Beverly Glenn-Copeland Announces First New Album in 20 Years, Shares Song: Listen

Beverly Glenn-Copeland has announced a new album, the first LP from the 79-year-old musician in two decades. His next record is titled The Ones Ahead, and it’s out July 28 via Transgressive. Glenn-Copeland shared album opener “Africa Calling” with the news. Listen to “Africa Calling” and see the full track list below.

Glenn-Copeland last released an album with 2004’s Primal Prayer, which he issued under the name Phynix. He shared a statement about the inspiration for “Africa Calling”:

In the ‘80s I had the honor of performing with an incredible artist named Dido, a master of the drums indigenous to West Africa. The beauty of this drumming tradition is explored in ‘Africa Calling’. Over the years, in many conversations, I have come to understand that I share an undefinable, unnamed feeling — a calling — with many other members of the African diaspora, a bone-deep need to explore and express our heritage. Alongside the grief, there is a longing to know our roots, hidden from us as family lines were torn apart in the terrible days of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. In a world still caught in the ties of colonialism, I know I am not alone in needing to heed the call of this generations-old longing.

Glenn-Copeland shared some new material in 2020 with the release of Transmissions: The Music of Beverly Glenn-Copeland. The following year, he marked the 35th anniversary of his celebrated LP Keyboard Fantasies with a reissue and a documentary, and released a remix album that included contributions from Kelsey Lu, Arca, Dev Hynes, and more. Romy more recently sampled Glenn-Copeland’s “La Vita” on her recent single “Enjoy Your Life.”

Revisit Pitchfork’s Sunday Review of Keyboard Fantasies.