Today, Bonobo, aka Simon Green, has released two personal favorites from his upcoming album, Distance in Static: “Fire on the Water”, featuring celebrated Pakistani-American artist Arooj Aftab, who represents the emotional heart of the record, while “Drift” showcases its more club-focused leanings and arrives alongside an official video of the tune being performed live in a intimate setting.
The album was 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. A pivotal track to emerge from these Ranch sessions was the enchanting “Fire on the Water”, featuring Arooj Aftab, who traveled down from her NYC base to record what became a breakthrough moment during the album’s creation. Evolving, almost accidentally, from a rough acoustic guitar loop recorded while, Green was testing studio inputs one morning.
While speaking about the collaboration, Aftab said: “I had the dreamiest time making this song with Simon in the Redwoods. He is a boyish joy and a beautiful soul. The lyrics, written by my dear friend Yasra Rizvi, live in that tender place where time keeps moving but desire remains. There can still be fire on the water.” Now, “Drift” is like the previous single, “Me and You”, whiich showcases Green’s adept hand at creating resonant and emotional club music, with both tracks proving their worth in recent DJ sets, including his iconic London rooftop set for Mixmag Lab this weekend.
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