Ezra Collective releases ‘Here Because of Hope’, an album in three movements

The album is released by Partisan Records two years after Dance, No One’s Watching. The group describes this new project as a reflection on how music born from pain can produce joy, with hope serving as a common thread across generations and continents.

Each section is introduced by a spoken word piece from actress Letitia Wright. Pa Salieu features on Only Love, Lila Iké on Well Organised, Leona Lewis on All I Need, and Libianca on Most High, which closes the album.

The musical journey begins with afrobeat and traditions from the African continent. It then transitions through reggae, dub, and salsa in its Caribbean sequence, before arriving at British jazz, broken beat, house, and grime, which have shaped the group’s identity in London.

Ezra Collective consists of Femi Koleoso on drums, TJ Koleoso on bass, Joe Armon-Jones on keyboards, James Mollison on saxophone, and Ife Ogunjobi on trumpet. Having formed in youth music programs in the British capital, the five musicians won the Mercury Prize in 2023 and then the Group of the Year award at the Brit Awards in 2025.

Here Because of Hope is available for streaming, download, CD, and vinyl. A series of concerts in North America is set to begin on November 12 in San Francisco, followed by stops in Los Angeles, Toronto, New York, and Montreal.