Dev Hynes) for their first new original track since the release of Wildflower in 2016. This latest track release matches the group’s signature sampling based sound, mixing in Hynes original work, with vocal samples taken by legendary R&B performer Smokey Robinson and the folk rock trio The Roches.

The group first stated that they were working on a new album in 2017, a year after the release of their sophomore album Wildflower. Their second album was released 16 years after their debut album Since I Left You, which is considered a landmark work in music production and sampling, as it took samples from over 3,0000 songs to create new original compositions.

“Our new record is about such journeys, from darkness to light. About life after (all kinds of) death. About the transcendent nature of music itself,” the group explained. “Every voice ever played on the radio over the last 100 years now exists in the stars; the transmissions of these singers are forever floating around out there, lost in the cosmos, endless travelling. Tonight Smokey Robinson duets with Dev Hynes and the Roches. Those spirits are out there. We are each a tune, floating in space. And this one’s for you.”

The group teased that they were mixing their third record last year on social media. They also tagged a variety of artists on that post, such as  JPEGMAFIA, Dhani Harrison, Cornelius, Naeem Juwan (fka Spank Rock) and Jennifer Herrema of Royal Trux, which may indicate their upcoming feature on the project. A couple of weeks ago the group also teased some further images on social media, which included a picture of a billboard they had put up in Melbourne, Australia.