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Apr 17, 2024 By Mark Redfern Photography by Kit Monteith

Foals frontman Yannis Philippakis has announced a new EP he recorded with the late Afrobeat legend Tony Allen and has shared its first single, “Walk Through Fire.” The Lagos Paris London EP is credited to Yannis & The Yaw and is due out August 30 via Transgressive. Check out the single below, followed by the EP’s tracklist and cover artwork.

Philippakis collaborated with Allen via a mutual a friend, recording at a studio in Paris in 2026. They recorded for two days alongside Allen’s regular collaborators Vincent Taeger (percussion, marimba), Vincent Taurelle (keys), and Ludovic Bruni (bass, guitar). While an EP’s worth of material was recorded, and the songs were further developed in subsequent sessions, the project wasn’t completed before scheduling conflicts and COVID restrictions got in the way. And then Allen died in April 2020 at age 79. Philippakis remained determined to finish the EP in Allen’s honor.

“There was an imperative to finish it in a way that I had never felt with another record,” he says in a press release. “There was a deep duty to do it, to finish it as well as possible, and to pay respect to him by getting it out there. Going through some of the drum takes was a moving experience because those recordings were some of the last pieces of music he ever worked on. There’s an eternal quality to these drum tracks, and you feel a continuity of his life and energy through them. He wanted people to hear this, and it’s good to be able to do it for him—but of course it’s slightly bittersweet.”

The plan is that Philippakis will use the Yannis & The Yaw moniker for future collaborations outside of Foals.

Foals’ last album, Life Is Yours, came out in 2022 via ADA/Warner UK Ltd.

Check out our interview with Foals on their 2019 album Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost - Part 1.

Lagos Paris London Tracklist:

1. Walk Through Fire
2. Rain Can’t Reach Us
3. Night Green, Heavy Love
4. Under The Strikes
5. Clementine

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