Kelela has shared new song ‘Washed Away’.
The American avant-R&B artist made a huge impression with her 2017 debut album ‘Take Me Apart’, the culmination of her slim but vastly influential catalogue. Fusing club electronics with future-facing R&B elements, the record stamped out an incredibly distinct aesthetic identity.
But then she withdrew.
Kelela became an illusive presence, until her socials fired themselves back up over the weekend, playing a series of mysterious clips.
Something new is coming, and it begins with the bold, ambient-leaning digitalism that pervades ‘Washed Out’. The billowing electronics – handled by Yo van Lenz – feel minimalist, yet envelope you in sound, while Kelela’s vocal is another adventure into the unknown.
“I love a banger, but for the first point of contact out of my hiatus, it felt more honest to lead with an ambient heart-check,” she comments.
Kelela adds: “I specifically want to speak to marginalised Black folk and highlight the work we do to find renewal in a world that’s built to make us feel inadequate. This song is the soundtrack to the relief we find after going inward.”
Yasser Abubeker directs the startling video, which takes Kelela to the Danakil Depression, which sits in the northern section of Ethiopia’s Afar region. She says: “I specifically want to speak to marginalised Black folk and highlight the work we do to find renewal in a world that’s built to make us feel inadequate. This song is the soundtrack to the relief we find after going inward.”
An emphatic return, you can check out ‘Washed Away’ now.
Photo Credit: Yasser Abubeker
