Space Afrika Unveil Haunting New Single ‘MLN’ Featuring Tony Njoku

Space Afrika have shared their powerful new single ‘MLN ft. Tony Njoku’, offering another glimpse into their highly anticipated forthcoming album Quiet Storm, set for release on September 25th via Dais Records. The Manchester/Berlin-based duo of Joshua Tarelle Reid and Joshua Inyang have long occupied a world entirely of their own. Pulling together fragments of ambient, trip-hop, techno, dub and modern classical, their intensely detailed music transforms the textures of urban life into something haunting, intimate and deeply human.

Their latest offering, ‘MLN’, captures the beauty and catharsis at the heart of their next chapter. Featuring British-Nigerian artist Tony Njoku, the track unfolds as a slow-burning collective effort, with Gabriel Evans on guitar and lead bass, London's PIKE on drums and Copenhagen's GB on keys and strings. Against snapping percussion and spacious instrumentation, Njoku's processed falsetto cuts through the haze, giving the track a striking emotional weight.

The single arrives alongside an experimental four-minute film directed by Tony Helal and shot at Berlin's Musikbrauerei. Moving through fragmented memories of love, conflict and self-destruction, the film mirrors the track's shifting emotional landscape as moments of clarity dissolve into distortion and reform once again.

“The film is an interpretation of a personal reckoning,” explains Helal, describing a visual world shaped by “memory, self-destruction, and self-realisation.”

‘MLN’ forms part of Quiet Storm, a sprawling collaborative record that sees Space Afrika push far beyond the industrial-noir framework of their acclaimed 2021 album Honest Labour. Contributors across the project include Axelle Fanyo, Alto Aria, Klein, RXKNephew, Tony Njoku, Kiala Ogawa and Kelly Moran, alongside an ensemble of cellists, violinists, guitarists and drummers.

“We challenged ourselves and our own notions of identity, around class and diaspora, and how that is represented across musical genres,” says Reid. “We wanted to show the characteristics of our project through the people we chose to work with.”

That spirit of collaboration runs through an album concerned with spirituality, identity and the human condition, navigating the tensions between boldness and softness, ambition and the internal battles that refuse to disappear.

The record's multidisciplinary vision extends to its artwork and title, with celebrated artist Glenn Ligon contributing his 2009 work Figure #30 for the album cover. After hearing the completed record, Ligon also offered the project its title, Quiet Storm—a reference to the late-night radio format synonymous with smooth, intimate explorations of life and love.

Self-produced and self-funded, Quiet Storm looks set to mark a significant evolution for Space Afrika: an ambitious collision of rap, classical composition and experimental electronics shaped by patience, collaboration and a refusal to be confined by genre.

‘MLN ft. Tony Njoku’ is out now. Quiet Storm arrives September 25th via Dais Records.