Track by Track is a recurring feature series in which artists guide readers through every song on their latest release. Today, Aluna takes us through her sophomore solo effort, MYCELiUM.
Today (July 7th), genre-bending dance trailblazer Aluna (also of AlunaGeorge) has released her second solo album, MYCELiUM. With an increased focus on collaboration, inclusion, and ’90s-era electronica, the record serves as a celebration of community as much as it is a celebration of Aluna herself.
Even the name of the record reflects the artist’s interests in relationships and the communities she feels connected to, as mycelium refers nature’s network of interconnected fungal threads. To Aluna, it couldn’t be a more perfect metaphor.
“Mycelium is nature’s superpower — if I was going to be a superhero, I would want the ability to harness that hidden underground cellular network that lives all around us deconstructing and reconstructing, but undetectable… invincible,” she tells Consequence. “I think Black women are a lot like that — we are constantly torn down, exploited, and erased from the great history books. But here we are once again powering the future of dance music and here I am offering my contribution to that great destination.”
Such ethos translated into the creative process of the record as well. MYCELiUM features an impressive, expansive list of collaborators including KOOLDRINK, Roofeeo, Pabllo Vittar, Picard Brothers, TSHA, Chris Lake, and MNEK. Though each artist hails from a different spot on the globe, Aluna was able to foster an engaging, fruitful network — not unlike that of fungal threads — via video calls.
“I concocted a bizarre system using all the tools I could find to be able to hear studio quality sound across the globe with zero latency and the Notes app to share lyrical ideas fluidly,” Aluna explains. “By the end of this, I knew the inside of every single Zoom audio feature there is!”
Ultimately, the record ends by looking forward to the future of the genre, the future of Aluna, and the future of our mycelium-esque networks. “I placed [“Future”] at the end not as an ending, but as a cliffhanger. For there is another chapter to this story,” the artist teases.
Listen to Aluna’s MYCELiUM below, followed by the artist’s Track by Track breakdown of the record.
MYCELiUM is the follow-up to Aluna’s 2020 debut solo album, Renaissance, which she discussed in an interview with Consequence last year. In support of the release, she has a run of upcoming North American tour and festival dates. Grab tickets to her upcoming performances here.
