Bonobo Distance In Static is now out in the world, and the rollout behind Simon Green’s eighth album shows an artist trying to have it both ways: he wants the headphone listener and the 2am dancefloor. With the record released on Ninja Tune and the North American tour already under way, here is how the campaign played out and what comes next.
How the Bonobo Distance In Static campaign started on the dancefloor
The first fans to hear this record heard it at parties, not on streaming. Green tested new material at surprise pop-up DJ events in London and Paris, and lead single “Me and You” was a fixture of those sets before it came out. When the album was announced on 9 June, Ninja Tune paired it with that track and a music video built around a crater theme. It was his first album since 2022’s Fragments.
The singles followed steadily through the summer. In July came a double release, “Fire on the Water” with Arooj Aftab alongside “Drift”. August brought “Always on Your Side” with Joy Crookes and “Talk to Me” with Nicole Miglis. The full 14-track album arrived on 11 September 2026, the year Bonobo turns 25 as a project.
A global record with a club pulse
Green recorded the album in Los Angeles, Tokyo and London, and a large part of it was finished at Neil Young’s Broken Arrow Ranch in California. The guest list also includes Nilüfer Yanya, Ichiko Aoba and Aanya Martin. The lyrics are in English, Urdu and Japanese, and the production uses historic Iranian samples and guzheng recordings. Green has called it his most feature-heavy album yet. The visual identity was made with designer Trevor Jackson.
He has also been clear about why the record pulls both ways: “I want to reinforce this idea that you can be more than one thing,” he said. That split runs through his recent work, from his live-band tours to his OUTLIER DJ events.
The last lap in this format?
This is the part fans should note. Green has said this may be the last Bonobo album made the traditional way, with guest vocalists and a full live-band world tour behind it. “It’s probably the last go-around the track in this format,” he said. In another interview he said he wants to get “off the wheel a little bit” after 26 years of album cycles.
The Distance In Static live tour started in Austin on 5 November and runs through North American cities including Los Angeles, Oakland, Denver and Chicago. Dates across the UK and Europe follow from February 2027, including Manchester, Bristol, Berlin, Vienna and Milan. If this really is the last tour of its kind, these shows are worth catching.
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