Shabaka Hutchings, the former Sons of Kemet and Comet Is Coming musician who has since gone solo and mononymous, will release a new album on a new label on March 6. The inaugural release of Shabaka Records, Of the Earth, is partly inspired by D’Angelo’s Brown Sugar, and you can hear two new songs from it below: “A Future Untold” and “Marwa the Mountain.” Shabaka will soon embark on a run of U.S. shows that takes him from Solar Myth Philadelphia (March 25) to New York’s Knockdown Center (March 26) and finally Big Ears festival in Tennessee, where he will perform one solo set and one with Thurston Moore.
In a press release, Shabaka spoke about the D’Angelo record, as well as his own pivot from clarinet and saxophone to flute, as debuted on his last LP, 2024’s Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace. “Brown Sugar was the first CD I bought and it sparked a lasting curiosity about the emotional possibilities allowed by the self produced and performed album,’ Shabaka said. “This record is my celebration of freedom in creative self expression. Before the pandemic I could only play the clarinet and saxophone and knew nothing about music production (or how to play the flute), so this has been a journey of learning and a reflection on the music that’s been created as a result.”
After Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace, Shabaka’s last release was the EP Possession, from late 2024.
