Photo: Greg Barnes

We’ve been following Mansur Brown since his early days in the London jazz scene, and there’s big news, the Brixton-born guitarist, producer, and composer has just announced his eagerly awaited new album, Rihla. Described as his most personal record to date, on Rihla Brown blends his signature guitar virtuosity with electronic, rock, and DnB influences, all while introducing his own vocals for the first time.  A word that translates to journey in Arabic, Rihla is exactly that, a voyage through musical landscapes that are uniquely his. The album carries a range of moods, from uplifting to introspective, as Brown explains:

“My music has many different feelings, but running through all of it are senses of happiness, and gratitude. I want it to feel rejuvenating.”

Written, performed, and produced entirely by himself, Rihla arrives on August 1st through his own label AMAI. Ahead of it, Brown has shared the album’s lead single, ‘Alone’, a reflective track about self-esteem and the struggle for self-acceptance. Speaking about it, he says:

“Alone is about a friend who struggles with internal self esteem issues and the need for external validation. The song talks about the constant inward battle of wanting to be better but not believing that it’s possible. It describes the difficulty of self actualisation and how that can only be achieved when you’re comfortable in your own skin i.e. being Alone. This all ties into the journey that we need to go on.”

‘Alone’ comes with an accompanying video and you can watch it below.

In other exciting news, Mansur Brown has a couple of live shows lined up – catch him in Porto at Matosinhos em Jazz on July 5th and in London at Scala on October 7th.