Track will appear on The Mountain, the ninth album from Damon Albarn’s animated group
Gorillaz embark on yet another globetrotting adventure on “Damascus,” the animated outfit’s new single with Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def) and celebrated Syrian singer Omar Souleyman.
“Damascus” gets off to a heady start with a lazy, atmospheric intro, but the pace quickly jumps a few gears with rumbling drums and spirited synth stabs. Bey takes lead vocal duties, delivering fleet-footed lines — “Here to navigate the waves in the dark, no map/Stars in the heavens and a breeze on my back” — while Souleyman punctuates his verses with devotional bars dedicated to a loved one (“No, my first love/If you were dirt I wouldn’t step on you,” goes one line, translated from Arabic).
“Damascus” is the fourth track Gorillaz have shared from their next album, The Mountain. It follows previously released songs “The Happy Dictator” with Sparks, “The God of Lying” with Idles, and “The Manifesto” with Trueno and Proof.
While Gorillaz are well-known for their collaborations, every track on The Mountain will find the Damon Albarn-led group working alongside at least one other musician (and often a few more than that). For instance, the still-unreleased “Orange County” will feature DJ Bizarrap, singer-songwriter Kara Jackson, and sitar star Anoushka Shankar.
Other features include the Roots’ Black Thought, Johnny Marr, former Clash bassist Paul Simonon, as well as celebrated Indian musicians like flautist Ajay Prasanna and sarod player Amaan Ali Bangash. There will also be several posthumous features from artists Groillaz worked with in the past, including Bobby Womack, the Fall’s Mark E. Smith, legendary drummer Tony Allen, and actor Dennis Hopper.
Gorillaz will release The Mountain on Feb. 27, 2026. To mark the album’s arrival, they’ll play a pair of shows in Los Angeles on Feb. 22 and 26 before embarking on a tour of the U.K. and Europe in March, with dates scheduled through August.
