South African electronic artist Desire Marea will drop their sophomore album this spring.

Revealed yesterday, On the Romance of Being will be released on April 7 via Mute. Unlike Marea’s 2020 debut album, most of the album was recorded in one take with thirteen musicians in the studio. The artist said this about switching things up for the sophomore release:

“My ancestors gave me an instruction to record this with a live band. The reasoning? It was a way to ensure that the music carried the soul. We were all united in the most intimate parts of our consciousness. The music made us one.”

A new song from the record titled “Be Free” comes with a music video directed by Imraan Christian. Marea said this about the new song:

"One of my heroes, Marlon Riggs, said “Black men loving black men is THE revolutionary act”. ‘Be Free’ is a love story about two black men loving each other through the crisis of masculinity. It’s set in South Africa’s hypermasculine world of taxi gangs, one of the many places where gay men exist often under a layer of oppression that’s in addition to the homophobic violence of the world at large. It was important for me to tell this story because love, even under such conditions, is always a story worth telling. And freedom is always something worth fighting for. I am grateful to the team and to Imraan for the passion, care and nuance he gave to this story."

Christian said this about working on the visual:

"When Desire reached out to me about creating a film together, I was overjoyed as I’ve always found his work to be at the forefront of creativity. He told me about the story he had written and it resonated with me deeply as I’ve lost a loved one recently to the struggles of addiction and love. There was something universal in Desire’s writing and my intention was then to bring a strong emotional and cinematic approach to making the film."

Pre-orders for On The Romance Of Being can be made here.

On The Romance Of Being tracklisting

1. Ezulwini

2. Be Free

3. Makhukhu

4. Mfula

5. Arrival

6. Rah

7. Skhathi

8. Banzi