Antwerp-based ILA is entering a new chapter. Following recent European tour dates supporting The Streets, the band have unveiled ‘Sorry’, a cinematic new single that sets the tone for their forthcoming second album, Motherland, due for release on 9 October 2026.
Produced by Mikko Gordon, whose credits include The Smile, Idles, Arcade Fire and Beck, ‘Sorry’ finds frontwoman and songwriter Ilayda Cicek transforming heartbreak into something more defiant. Driving guitars, tight drums and weighty bass give the track a gritty alternative-rock foundation, while Cicek’s melodic, searching vocals pull it towards grunge, indie and post-punk.
“Turning heartbreak into resilience, finding strength where there was once only pain.”
It is a fitting introduction to Motherland, a record that expands considerably on the world established by ILA’s acclaimed 2024 debut, Ayna. Written as a four-piece for the first time, the album sees Cicek joined by Sam Smeets on bass, Cas Kinnaer on drums and Stynen on guitar, with the new line-up giving the band greater scope to build a sound that feels both larger and more emotionally expansive.
At the centre of Motherland is an idea of absence: the notion that everyone carries missing pieces of themselves, shaped by the places, people and dreams left behind. For Cicek, that idea is deeply personal. The album traces the story of her father, who left Turkey for Belgium in the late 1980s, leaving behind his family, city, language and ambitions that could not all travel with him.
“This album was born from the idea that we, as people, live with missing pieces. Fragments of ourselves are left behind in places, people, and dreams.”
That sense of displacement is echoed throughout the album’s visual and conceptual world. Turkish author Elif Shafak’s novel There Are Rivers In The Sky, with its exploration of the connections between people through water, became an important reference point. The natural world consequently runs through both the music and the record’s visual identity, with artwork by Zack Kinnaer and creative direction from Moenia Ladhib extending Motherland’s themes beyond the songs themselves.
The process of making the album also marked a shift for ILA. Smeets and Stynen wrote much of the music, freeing Cicek to concentrate almost entirely on the lyrics. Armed with a suitcase of guitar demos, she travelled to Turkey, where she wrote around half of the album’s lyrics before returning to develop the material with the band in the studio. The result is a record rooted in personal history but shaped by a distinctly collaborative approach.
ILA’s rise began in 2022, when the band won De Nieuwe Lichting on Studio Brussel with ‘Leave Me Dry’, a track that subsequently spent three weeks at number one in De Afrekening. After the release of the mini-album Felt, ILA followed with Ayna in 2024 via PIAS, introducing a wider audience to the band through singles including ‘All Again’ and ‘Make It Easy’.
Since then, ILA have steadily established themselves as a formidable live act across Belgium and the Netherlands. Their festival appearances have included Pukkelpop, Rock Werchter, Lokerse Feesten, Suikerrock, Lowlands, Eurosonic, Into The Great Wide Open and Motel Mozaïque, while support slots with The Streets, DIIV and Parquet Courts have further expanded their reach.
That trajectory continues with Motherland. Following the recent dates with The Streets, ILA will return to the road for an extensive European run this autumn, with four UK shows scheduled for November. For a band whose music has increasingly centred on movement, memory and what gets left behind, the next phase of ILA’s journey looks set to be their most expansive yet.
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