Shabaka - Of The Earth (Shabaka Records Limited Edition Pink Vinyl LP)

Shabaka - Of The Earth | Vinyl LP - 2026 Shabaka Records (SR001LPP, limited edition pink vinyl, includes art card insert)

• Entirely written, performed, produced and mixed by Shabaka Hutchings, who plays saxophone, shakuhachi, pífano, alto flute, clay flutes, clarinet, tenor horn, congas, keyboards, electronics and raps for the first time on record.
• His first album on his own label and his return to the saxophone after an 18-month hiatus spent studying global flute traditions, from Japanese shakuhachi to Brazilian pífano to Mayan clay flutes.
• The first release on Shabaka Records, pressed on limited edition pink vinyl with a hand-illustrated art card insert by Shabaka himself. Lacquer cut by Beau Thomas at Ten Eight Seven Mastering.

Shabaka Hutchings spent the decade before this album building three of the most important groups in the UK jazz revival. Sons of Kemet, which he co-founded in 2011 and disbanded in 2022, brought Caribbean rhythms and political urgency to the London scene. The Comet Is Coming fused jazz with electronic music. Shabaka and the Ancestors connected to the South African jazz tradition. After dissolving or stepping back from all three, he released Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace on Impulse! in 2024, a contemplative album that swapped the saxophone for flutes and clarinet and featured a cast of collaborators including André 3000, Floating Points, Moses Sumney and Jason Moran. Of The Earth takes the next step: no collaborators at all. Shabaka plays every instrument, produces every track, and mixes the album himself, working from beats and loops built on portable devices while touring.

The saxophone reappears. After 18 months away from the instrument, Shabaka returned to it for Louis Moholo's memorial concert in mid-2025, and on this album it sits alongside the flutes and clarinets he'd been focusing on rather than replacing them. "Marwa The Mountain" pairs bleating flutes with congas before the tenor enters and takes over. "Stand Firm" layers the saxophone against junglist beats. "Go Astray" and "Ol' Time African Gods" feature Shabaka rapping for the first time, inspired, he says, by André 3000's courage in exploring new territory. D'Angelo's Brown Sugar was the first CD Shabaka ever bought, and the album's self-produced, self-performed approach follows that model. Mastered by Benjamin Tierney, lacquer cut by Beau Thomas at Ten Eight Seven Mastering. Atiba Jefferson photographed the cover and Shabaka illustrated the art card insert. This is the limited edition pink vinyl pressing (SR001LPP) on Shabaka Records, Shabaka's own label distributed by Warp.