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Voyage-19

VOYAGE-19 is an EP by the American singer-songwriter Bilal, in collaboration with HighBreedMusic, a music studio and production company in Brooklyn, New York. It was released digitally on September 6, 2020, through the music publishing platform Bandcamp and is his first EP, as well as his first album-type release since 2015's In Another Life.

Produced by Bilal with HighBreedMusic owner Tariq Khan, VOYAGE-19 was recorded over the course of three days in August 2020 with 30 other musicians, including fellow singer-songwriter Erykah Badu, the pianist Robert Glasper, the saxophonist Marcus Strickland, the harpist Brandee Younger, and the drummer Marcus Gilmore. Its recording sessions, spanning 54 hours, were conducted remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns and streamed live on YouTube. The cover art was designed by the visual artist Angelbert Metoyer.

A musically experimental work, VOYAGE-19 reflects contemporary societal concerns in its themes. With many of the contributing musicians struggling financially because of the pandemic, they received revenues from the EP as well as any direct donations that accompanied its sale. Critics received the work positively, impressed by the musicians' musicality and ambitions under the circumstances.

VOYAGE-19 is Bilal's first recorded release since his guest appearances in late 2019 on the Queen & Slim soundtrack and the pianist Robert Glasper's mixtape Fuck Yo Feelings. It is also his first album-type release in five years, following his fifth album In Another Life (2015).

Bilal wrote and recorded the EP over the course of a three-day weekend from August 7 to August 9, 2020, in partnership with HighBreedMusic, a Brooklyn-based recording studio, production company, and digital music channel. He produced alongside HighBreedMusic owner Tariq Khan, known for his collaborations with the singer-songwriters Erykah Badu and FKA Twigs.

Bilal conceived one song on each day of the EP's experimental sessions, which totaled 54 hours. He used a combination of the studio's technologies to interact and collaborate with 30 other musicians, who each created musical parts remotely from their home due to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. Participating musicians included Glasper, Badu, the vocalists Melanie Charles and Madison McFerrin, the spoken-word poet Khemist, the bassists Tone Whitfield and Ben Williams, the trumpeter Keyon Harrold, the saxophonist Marcus Strickland, the keyboardists Raymond Angry and Simon Mavin (of Hiatus Kaiyote), the harpist Brandee Younger, and the drummer Marcus Gilmore. A number of musicians were longtime collaborators and friends of Bilal, as well as associates of HighBreedMusic.

The EP is described by Cool Hunting editor Katie Olsen as an experimental work. According to the music journalist John Vettese, each song "represents a step along the journey through a very strange year", demonstrated most vividly on the EP's final track, "Voyage to a New World".

Opening with the sound of a bird song and Badu's poetry ("Wake up / You see that ship ahead? / Just walk, don't run"), "Voyage to a New World" is described by Olsen as "a kind of meditation before taking various twists and turns", as "distorted vocals and chaotic percussion lead to a lush, soulful flute-laden melody that soon morphs again." In Vettese's observations, the "experimentally structured piece" begins with "a space music synth tapestry, and switches moods with a bass drop to a series of different tones and textures, ultimately landing on a surreal groove reminiscent of Radiohead and Sun Ra, and guided by Melanie Charles' flute, BigYuki and Glasper's keyboards, and a choir of voices featuring Madison McFerrin, YahZarah, and Bilal himself."

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