More about: Sons of Kemet

“It’s important as artists to document all sides of societal events,” says saxophonist, composer, philosopher, writer and Sons of Kemet frontman Shabaka Hutchings when we speak to him about the band’s imminent fourth record Black To The Future.

Since the group’s forming in 2011, the London-based four-piece have pushed genre boundaries, cemented themselves as a pillar of the London jazz scene and been shortlisted for the Mercury Prize (with their 2018 record Your Queen Is A Reptile). Their often danceable Afrobeat-tinted jazz, has not only been praised for its musical brilliance, but also for its progressive political impact. Talking to Hutchings makes it clear that Black To The Future isn’t likely to be an exception. 

Read Black To The Future’s track titles in order, and you'll notice they've been named and sequenced by Shabaka Hutchings in order to compose a poetic statement that both captures and accompanies the record’s sonic narrative. “Field negus – pick up your burning cross – think of home – for the culture – to never forget the source – In remembrance of those fallen – Let the circle be unbroken – Envision yourself levitating – Throughout the madness, stay strong – Black.” The record, explains Hutchings, is “inspired by a need to present ideas of how traditional African cosmologies can give us a way of going into the future.”

The group – also consisting of Theon Cross (tuba), Edward Wakili-Hick (percussion) and Tom Skinner (percussion) – recorded most of the core musical elements to Black To The Future in the studio, just before Covid-19 turned all of our lives upside-down. Post recording, Hutchings, who normally would have spent much of his time on the road playing live shows, had the opportunity to approach the creative process surrounding the record in a different way to previous projects due to the lockdown. “I had a lot more time to actually conceptualise a complete arc of the album,” he says. "It’s the first time that we could actually step back and try to consider the journey from the very beginning to the end of the album as one piece.”

The first and the last track on the album feature performances by Joshua Idehen, a long-standing guest of the band. The songs are not only powerful musical and lyrical statements of rage and frustration, written in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests that followed, but are also an ever so important reminder of the event's impact. Joshua Idehen’s “contribution was made during the time of the Black Lives Matter protests,” Hutchings explains. “It was to get his personal take on the situation, so that his reflections could be immortalised within the album and contextualise all the other stuff that we’re playing.” 

‘To Never Forget The Source’, the second single released from the album back in April, is the project’s centrepiece and “reflective of what the whole album is about, in not forgetting the source of where we’ve come from” says Hutchings "And that we need try to investigate what different world views are if we’re going to go forward in any kind of sustainable way.” Returning to the subject of African cosmologies when we ask about what the album title stands for, Hutchings explains “it is a way of seeing the interconnection of all things that occur in life, how the chains of events are connected. That might be interpersonally or between people and natural environment or within in societies. Looking at how they can be seen as a complete whole, with traditional African aesthetics or ideas being centred.”

Other guests on the album include Kojey Radical and D Double E, the latter’s involvement having come out of a live performance with the group pre-Covid. “We performed with him, I think about a month before recording with him, and it really, really gelled,” Hutchings says.

With gigs and festivals looking to finally make their return this summer, Sons of Kemet already have dates in the diary for premiering the Black To The Future tracks at live shows at London’s Lafayette in July and All Points East in August. “I think it’ll be great,” says Hutchings. “I think that people haven’t had live music for such a long time that when it actually happens, they’re going to appreciate what seeing live music does for their energy and their spirit”. We couldn’t agree more. 

Black To The Future arrives 14 May via UMG/Impulse! Sons of Kemet play All Points East on Friday 27 August. Bag a ticket here. 

More about: Sons of Kemet