Bonobo announces new album ‘Fragments’, pencils in world tour

Simon Green heads out on the road in 2022

Bonobo aka Simon Green has announced his latest album Fragments, due out on January 14 via Ninja Tune, as well as an upcoming world tour in 2022.

The album announcement comes with the unveiling of a new single, ‘Rosewood’, with a visualiser produced by Neil Krug – who designed the artwork for the album, as well as 2017’s Migration – streamable below:

The album contains guest contributions from Jamila Woods, Joji, Kadhja Bonet, Jordan Rakei, O’Flynn and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson. It is described by the artist as his most emotionally intense album yet, and was born out of “fragments” of experimentation, before emerging from a “burst of creativity” fuelled by both collaboration and Green’s recent escape into the wild.

 The album’s musical themes began to arise through Green’s exploration of modular synthesis, recordings he had made of harpist Lara Somogyi, his work with arranger and string player Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, his own playing of the Fender Rhodes and more, as the album was created, recorded and mixed by Green over the past two years.

Green’s recent escape into the wild came in the form of a trip to the California desert, where he sought refuge and inspiration, away from lockdown misery. When the inspiration for the Jamila Woods-featuring album track ‘Tides’ struck, Green knew the foundations for another album were laid. 

“I knew I had a centrepiece, I knew how it was all going to sound,” Green said. He also mentioned the album’s clubbing influences, and how “I remembered all over again how much I loved crowds and movement and people connecting with each other.”

The album’s recording process saw Green collaborate with orchestral musicians in physical studio spaces, helping to bring the songs “out of the box”, away from the screen-centric temptations of lockdown. With core influences straddling UK bass music to rave, this saw Green reconcile new-school dance producers like O’Flynn with traditional instrumentalists, from harpist Lara Somogyi to Bulgarian choir 100 Kaba-Gaidi.

On top of ‘Fragments’ the album, Bonobo’s world tour kicks off with three new live shows at London’s Royal Albert Hall in May 2022, and will continue on to additional dates in Brighton, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Nottingham.

Pre-order your vinyl copy here