Today, poet/vocalist Saul Williams and percussionist/producer Carlos Niño have shared “The Water Is Rising / as we surpass the firing squad ,” which features poet Aja Monet. The ditty is the second single from Williams and Niño’s first collaborative album, Saul Williams meets Carlos Niño & Friends at TreePeople, which will be out on August 28, through International Anthem.

With hovering vibraphone tones from Maia and swirling woodwinds by Kamasi Washington and Aaron Shaw, Monet gives a soft apocalyptic reading of a piece from her notebook, The Water Is Rising. Williams follows her foreboding words with a solemnly hopeful return and a parable about a firing squad, where one member’s dilemma is a “system of belief” allowing for humanity in the heart of an oppressor.

Saul Williams meets Carlos Niño & Friends at TreePeople was recorded live underneath black walnut and oak trees in Coldwater Canyon Park, Los Angeles, on December 18, 2024. The performance, which was organized by Noah Klein of Living Earth on the grounds of longstanding conservationist organization TreePeople, was the first of its kind for Williams and Niño, who have been friends since the late 1990s.

Photo Credit: Marissa Rose Ficara