Actress, real name Darren Jordan Cunningham, known to friends as DAZ, is set to return with a new album, titled AZD (pronounced “Azid”)—his first LP is over two years.

According to the label, there are several key influences behind the album.

Firstly, it is themed around chrome—both as a reflective surface to see the self in, and as something that carves luminous voids out of any color and fine focuses white and black representing the perfect metaphor for the bleakness of life.

The art of James Hampton and Rammellzee (who inspired “CYN,” which Cunningham also sees as a vision of New York in reverse…) is also an inspiration. Both artists, though of different generations of the African-American slave diaspora, created art through “sourcing castaway materials from their environment and re-interpreting them into absolute majesty given from the fourth dimension.” There is also the career-long influence of the Detroit techno pioneers, something which becomes clear through the LP.

In addition to this, Cunningham is currently preparing a new live show, to be debuted at as part of Convergence at Village Underground on March 24. Presented as AZD, Cunningham says it “will be a test frame for linking circuits using various forms of language—MIDI globalized language, lyrical language, Tikal Graffiti code and various other Synthesizer language—to create one intelligent musical instrument called AZD, if successful it will produce the first translucent, non-soluble communication sound pill synergized through impressionistic interpretations of technological equipment. This is the music vitamin of the Metropolis.”

Tracklisting

1. NIMBUS
2. UNTITLED 7
3. FANTASYNTH
4. BLUE WINDOW
5. CYN
6. X22RME
7. RUNNER
8. FALLING RIZLAS
9. DANCING IN THE SMOKE
10. FAURE IN CHROME
11. THERE’S AN ANGEL IN THE SHOWER
12. VISA

AZD is scheduled for April 14 release via Ninja Tune, with “X22RME” streamable in full above.”