Sampha will release his second album next month on Young.

Spanning 14-tracks, with contributions from some of Sampha’s closest friends and peers, including Yaeji, Léa Sen, and Yussef Dayes, Lahai sees Sampha (real name Sampha Lahai Sisay) exploring the many ways in which we as humans connect to each other, and to something bigger than ourselves.

Sonically, we’re told that the album defies clear categorization, but spans jazz, soul, rap, dance, jungle and west African music.

If Process, Sampha’s first album, was “an artist figuring out his own place in the world, engulfed in the shadows of grief and loss,” we’re told, Lahai is “an exercise in the radical acceptance and joy in the human condition, and the beauty in the journey itself.”

In June, Sampha returned to the stage for the first time in five years for his Satellite Business residencies in London and New York. The set up of Sampha and his band performing in the center of the room allowed fans intimate access to the improvisational performance of new, unreleased music and alternate arrangements of his catalog. This fall Sampha will take an elevated version of the Satellite Business live show on the road, with dates here.

Tracklisting

01. Stereo Colour Cloud (shaman’s dream)
02. Spirit 2.0
03. Dancing Circles
04. Suspended
05. Satellite Business
06. Jonathan L. Seagull
07. Inclination Compass (Tenderness)
08. Only
09. Time Piece
10. Can’t Go Back
11. Evidence
12. Wave Therapy
13. What If You Hypnotise Me?
14. Rose Tint

Lahai LP is scheduled for October 20 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Spirit 2.0” and “Only” in full via the player below and pre-order here.

Photo: Jesse Crankson