Petite Noir today announces new album MotherFather, his first LP release since the acclaimed La Vie Est Belle/Life is Beautiful, which came out in 2015. To accompany the album, Petite Noir will tour Europe this spring, including a show at London's Scala on May 2nd. New single Blurry features his good friend and Zambian artist Sampa The Great who adds a stunning verse to this anthemic tune, and a striking minimalist music video directed by Hector Aponysus.
Petite Noir says of the single: “Blurry is a song about growth in love. Being ready to take that next step whether it means being together or apart. Sometimes the best thing you can do is just move forward with your life solo. Choosing you above all. Being the best you.. because no one will! It was super special to work with my sister Sampa. She is one of a kind and our energy’s gravitate towards each other! Naturally!” Sampa The Great adds: “I felt soo honoured to be able to work with Petite Noir. I’ve looked up to him and his music for a while and I’m truly inspired by his courage in paving the way for alternative musicians in Africa who feel like they don’t fit into one genre or one style.”
Petite Noir is the architect of Noirwave – a musical and cultural movement that draws creative energy from punk aesthetics and the fragmented identity of today’s African diaspora. The Congolese artist was born in Belgium, raised in South Africa, and is now based between London and Paris. Since his radical 2018 “visual album” La Maison Noir/The Black House, he has won praise from the likes of The Guardian, Pitchfork, Dazed and Huck Magazine, going on to collaborate with Danny Brown, tour with Young Fathers and capture the attention of Solange, who have all championed his music.
MotherFather has a subtitle: ‘The darkness is comforting sometimes’. As Petite Noir explains: “It’s about going through the darkness. But it’s also about rebirth. Because the dark times are needed for us to grow.” The record defines a time of enormous personal upheaval in Petite Noir’s life, retracing old scars of the racism he experienced growing up in Johannesburg and examining his own relationship to the Black experience. Across its ten tracks, he navigates the dualities of joy and pain; sweetness and abrasion, and how life is richer for having both.
It’s only right that in wrestling with these existential and spiritual questions that the sound of MotherFather is on a biblical scale, equal parts heaven and hellfire. The record has guest features from Sampa The Great, the Grammy-nominated, Floridian jazz musician Theo Croker, and production from Dave Sitek (TV On The Radio), CID RIM, Moshik Kop, Tropics, and Futura.