“A dream of the dance to come.”

Lafawndah’s debut album Ancestor Boy, released last year on her own label Concordia, cemented her position as a compelling voice in contemporary songwriting and composition.” I think about [the music] in physical ways: what feels round, what feels sharp,” Lafawndah told Fact in 2019. “I think about knives, I think about colours. The visual sometimes come before the music.”

At the end of 2019, Lafawndah followed it up with Ancestor Boy II, an album of reworks that made her music’s connection to club music more explicit through tracks made with artists such as Howie Lee, Tayhana and Nídia. A track made with Cõvco heralded the start of a new collaboration between the two, Fara Fara.

Lafawndah’s Fact mix, which features tracks from Elysia Crampton Chuquimia, Nkisi, Crystallmess and more, arrives ahead of her next album, The Fifth Season. Released on Parisian label Latency on September 8, the album is inspired by NK Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy, and features interpretations of Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s ‘Don’t Despair’ and French composer Lili Boulanger’s ‘Old Buddhist Prayer.’

“This mix is a manifesto for the new club order,” Lafawndah says. “Joyous, militant, and fearless. The children partying with the aunts and uncles and cousins. A more expansive vision of time, tempo, and turntness. A dream of the dance to come.”

Find Lafawndah’s music at Bandcamp and pre-order The Fifth Season here.

Tracklist:

Elysia Crampton Chuquimia – ‘Somos Janiwa/We Are No’ (Demo)
Indus Bonze – ‘朝焼け (Morning Glow)’
Suutoo – ‘The Old Gods Are Falling / Chanting & Cussing’
Saint Abdullah – ‘Sounds from the Hosseinieh’
Crystallmess – “The Devil is a Lie’
DJ Arafat – ‘Kpankaka’
Batoss Yerewolo & La Folle – ‘Unknown’
Nkisi – ‘Yoka”
Bamaoyende & Lediouck – ‘Tommy Shelby’
Lafawndah feat. Ami Yerewolo – ‘Oasis’
Lafawndah – ‘Interlude’
Anita Baker x Azealia Banks
DJ Gunshot – ‘Wheel’N’Deal’
Moesha 13 –  ‘Lumière’
Cõvco – ‘The End (Consciente of the Soul)’

Listen next: FACT mix 763: Mama Snake