Wu-Tang Clan founding member RZA has unveiled the title track of his upcoming orchestral work, A Ballet Through Mud, with a full album release set for August 30 via Platoon and 36 Chambers. 

The title track “A Ballet Through Mud”, as well as a release from Platoon including a snippet of another piece titled “Soft Footsteps”, can be found below. 

In 2023, a preview of the album’s title piece was performed by the Colorado Symphony, with choreography by Yusha-Marie Sorzano and Christopher Dragon conducting. The performance included both spoken word and orchestration that represented RZAs artistic path, from his childhood on Staten Island all the way through places like Colorado’s Boettcher Concert Hall, where this latest work first took shape on stage.

Since the late 90s, RZA has scored a number of successful Hollywood films and his directorial debut, The Man with the Iron Fists, was released in 2012. However, his composition work for A Ballet Through Mud has far earlier origins as a piece titled Shaolin - writing from the artist’s teenage years that was rediscovered during the 2020 Covid lockdown. RZA describes the compositions developmental journey as one he hopes his audience will join him on: 

“The inspiration for ‘A Ballet Through Mud’ comes from my earliest creative output as a teenager, but its themes are universal—love, exploration, and adventure. I hope people use it to score their own lives, to transform a drive to the grocery store or sharing a meal with loved ones into something magical, to be inspired and let their imaginations take them into a different chamber, if only for a moment.”

Find out more/pre-save the album here.