NikNak has announced her new album, Azul, her first release on Lapsus Records, out 27th November, alongside first single “Earthseed”.
The 11-track record follows 2024’s Ireti and is described as an immersive afrosonic fiction inspired by nanotech, space and water, continuing her exploration of Afrofuturism. Much of it was written during a residency in Ilhabela, Brazil, where she made underwater recordings using hydrophones, a Torso S4 and a small modular synth. It is her first album in some time made entirely without features.
The album follows an explorer who crash-lands on a water-covered planet, where nature repairs technology and the cyborg at its centre is fluid rather than metallic. “Yemaya” channels the sea through modular synth sound design, while closer “Beached” nods to her Jamaican heritage with a hint of bashment. A personal thread runs beneath the story, as NikNak returned to swimming lessons after years of anxiety around water while making the record.
Speaking on the album, NikNak explained: “I hope people feel like they’ve been transported to a new story, or that they’ve jumped into a page from a comic book or graphic novel. I want people to feel connected to the story of my music in some way, or for it to inspire a narrative inside them.”
In 2020, NikNak became the first Black turntablist to win an Oram Award, and in 2025 she won the Pop-Experimental award at ZKM’s Gigahertz Festival. Live, she will scratch over the tracks in real time as she develops a cyborg persona for her AV shows.
Listen to “Earthseed” below and pre-save Azul here.