PYNUKA—featuring vocalist Anda Szilagyi, Godflesh’s Justin Broadrick, C Trip A—share debut single “Tá N’agua”

PYNUKA is a collaboration between Anda Szilagyi (Antibalas, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Lee Fields), Christian Alexander (C Trip A) and Justin Broadrick of Godflesh and Jesu. And today, the group are sharing their debut single, titled “Tá N’agua,” via Translation Loss Records. The new single, mastered by Vlado Meller (Andrea Bocelli, Kanye West, Shakira), is a wildly different kind of project from all three artists, a blend of heavy, pulsing electronics and massive, dub-like bass, with vocals in Portuguese from Szilagyi. It feels like an industrialized take on MPB, a blend of dreamlike sounds and intense textures alike.

Szilagyi released a statement about the new collaborative single:

“Christian sent me the rough rhythm track and when I first listened, I was struck with the drone trance-like feel to it,” says Anda. “This made me think of meditative trance-like music of Brazil – spirit music of the Orixas, nature energies and ritual beats. I improvised the whole melody in one take – it seemed to flow so naturally. I went back and wrote the lyrics (I strongly felt they should be in Portuguese). The words De-de-O pay tribute to Yoruba chanting -to me it felt like a call to spirits of nature. This song is about the way humans look towards technology for all the answers when so much is to be learned from nature.

“It’s always so interesting working with people who come from very different musical backgrounds. PYNUKA is one of the most extreme collabs I’ve done in terms of this. My background tends to be more Jazz, funk, Brazilian music while Christian and Justin bring hip hop, ambient, club, rock, metal and industrial to the mix. The tracks we’ve done are all different than anything I’ve done before. I love working with these 2.”

Check out the single’s artwork above, by Rich Hall, and check out the clip for “Tá N’agua,” directed by Dante Torrieri, below or via DSPs here.