Saul Williams Recruits Robert Del Naja, Kamasi Washington for New Album Leap Year

Poet, actor, director, singer, and recently minted graphic novelist Saul Williams has announced his first album in seven years. Leap Life arrives August 28 via Big Dada, and features a stacked list of contributors: Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja, Kamasi Washington, Carlos Niño, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Surya Botofasina—along with Gonjasufi and Moor Mother, who contribute to lead single “Conspiracy.” You can watch the video for the new track below.

Williams views Leap Life—named after his leap-year birthday—as an attempt to commune with the dead, particularly in light of the ongoing devastation in Palestine, Sudan, Haiti, Congo, and Yemen. “We’re going to need those spirits,” he writes in a statement. “There’s an understanding that the soldiers in our struggle are not only the visible ones. There are people standing and fighting with us that we may not see.”

Leap Life:
01. Baobab Constellation
02 Mazahua
03 I Think I Get It Now 
04 Great, Great-Grandmother
05 The Dagger
06 Controlled Is Not Controllable 
07 13 Moons
08 Une Photographie
09 Not Everything For Sale 
10 Robot Slave
11 Conspiracy
12 Vengeful Spirit
13 Friends I Ain’t Met Yet
14 Coming Forth