Today, Ibibio Sound Machine announce their new album Chopping Mountain, heralded by lead single “Concept of Love,” an Afro-disco banger that finds the band at their infectious best. Chopping Mountain is out September 11, 2026, via Merge Records, ahead of Ibibio Sound Machine’s fall tour of the UK. Listen to “Concept of Love" wherever you stream music, and reserve your copy of Chopping Mountain on CD, LP, or limited edition Green/Black Smoke Swirl Peak Vinyl from the Merge store!

In the video accompanying “Concept of Love,” Eno Williams walks into the center of the frame and unleashes the chorus’ refrain, “What is your concept of love?”, through a vocoder with warmth and urgency as the song locks into an Afro-disco pulse and she starts to chant in her native Ibibio language. 

According to Williams, the song “went through many different stages and ended with a soulful, electronic Afro-disco feel. What you give out into the world is what you receive back, it’s beautiful to be loved.” The song, made in reaction to an increasingly unstable world, captures the spirit of the wider album, holding onto ideas of love, resistance, togetherness, and hope without losing sight of the dancefloor.

“Concept of Love” began life through a long process of reshaping and rebuilding before arriving at its final form as a soulful, electronic fusion that captures the spirit of the wider album, one that was made in reaction to an increasingly unstable world, holding onto ideas of love, resistance, togetherness, and hope without losing sight of the dancefloor.

Recorded primarily at the band’s own Vanguard Studios in South London, Chopping Mountain marks the first Ibibio Sound Machine album produced by the band’s Max Grunhard since 2019’s Doko Mien. Following the Hot Chip-produced Electricity and the darker, club-focused direction of Pull the Rope, their new record feels both expansive and deeply rooted, drawing on the earthy textures of classic West African highlife alongside post-punk, Afrobeat, soul, and electronic music.

Across the album, the eight-piece band sound sharper and more connected than ever, building songs through live jams, rhythmic experiments, and instinctive interplay. Whether channeling the euphoric disco energy of “When You Want to Dance,” the spiritual intensity of “Return to Sender,” or the soulful nightlife of “Love,” Chopping Mountain presents Ibibio Sound Machine as a group still evolving, still searching, and still firmly committed to joy as an act of resistance. 

Ibibio Sound Machine on tour:
Jul 03-04 Glasgow, UK – WOMAD 2026
Jul 22-27 Donostia, ES – Jazzaldia 2026
Jul 30 Eeklo, BE – Helden In Het Park 2026
Aug 01 Floreffe, BE – ESPERANZAH! 2026
Aug 02 Nutley, UK – Good Vibrations Society 2006
Sep 05 Santa Cruz De Tenerife, ES – Phe Festival 2006
Sep 11 Reading, UK – Down at the Abbey
Oct 02 Bristol, UK – Lantern Hall
Oct 03 Cardiff, UK – Clwb Ifor Bach
Oct 07 Birmingham, UK – Hare & Hounds
Oct 09 Dublin, IE – Button Factory
Oct 10 Birkenhead, UK – Future Yard
Oct 15 Brighton, UK – Concorde 2
Oct 16 Oxford, UK – Cowley Workers Social Club
Oct 22 Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK – Gosforth Civic Theatre
Oct 23 Edinburgh, UK – Liquid Rooms
Oct 24 Nottingham, UK – Rescue Rooms
Nov 20 Leeds, UK – Brudenell Social Club
Nov 21 Leeds, UK – Brudenell Social Club
Nov 25 London, UK – Islington Assembly Hall
Jan 29 Abu Dhabi, AE – The Red Theatre, The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi