In the time since releasing his great 2017 debut full-length Process, Sampha has reminded us how stunning his voice is across collaborations with Kendrick Lamar, Stormzy, Lil Silva, SBTRKT, and more, and now he has finally released his first new solo single in six years, “Spirit 2.0,” after previewing it at his recent “Satellite Business” shows. It’s a remarkable song that brings together innovative electronic production and Sampha’s uniquely soulful voice, and here’s what he says about it:
It’s about the importance of connection to both myself and others, and the beauty and harsh realities of just existing. It’s about acknowledging those moments when you need help – that requires real strength. I hope people can enjoy that feeling of someone being there for you, even if that person doesn’t have the answers. Just calling someone up without overthinking… letting go and just dancing.. wanting to see past the mundanity of things and appreciating the magic of it all, from birds nests to spaceships.
The song was made with contributions from Yussef Dayes, El Guincho and Owen Pallett, and it features vocals from Yaeji and Ibeyi’s Lisa-Kaindé Diaz. Sampha has also confirmed that it’s part of his as-yet-unannounced sophomore album. Listen and check out the Filmawi-directed video below.
Speaking to Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, Sampha added:
This is definitely a part of a project of the record, an album. I’m super excited to share it at some point. I wrote this one over a period of time and through COVID and going through quite a few things like a lot of people, and it’s a track I felt like I needed to write for myself really at the time I wrote it and the lyrics came over a period of time. Initially it was just the chords and the melody and the mood lines and stuff…I just wrote the chords and the mood lines, and literally it was just in the park looking up and just the feeling just felt like a meditation and just something felt really good really of the moment and I definitely felt like I had something, and it was just nice, just for me it was quite a personal thing. Some of it is just the natural influences that came out. It was the syncopation of West African music, because it was like I wrote at that tempo, the kind of drums I was imagining was these acoustic jungle inspired drums.