The album is due out 24 July. Stream the first single One More Time now.
Kamaal Williams, aka Henry Wu, has announced the follow up to his debut album The Return. Like its predecessor, Wu Hen is released on Williams’ own Black Focus imprint, itself named after the album he made with Yussef Dayes in 2016. The album is preceded by the first single One More Time.
As with much of his work, Williams uses jazz as his blueprint, but draws sounds and references from broken beat, grime, funk, garage and house to build a style he is almost synonymous with. Conceptually, the album takes as much inspiration from the spiritual traditions of his Chinese heritage as it does the vibrancy of his Peckham hometown, combining recordings of the pre-lockdown hubbub with the cosmic adventurousness of his and his bandmates’ playing.
On Wu Hen these players include new faces in Greg Paul (drums), Rick Leon James (bass), Alina Bzhezhinska (harp), and veteran strings player Miguel Atwood-Ferguson.
Speaking about the new album, Williams said: “This is a revolution of the mind. A spiritual rebellion. To reach new heights requires separating ourselves from the material world and finding power in what’s intangible. That’s what music and art is for – whether it’s a primitive emotion or something deep, you feel it.”
Wu Hen is available to pre-order now. Listen to One More Time above.