Ezra Collective Announce New Album Here Because Of Hope Out September 18 On Partisan Records

Featuring Leona Lewis, Letitia Wright, Libianca, Lila Iké & Pa Salieu

Watch Music Video For “Only Love” (Feat. Pa Salieu) HERE + YouTube

May 28, 2026 -- Ezra Collective have announced their new album Here Because Of Hope, to be released September 18 on Partisan Records. Here Because Of Hope arrives at an inflection point for the London group, on the heels of a series of tremendous accomplishments. Their 2024 album Dance, No One’s Watching earned them the Group of the Year award at the Brits, and they went on to headline the 12,000 seat Wembley Arena at the end of that year. 2022’s Where I’m Meant To Be won the Mercury Prize and led to an NPR Tiny Desk. Conceived as a body of work split into three spiritual and geographical movements, Ezra Collective’s eagerly anticipated return traces the movement of Black people across continents and decades, from the music of West Africa to the rhythms of the Caribbean, and home to the streets of the United Kingdom.

Today Ezra Collective have shared the album’s first preview: “Only Love” featuring British-Gambian rapper Pa Salieu. The collaboration with Salieu represents a desire for the African movement of the album to represent a breadth of the continent—not just the West African sounds that the band already carry naturally. “We really wanted a different sound to Africa,” says drummer Femi Koleoso. “One that is distinctly African, but underrepresented. We wanted to make sure it was there.”

Watch / Listen to “Only Love”

https://ezracollective.lnk.to/onlylove

YouTube

Here Because Of Hope was recorded largely in a week-long session at Miraval in southern France. Ezra Collective - Femi Koleoso on drums, TJ Koleoso on bass, Joe Armon-Jones on keys, James Mollison on saxophone and Ife Ogunjobi on trumpet - are joined by special guests including Jamaican singer Lila Iké, British singer-songwriter and actress Leona Lewis, Cameroonian singer Libianca, Salieu, and BAFTA-Award winning actress Letitia Wright, known for her role in the Black Panther films, who introduces each chapter of the album with spoken word.

The seed was planted in the band’s imagination long before a note was recorded. They had been obsessing over a question: why does so much Black music born out of pain sound so joyful? From Fela Kuti's afrobeat—written as a soundtrack to civil war—to the calypso born out of the slave trade, to grime emerging from the poverty of East London, the pattern was everywhere. The music said something that defied its origins. "We started thinking and obsessing about how many Black genres where the story is painful, but the result is this dance floor feeling,” says Femi. “And we came up with hope. It's the hope that one day this pain will change and take me to that place. So we’re going to write in anticipation of that place."

Each movement is devoted to a different geography and its sonic heritage: West Africa, the Caribbean, and the United Kingdom. The West African movement reaches back to the roots; the Caribbean movement traces the diaspora's journey; the UK movement lands in the place these five musicians call home.

Here Because Of Hope begins in West Africa. Following an opening spoken word by Wright, “Blow Your Trumpet” hits with a deep groove and does exactly what the title demands: cuts through, announces presence. “Sweet Echo” shines a light on highlife, the golden age of Ghanaian guitar music.

The album’s Caribbean movement is about journey—the passage of people and culture across the Atlantic, and the new forms that emerged from that movement. “Well Organised” is built around an interpolation of reggae legend Max Romeo’s “I Chase The Devil” by Jamaican singer Lila Iké, its roots deep in the soil of the nation’s sound system culture. “El Corazón” brings the full heat of salsa to the record, its rhythms unmistakably shaped by the Latin Caribbean.

The final movement brings it back home, to the United Kingdom and London, the city that shaped them. Ezra Collective view London as a crucible for something new, shaped by the sounds of many cultures mixing together. The pace slows to a sultry burn on “All I Need,” featuring British hero Leona Lewis. “Jubilee Feeling” and “Black Flag” capture the joy of five musicians finding the groove together in real time. The album comes to a euphoric conclusion with “Most High” featuring Libianca.

About:

Few bands in British music carry the weight of community, culture and craft quite like Ezra Collective. Formed in the youth clubs of London and shaped by the rich musical life of the capital's churches, clubs and streets, they’re a band whose story has always been inseparable from the environments that made them. Five musicians who grew up together, aged together, and have over a decade documenting that shared life in sound. Their journey from their formation in 2012 and first EP Chapter 7 in 2016 to the present day is one of the most compelling ascents in contemporary British music. Rooted in jazz but never confined by it, Ezra Collective became a living argument that jazz could be joyful, urgent and entirely relevant—as much at home in a sweaty basement as on a festival main stage. Speaking of which, Ezra Collective have appeared at the world’s finest festivals and on the finest stages. In addition to their beloved studio albums and praise from the Guardian, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, and the New York Times, recent collaborations include with Fred Again and Catriel y Amoroso on Beto’s Horns, Ezra Remix, plus Olivia Dean, Jorja Smith, Sampa the Great, Greentea Peng, Nubya Garcia and many more.

Ezra Collective will tour internationally through 2026, including at LA Jazz Festival Sunday August 23. See below for the full itinerary, with more dates to be announced soon.