Earlier today, New Zealand-based singer-songwriter Marlon Williams released "Kāhore He Manu E," the second single off his upcoming record Te Whare Tiwekaweka, as well as his anticipated collaboration with Lorde. The two sing in the ancestral language of Māori for the track. The record, also sung entirely in Māori, will be released on April 4.

Watch the studio record and listen to the track below:

Williams and Lorde have collaborated in the past, performing together for the New Zealand leg of her Solar Power tour in 2023.

Reflecting on her vocal collaboration for "Kāhore He Manu E," Williams said in a press statement reported in The Fader:

"It was also obvious who should be singing it; Ella [Lorde]’s 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 she’s 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, to the friends made and lost in the folds of time, ‘visions lost in the blur.’"

Lorde also remarked on his writing process for Te Whare Tiwekaweka, saying that the engagement with his ancestral language to "know himself, his whānau and his world at large," according to the press statement provided by The Fader. She continued:

"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 humour and X-ray vision. Singing with Marlon is one of my favourite things to do on earth, whether we are tipsy backstage by a pool table or in a luscious studio, and I was honoured he asked me to sing with him on this album. I’m so proud of my friend.”

While this may be Marlon Williams' first venture into creating a record completely in the Māori language, this is the second project Lorde has done celebrating her homeland's indigenous culture. In 2021 during Māori Language Week, she released Te Ao Mārama, a complementary EP to Solar Power that reimagines some of her tracks in the Māori language, even collaborating with Māori music producers and scholars to create it, according to The Spinoff.

Williams' Te Whare Tiwekaweka has been an ongoing project since 2019, and it intends to blend the sounds of folk, country, and bluegrass with pop and traditional Māori music, according to Rolling Stone. The full record will be released on April 4. Williams is also starring in the upcoming documentary Ngā Ao E Rua - Two Worlds (dir. Ursula Grace Williams), which will focus on the making of the record, The Fader reports.