Manchester/Berlin duo Space Afrika have announced their long-awaited new album Quiet Storm, arriving on September 25 via Dais Records, alongside the release of the immersive new single ‘MLN ft. Tony Njoku’.
Since emerging with their distinctive blend of ambient, trip-hop, techno and modern classical, Joshua Tarelle Reid and Joshua Inyang have built a reputation for transforming the textures of urban life into vast, emotionally charged soundscapes. If 2021’s acclaimed Honest Labour established the pair as singular voices in experimental electronic music, Quiet Storm looks set to broaden that vision, embracing a richer palette of collaborators and more ambitious arrangements without sacrificing the intimacy at the heart of their work.
The sprawling record explores questions of identity, spirituality, survival and belonging, with Reid and Inyang drawing on experiences of class and diaspora while dissolving the boundaries between genres. Contributions from artists including Tony Njoku, Klein, Kelly Moran, Axelle Fanyo, RXKNephew and Kiala Ogawa underline the album’s collaborative ethos, while strings, guitars and live percussion add new dimensions to Space Afrika’s carefully sculpted environments.
Lead single ‘MLN ft. Tony Njoku’ offers an arresting glimpse into that world. Built around a slow-burning pulse of fractured percussion, spectral electronics and Njoku’s processed falsetto, the track balances vulnerability with quiet resilience. Rather than building towards catharsis through volume, it allows emotion to gather patiently, revealing the duo’s increasingly sophisticated approach to arrangement and atmosphere.
The accompanying four-minute film, directed by Tony Helal and filmed at Berlin’s Musikbrauerei, extends those ideas into a fragmented visual meditation on memory, conflict and self-realisation. Moving between moments of clarity and distortion, the film mirrors the album’s fascination with inner landscapes, where healing and destruction coexist in uneasy equilibrium.
For Reid and Inyang, Quiet Storm represents both a personal and artistic evolution. The pair describe the record as an opportunity to challenge their own ideas around identity while reaffirming the emotional honesty that has always defined their music. That philosophy extends beyond the studio, with celebrated American artist Glenn Ligon, whose work explores Black identity and queerness, contributing the album artwork and ultimately lending the project its title. Inspired by the late-night radio format synonymous with intimacy and reflection, Quiet Storm feels like an apt name for a record that finds power not in spectacle, but in patience, vulnerability and the freedom to inhabit multiple musical worlds at once.
