Faithless have shared their atmospheric new single ‘Forever Free’ featuring the late Maxi Jazz’s final recorded vocal.
Released yesterday (June 6), ‘Forever Free’ is the opening track from the dance group’s new album ‘Champion Sound’ which is to be released in four parts ahead of its full arrival in September.
Three other tracks have also been released, including ‘Fugitive’, ‘In Your Own Groove’ which features LSK, and the Suli Breaks-featuring ‘Peace & Noise’, shared in March. The remaining three parts of the album will be released over the summer, and is set to feature further collaborations with Bebe Rexha and Anthony Szmierek, and more.
After announcing the upcoming album with the lead single ‘Find A Way‘, the group have also shared ‘I’m Not Alone’, marking their first new music since 2020’s ‘All Blessed’, as well their first release since the passing of frontman Maxi Jazz back in December 2022.
‘Forever Free’ sees a choral vocal intertwine with distorted synth chords, before making way for a short speech from Jazz, made up of his last recorded vocal, as he says: “When time come/Beneath the fearsome sun/My daughter my son/Be as completely you/As you can be.” Listen below.
Last year, Sister Bliss spoke to NME about the next album, which at the time, she and the band were still working on. “We are in a hugely creative mode at the moment,” she said. “I was so excited the other day when we got a vocal from one of our collaborators that I actually felt sick.
“I felt that it was one of the keys that will unlock the album… not that anyone gives a shit about albums anymore, but we do, and maybe our fans do.”
The dance pioneer said that making the new record has “been a platform for bringing new people into Faithless in a collective and collaborative way”.
She added working with poets and spoken-word artists who share their “lyrical agenda and consciousness” has been key to maintaining this following Jazz’s death.
“That is a real passing the baton from Maxi, which is what he wanted to do,” she said. “He wanted to slow down on Faithless, probably because he wasn’t very well. So I feel that we’ve been blessed enough to find artists to collaborate with who are worthy of that baton.”
In April 2024, the group teased that new music was on the way via their social media accounts. “As many of you have noticed, we’re back…Some shows have already been announced but we couldn’t start the summer without a little personal note,” surviving members Bliss and Rollo wrote on Instagram.
Maxi died just over a year ago and obviously we miss him every day. Thank you all for all of your kind words of support over this last year. It has really, really meant a lot.”
