Kelela returns with 'Washed Away', out via Warp

Visionary vocalist and producer Kelela returns today with “Washed Away.” Since the release of her 2017 acclaimed debut album, Take Me Apart, and its subsequent remix project, fans have been left wondering, “where in the world is Kelela?”. The ethereal new track, out now on Warp Records, is produced by Yo van Lenz and musically witnesses Kelela’s interpretation of autonomy, personal belonging, and self-renewal as healing. “I love a banger, but for the first point of contact out of my hiatus, it felt more honest to lead with an ambient heart-check,” Kelela shares.

“Washed Away” is accompanied by a visual directed by Yasser Abubeker, finding Kelela amid the elements of the Danakil Depression, which sits in the northern section of Ethiopia's Afar region. Speaking of the new work, Kelela considers the offering to be a cleanse: “I specifically want to speak to marginalized Black folk and highlight the work we do to find renewal in a world that’s built to make us feel inadequate. This song is the soundtrack to the relief we find after going inward.”

Skillfully straddling the frequencies of R&B and Dance music, Kelela has established herself as an artistic interpolator of music, art and fashion. In 2017, Kelela’s debut album, Take Me Apart, accelerated her inevitable rise to mainstream acclaim in both pop and underground culture. In the years prior, Cut 4 Me (2013) and Hallucinogen (2015) – among her other remix projects and features – cemented her artistry as a leading force in the alternative, underground R&B world. With a personal style as visually kaleidoscopic as her genre-wielding music, Kelela has established herself as a vanguard of sonic and aesthetic innovation. Thoughtfully intermixing elegance, futurism, divinity and sensuality, Kelela’s unique perspective has carved a lane that demonstrates style as both a component of art, and art in and of itself.

KELELA New Single " Washed Away "

WITH ACCOMPANYING VISUAL DIRECTED BY YASSER ABUBEKER SET IN ETHIOPIA'S DANAKIL DEPRESSION

WATCH VIDEO HERE

LISTEN HERE