Spirit 2.0

Album: Lahai (2023)
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Songfacts®:

  • Over skittering drums, echoing piano chords and minimal electronics, Sampha reminds us that the peaks and troughs of life are par for the course, but we will always be picked up by our internal and external connections to life.

    Waves will catch you, light will catch you
    Love will catch you, spirit gon' catch you, yeah
    Faith will catch you, friends will catch you
    Time will catch you, flash will catch you


    Sampha said of "Spirit 2.0:" "It's about the importance of connection to both myself and others, and the beauty and harsh realities of just existing. It's about acknowledging those moments when you need help – that requires real strength. I hope people can enjoy that feeling of someone being there for you, even if that person doesn't have the answers."
  • "Spirit 2.0" is Sampha's first solo music since his 2017 debut album, Process. In the meantime, he's collaborated with the likes of Alicia Keys ("3 Hour Drive") and Kendrick Lamar ("Father Time").

    "It's a song I started in my bedroom, a song I wrote walking through parks in solitude," he told Apple Music. "It's a song I wrote at a time I felt I needed to hear for myself."
  • "Spirit 2.0" features contributions from jazz funk drummer Yussef Dayes, Spanish producer El Guincho (Rosalia's "Con Altura," Billie Eilish's "Lo Vas a Olvidar") and Canadian musician Owen Pallett (Arcade Fire, Ed Sheeran) alongside vocals from Yaeji and Lisa-Kaindé Diaz of the French duo, Ibeyi.

    "I imagined these acoustic yet electronic drums which I expressed to Yussef Dayes, and he ran with that in incredible fashion," said Sampha. "It's influenced by jungle and West African folk music, blessed by the tones of Yaeji and Lisa from Ibeyi."

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