ZAKI IBRAHIM'S CAREER-SPANNING REISSUES: ECLECTICA (EPISODES IN PURPLE) & ORBIT: A POST-COITAL PREQUEL
AVAILABLE FOR THE FIRST TIME WORLDWIDE ON 9/25/20
“Futuristic soul at its best” - Afropunk
Zaki Ibrahim continues to double back on the past with two more mind-expanding albums from her catalogue arriving worldwide today. Eclectica (Episodes in Purple), originally released in 2008,will now be available as a deluxe digital album with new songs, “The New Black” and “My Baby.” Orbit: A Post-Coital Prequel, first recorded as a Red Bull South Africa session and a staple of Ibrahim’s exquisite live performances, will also come to streaming platforms for the first time. “The opportunity to release the back catalogue now, in this time, helps me honour that body of work. It’s a way to move through the past, and to come back to the future,” Ibrahim shares. “It’s also a way to have agency over this music, and to lay a foundation for new music to come.”
“The New Black,” available on the new deluxe offering of Eclectica (Episodes in Purple), originated as a CBC Bandwidth commission. A poem changed hands from artists Andre Ethier to Jenny Whiteley, then to Ibrahim and DJ L'Oquenz, where it was transformed into a droning, beat-driven call for higher consciousness. Purple, a color of connection and awareness, unites the songs on Eclectica. The album is a project of understanding the sacral through manifesting positive change, locating agency in technology, and opening up to limitless possibility. Along with newly surfaced songs, Eclectica is also the origin of fan favourite grooves of “Computer Girl” and “Grow Again,” as well Philadelphia DJ/composer/curator King Britt’s “Money” mix.
The arrival of Orbit: A Post-Coital Prequel in 2020 highlights Ibrahim’s experiences of time as an overlapping, circuitous and repetitive force. As a ‘spiral body of music that tells a love story of twin stars,’ Orbit’s four-song voyage is a story that writes itself in looping, infinite chapters. A tale of love and togetherness, Orbit: A Post-Coital Prequel is a deep and dizzying journey.
In June 2020, Ibrahim embarked on a project to reconfigure and rerelease her genre and continent-spanning catalogue. As an opportunity to reflect on intention and outcome and as a conversation with past selves, the reissue experience is as much a process of recovery as discovery. As part of this journey, Ibrahim reconnected with Reza + Ty, the hosts of scene-shaping Toronto radio show O.T.A. Live, to revisit these times and places. In this new interview, Ibrahim discusses her journey, which spans the west coast, South Africa and Toronto. Ibrahim also paints a picture of her musical influences, her own creative process, and the community of artists and collaborators that helped shape her sound. WATCH HERE.
Explore the Iqra Box, the first in a series of wellness box collections curated by Ibrahim and showcasing Black creators, Black-owned businesses and wellness providers. The Iqra box contains objects, experiences and art that informed and inspired the ‘orange’ era, and includes a Reiki workshop, incense, a copy of bell hooks’ All About Love and more. Learn more and enter to win HERE.
Stream Eclectica (Episodes in Purple) and Orbit: A Post-Coital Prequel on all platforms worldwide on September 25, 2020.
