New Zealand artist Marlon Williams has enlisted fellow native Lorde for “Kāhore He Manu E,” the latest single from his first album in the Māori language, Te Whare Tīwekaweka. The project will be released April 4 in tandem with a documentary about its creation dubbed Marlon Williams: Ngā Ao E Rua – Two Worlds.
Williams spent five years working on the album, his first not in English. He describes the collaboration, whose real name is Ella Yelich-OʼConnor, as “one of those gentle labous. It played itself out to me, easily and near complete from the first. It was also obvious who should be singing it; Ellaʼs voice in a very real sense wrote the song. The distinct and striking characteristics in her voice cornering and demanding of the melody and phrasing what only her voice could. Singing with Ella is incredible; the amount of mind sheʼs able to pour into the vessel. We got to know each other through sharing the highs and lows of touring life, and in a real sense this song is an ode to the colourful but grim wormhole of road life [and] to the friends made and lost in the folds of time.”
More from Spin:
Adds Lorde of the collaboration, “over the course of several years I watched Marlon pull at the threads that became Te Whare Tīwekaweka. I saw that the further he got into the album, the deeper my friend came to know himself, his whānau and his world at large. Marlon is an undercover perfectionist, and he was never going to embark on this journey without turning over every stone, crafting complex waiata that speak to the past while also braiding in his characteristic humor and x-ray vision. Singing with Marlon is one of my favorite things to do on earth, whether we are tipsy backstage by a pool table or in a luscious studio, and I was honored he asked me to sing with him on this album. Iʼm so proud of my friend.”
Lorde and Williams have teamed up on several prior occasions, including to perform the former’s “Solar Power” in Māori in London in 2022. The pair also covered Bruce Springsteen’s “Tougher Than the Rest” in Auckland in March 2021.
Williams will support Te Whare Tīwekaweka with a series of performances this spring and summer, beginning April 10 in New York. Lorde is hard at work on her first album since 2021’s Solar Power, although no release date has been announced.
To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.