BONOBO RELEASES ‘FIRE ON THE WATER’ FEATURING AROOJ AFTAB, ALONGSIDE NEW SINGLE ‘DRIFT’

Bonobo Releases “Fire on the Water” Featuring Grammy-Winning Vocalist Arooj Aftab Ahead of Upcoming Album Distance in Static

The Grammy-winning vocalist joins Bonobo on the emotional centrepiece of his forthcoming album Distance in Static, out September 11 via Ninja Tune

“Fire on the Water” Single Artwork – Download HERE
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July, 2026 – Bonobo, aka Simon Green, releases “Fire on the Water” today, an intimate new collaboration with Grammy Award-winning composer, producer and vocalist Arooj Aftab. Sung in Urdu and built around Bonobo’s signature cinematic electronic production, the track stands as the emotional centrepiece of his forthcoming album Distance in Static, out September 11 on Ninja Tune.

Distance in Static finds Bonobo collaborating with Joy Crookes, Nilüfer Yanya, Ichiko Aoba, Nicole Miglis and Aanya Martin, reflecting one of his most expansive and globally influenced records to date.

Aftab, a long-time admirer of Green’s genre-defying body of work — “Is anyone from my generation not a huge Bonobo fan?” she says — travelled to Woodside, California, where Green recorded a large portion of the album at Neil Young’s legendary Broken Arrow Ranch studio.

Bonobo and Arooj Aftab at Broken Arrow Ranch by Haley Miller – Download HERE

The song came together almost by accident. A rough acoustic guitar loop — recorded while Green was simply testing studio inputs one morning — became the seed of the track, though the first attempt at fitting Aftab’s vocals to it didn’t work. The two abandoned it, went for lunch and a walk, and Green tried something new that evening. On hearing it, Aftab responded immediately, layering vocals in Urdu to lyrics assembled from the poetry of her friend Yasra Rizvi. The breakthrough proved pivotal for the record.

“When that song happened, that’s when I could first see an album coming into shape,” says Green. “We were both like, ‘Oh, this is really special’.”

Aftab recalls the moment similarly: “I was like, WAIT… this beat is inviting something, the fire on the water will work here. So I started weaving it in, line by line, and he started playing that guitar riff. We had this astonishing, hushed excitement as we kept putting the pieces together because we could feel that we were making something very special.”

It’s part of a wider pattern on Distance in Static, which carries lyrics in English, Urdu and Japanese alongside historic Iranian samples and guzheng recordings — one of Bonobo’s most sonically outward-looking records to date.

Alongside “Fire on the Water”, Bonobo also releases “Drift” — a more club-oriented companion piece that has already become a standout in his recent DJ sets. Together, the two tracks offer the clearest glimpse yet into the sonic world of Distance in Static.

‘Distance in Static’ Tracklist

• Dawn
• Cycles
• Fire on the Water (feat. Arooj Aftab)
• Drift
• Talk to Me (feat. Nicole Miglis)
• Uncasually
• Always on Your Side (feat. Joy Crookes)
• Youth’s Fountain (feat. Nilüfer Yanya)
• Shokoufeh
• Can’t You See (feat. Aanya Martin)
• ID700
• Me and You
• Equinoctial (feat. Ichiko Aoba)
• Mercury (feat. Kanako Yamamoto)

About Bonobo

Bonobo has spent over 25 years as a recording artist and remains one of electronic music’s defining voices — two Top-10 UK albums (2017’s Migration, 2022’s Fragments), 900,000+ records sold, collaborations with Erykah Badu and Damon Albarn, and seven Grammy nominations, a record shared with The Chemical Brothers, Skrillex and Madonna.

About Arooj Aftab

Arooj Aftab is a Grammy Award-winning vocalist, composer and producer whose work occupies a singular space in contemporary music. Brooklyn-based, she has had a year defined by an expansive run of collaborations, with the Bonobo link-up a natural extension of her ever-evolving practice. She recently reimagined “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” in Urdu with producer Anish Kumar for Riz Ahmed’s series BAIT.