We recently shared the news of Leyla McCalla‘s new album, Sun Without the Heat (April 12th via ANTI- Pre-order here), which embraces Brazilian Tropicalisimo, Afrobeat and Ethiopian folk. We had a taster with the first two singles from the album, Tree and Scaled to Survive, the latter accompanied by a music video directed by Zuri Obi and featuring her own children and their friends.
Today, she is releasing the Tropicalia-inflected interpretation of ‘Love We Had‘, a track originally written and performed by Ethiopian artist and activist Ali Mohammed Birra, which serves as an African Diasporic declaration of sonic freedom in the face of all that has kept us apart from one another.
In 2022, Leyla delivered her widely acclaimed ‘Breaking the Thermometer‘, a tribute to the activist and Radio Haiti owner Jean Dominique and his wife and fellow journalist Michéle Montas. Like that album, Sun Without Heat also draws from a similarly fascinating backdrop of great thinkers, writers, speakers and inspirations, but this time with a much more joyous and playful undercurrent and more of Leyla’s own bright personality, not to mention her masterful performances on all host of instruments and vocals.
“I like it when music feels urgent”, McCalla says, “but I also wanted the new album to be playful and fun. I wanted that levity to come through”.
Pre-Order Sun Without The Heat
Tour Dates (UK dates to follow): https://leylamccalla.com/