SHABAKA

My new album ‘Of The Earth’ is released today on Shabaka Records. This music is personal and has lived in my headphones for so long it’s great to see it out in the world. It’s been this whole process of learning, experimenting, questioning, reconciling opposing answers and listening for the internal voices that speak when no one else is around. And in the end I’m left knowing no certainties about who I am and what the future holds. All I can vouch for is the fact that potential is limitless in the face of willpower and we are much more than the labels we attach to ourselves. linktr.ee/shabaka.hutchi…

‘Dance In Praise’ is out today. Of The Earth album is out next Friday - March 6. Preorder and listen to the single now: shabaka.ffm.to/oftheearth When I make albums I usually think about the arc - a blossoming from the first note heard, each track a thread working to unravel and decipher the tapestry of my emotional landscape depicted in sound. ‘Dance in Praise’ is the pivot point on Of the Earth (as ‘body to inhabit’ was the pivot on my previous album - Perceive its beauty, Acknowledge its grace). It’s the moment on the record at which I feel like I’ve guided the listener in a direction that’s linear and logical. I’ve established what the album is supposed to be, and from there forward, I’m free to let the part of me that revels in the asymmetry of intuition reign. We can define spirit as that which animates us from inertia into motion via the interface of willpower. To perform a task in great spirits (in a spirited fashion), means to do it with an energising life force that propels us into the throes of action. So, in defining ‘the spiritual’ we are personifying a force that rouses and orientates us. We are depicting what ‘it’ is, in an attempt to adapt the conditions in our lives to be most conducive to the spirit(ual) forces that we consider most worthwhile to adopt, according to our personal principles. Movement and becoming lost in sound within a situation of collective abandon on the dance floor is one of the most fundamental forms of praise, to the animating principle of life itself. Dance in praise. I made all the beats on this album while in transit, on train journeys, in airport lobby’s and hotel rooms. There’s something magical about having the creative process become unchained from familiarity and home, free to roam and reflect and dream wildly. Slide 1: @josephouechen Slide 2: original artwork by me

‘Eyes Lowered’, the latest single from my upcoming album is released today. Within the process of compiling my beats I had this idea that it would be cool to rap, but I hadn’t done it before. This became a really fulfilling exercise in approaching a new creative endeavour from scratch and trying to figure out what I’m guided towards. One of the last things Wayne shorter told me as I visited his house in the year before his passing was an adage Art Blakey would recite to his bandmates ‘gents, you can’t hide behind your horn forever’. I take from this proclamation a call to confront all aspects of the emotional self, a rejection of self imposed definitions, not hiding behind identity frameworks imparted by any particular medium and the acknowledgement that at some point there will be a reckoning whereby it won’t be about what you can play on the instrument you’ve spent the most time practicing and systematising, it won’t be about skill or perfection, it will be about music and the depth of transmission. Sometimes the pursuit of technical prowess dumbs us to this dimension of awareness. While writing I kept coming back to the dialogue between Tupac (posthumously) and Kendrick Lamar at the outro of the last song on ‘to pimp a butterfly’. It kept me grounded. Kendrick ruminates on the centrality of vibrations in the space where he’s deep in the music. He says when he’s behind the mic he doesn’t know what sort of energy will come out, to which Tupac replies ‘because the spirits, we ain’t even really rapping no more, we just letting our dead homies tell stories for us’. This notion of surrender and the ability to channel words from a source that goes beyond the temporal plane freed me up from needing to rationalise why I’m choosing to write anything in particular. Letting my mind go and my pen flow. For each song on ‘Of The Earth’ I’ve produced an artwork made in tandem with the music Stream 'Eyes Lowered' here: shabaka.ffm.to/oftheearth Photography by Joseph Ouechen Artwork by Me

I’m so happy to announce my next album ‘Of The Earth’ will be released on March 6th Produced, performed and mixed by myself, ‘creative mastering’ by Benjamin Vukelic None of the music was started with the intention of being part of an album. It’s been this freewheeling process of researching equipment and seeing what music is suggested to me once manuals have been read and YouTube tutorial videos have been watched multiple times. It’s been about trusting my ears, being ok with not ‘knowing’ what I’m doing, knowing what I like, trusting my taste, and not allowing the impulse to self deprecate stop me from keeping on playfully experimenting, and being open to hearing when something of worth comes up. The record comes out on my newly formed imprint, Shabaka Records. In today’s climate, independence is power. The first two singles ‘A Future Untold’ and ‘Marwa The Mountain’ are out today. Each song on the album is represented by an artwork that I’ve worked on alongside the music, and which I see as visual representations of the sound. Listen and Pre-order: shabaka.ffm.to/oftheearth Album cover: @atibaphoto Press Shot: @josephouechen Original artwork by me

Village Underground. London. 7th April. Sign up to the mailing list for pre-sale access. Pre-sale goes live this Wednesday, 10th December. shabakahutchings.eo.page/sign-up

【まもなく来日公演】 𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐁𝐀𝐊𝐀 12/12(木)渋谷WWW ▼インタビュー シャバカが語る「小さな音」と尺八がかき立てる想像力、「音のポエム」とパーソナルな物語 🔗rollingstonejapan.com/articles/detai…

My new EP ‘Possession’ is out now. Watch the Music Video for "To The Moon' featuring André 3000 now. Watch here: youtu.be/pUSdqCVYJGA?si… Listen here: shabaka.lnk.to/Possession Timepieces featuring Billy Woods I’ve Been Listening featuring ELUCID To The Moon featuring André 3000 Cycles of Growth featuring Esperanza Spalding Reaching Back Towards Eternity featuring Nduduzo Makhathini 🎨 Artwork by Me & @breezeyoko 🎥 Video by Greg Greenwood 🎧 Dillip Harris

TONIGHT: Doors - 7pm @shabakah (solo) - 8pm Interval - 8:30pm Shabaka - 8:45pm Curfew - 11pm Tickets here (until 6pm): tinyurl.com/2rejarhn + on the door tonight Enjoy the show!

So happy to announce my next release ‘Possession’ is out 6 December, produced with care and featuring collaborations with some of my favourite musicians. Listen to ‘Timepieces’ feat Billy Woods now. Beat produced by yours truly. Stream here : shabaka.lnk.to/Possession Billy Woods Jason Moran ELUCID Charles Overton Brandee Younger Chris Sholar Esperanza Spalding Dave Okumu Nduduzo Makhathini Surya Botofasina Carlos Niño Timepieces I’ve been listening To the moon Cycles of growth reaching back towards eternity 🎨 Breeze Yoko 📷 Atiba Jefferson 🎧 Dillip Harris

Shots from day 1 of the EU tour. Madrid @teatroscanal, you were beautiful. A few shows coming up with tickets left. Come. 30th Oct Paral·lel 62, Barcelona 31st Oct Amphitheatre of Athens, Conservatoire, Athens 3rd Nov MONK Club, Rome 5th Nov Zentralwäscherei, Zurich 12th Nov Bremen Teater, Copenhagen 13th Nov Slaktkyrkan, Stockholm Ticket link below: shabakahutchings.com/shabaka-hutchi… 📷 lonajulian @salavillanos

Heading to Tokyo in December for a one-off solo flute show at @WWW_shibuya Presale live now. Link below. Come. wwwwwwx.zaiko.io/login?redirect…

From our friends at @mccarter! #SummerStage alums @makayamccraven & @shabakah are stopping by Matthews Theatre at the McCarter Theatre Center for a transcendent, genre-bending evening of music this Saturday, October 19. Tickets are available at mccarter.org/event-makaya-m…!

Europe Tour coming up very soon, Warsaw and Bristol have sold out - some tickets available for the other shows. Ticket available via link below. shabakahutchings.com/shabaka-hutchi…

I’ll be touring the EU & UK again this October and November. Presale starts 10am, Thursday 4th July. Sign up to my mailing list for access to the presale. Link below shabakahutchings.eo.page/sign-up

End of innocence, blossoming, understanding the complex bond of struggle and growth. As the planets and the stars collide we see the dismantling of structures (mental, institutional and so forth) that claimed to be infallible, that promoted the myth of their own longevity. Insecurities, the path is never certain, no outcome promised except the insistence of repeated lessons. I keep looking over my shoulder. Managing my breath, what fear had become. A call on ancient techniques for grounding, for remembrance, for strength. The wounded need to be replenished. Vital energy must be restored to spirit. ‘The wounds of the flesh and the wounds of the mind, the slow healing wounds of Babylon, terrible, torture’. Body to inhabit. The gods require sacrifice. The world comes to a close. We need new rituals. I’ll do whatever you want, submission, spirit possession. The supplanting of life energy. Living. Breathing. Kiss me before i forget who I was, before the change. let my wings encounter a tender birth, a gentle blossoming. Flight and remembrance. Song of the motherland, it was you all along - guiding, restoring, healing. shabakahutchings.lnk.to/PIBAIG

All is calm in the Resident office today after listening to @shabakah's absolutely beautiful album🎶 If you want a serene Saturday evening and to ask questions to a jazz icon, grab an album below for entry to his instore! link.dice.fm/z6f0e7d2ba08