Gorillaz climbs ‘The Mountain’ with a new track out today titled “Orange County” (ft. Bizarrap, Kara Jackson & Anoushka Shankar), which comes with its companion track “The Hardest Thing” (ft Tony Allen). Side by side on new studio album ‘The Mountain’ – out 27 February 2026 on Gorillaz’ own new label KONG – the two tracks are also available now on a limited-edition Double A Side 7” vinyl. Experience the full two track 8-minute piece as intended HERE.
Written by Damon Albarn, “The Hardest Thing” opens with the voice of longtime collaborator and friend, the pioneering musician and drummer Tony Allen who passed away in 2020. The song is a beautiful exploration of grief and hope, both central themes on new album The Mountain, with the haunting lyric, “You know the hardest thing is to say goodbye to someone you love, That is the hardest thing” carrying through into “Orange County”. The uplifting track sees Albarn joined by singer-songwriter and poet Kara Jackson on vocals, as well as 14-time Grammy-nominated sitar player Anoushka Shankar. Produced by Gorillaz and Bizarrap, Orange County was written by Damon Albarn, former U.S. National Youth Poet Laureate, Kara Jackson, and four-time Latin Grammy-winning, Argentine artist, producer and musical innovator Bizarrap.
‘The Mountain’ is Gorillaz’ ninth studio album, an expansive sonic landscape of instruments and sounds, richly layered with voices, melodies and addictive beats, spanning a collection of 15 songs that embody the very essence of Gorillaz’ collaborative ethos. The record features an extraordinary list of artists and collaborators including: Ajay Prasanna, Amaan & Ayaan Ali Bangash, Anoushka Shankar, Asha Bhosle, Asha Puthli, Bizarrap, Black Thought, Gruff Rhys, IDLES, Jalen Ngonda, Johnny Marr, Kara Jackson, Omar Souleyman, Paul Simonon, Sparks, Trueno and Yasiin Bey; as well as the voices of friends and collaborators who have gone before us, including Bobby Womack, Dave Jolicoeur, Dennis Hopper, Mark E Smith, Proof and Tony Allen. ‘The Mountain’ is a playlist for a party on the border between this world and whatever happens next, exploring the journey of life and the thrill of existence.
The Mountain Tour will kick off with two sold-out warm-up shows in Bradford on 13 and 14 March before opening in Manchester on 20 March 2026. The tour will visit arenas across the UK and Ireland, with headline shows in Birmingham, Glasgow (SOLD OUT), Leeds, Cardiff (SOLD OUT), Nottingham, Liverpool, Belfast (SOLD OUT) and Dublin (SOLD OUT); plus a one-off headline show at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday 20 June 2026 – the band’s biggest UK show to date – with support from Sparks and Trueno. The tour will also take in a run of festival performances across Europe next summer. See complete list of dates and ticket information below and at Gorillaz.com.
Following last year’s acclaimed London run, the iconic gates of Kong – the fabled home of Gorillaz – will open in Downtown L.A for the last time when the celebrated immersive exhibition House of Kong opens for a final, limited 4-week run from 26 February to 19 March 2026 at Rolling Greens. Exhibition tickets are on sale now. The exhibition will be accompanied by two very special one-off Gorillaz shows at the Hollywood Palladium taking place on 22 and 23 February. These standalone U.S. dates will see Damon Albarn and the Gorillaz live band joined onstage by special guests to perform the band’s new album ‘The Mountain’ in full, from beginning to end, all under the watchful eye of Murdoc, Noodle, Russel and 2D.
“Orange County” (feat. Bizarrap, Kara Jackson & Anoushka Shankar) + The Hardest Thing (feat. Tony Allen) is a double single release, available digitally and as a limited-edition Double A Side 7 inch vinyl. Listen to “The Hardest Thing” HERE. Listen to “Orange County” HERE.
Listen to previously released tracks from The Mountain: “Damascus” (feat. Omar Souleyman and Yasiin Bey) HERE, “The God of Lying” (feat. IDLES) HERE. “The Manifesto” (feat. Trueno and Proof) HERE and “The Happy Dictator” (feat. Sparks) HERE.
‘The Mountain’ is produced by Gorillaz, James Ford, Samuel Egglenton and Remi Kabaka Jr., plus Bizarrap (Orange County), ‘The Mountain’ was recorded at Studio 13 in London and Devon, various locations in India including Mumbai, New Delhi, Rajasthan and Varanasi, as well as Ashgabat, Damascus, Los Angeles, Miami and New York. The album features artists performing in five languages: Arabic, English, Hindi, Spanish and Yoruba.
The artwork for ‘The Mountain’ sees visual artist Jamie Hewlett’s distinctive, yet ever-evolving, style illustrate the world of Gorillaz with detailed and beautiful intricacy across a series of hand-drawn images which capture Murdoc, Noodle, Russel and 2D’s time in India working on the new album, available both as a book and as a collection of 12×12 prints.
‘The Mountain’ – Album Tracklisting:
- The Mountain (feat. Dennis Hopper, Ajay Prasanna, Anoushka Shankar, Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash)
- The Moon Cave (feat. Asha Puthli, Bobby Womack, Dave Jolicoeur, Jalen Ngonda and Black Thought)
- The Happy Dictator (feat. Sparks)
- The Hardest Thing (feat. Tony Allen)
- Orange County (feat. Bizarrap, Kara Jackson and Anoushka Shankar)
- The God of Lying (feat. IDLES)
- The Empty Dream Machine (feat. Black Thought, Johnny Marr and Anoushka Shankar)
- The Manifesto (feat. Trueno and Proof)
- The Plastic Guru (feat. Johnny Marr and Anoushka Shankar)
- Delirium (feat. Mark E. Smith)
- Damascus (feat. Omar Souleyman and Yasiin Bey)
- The Shadowy Light (feat. Asha Bhosle, Gruff Rhys, Ajay Prasanna, Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash)
- Casablanca (feat. Paul Simonon and Johnny Marr)
- The Sweet Prince (feat. Ajay Prasanna, Johnny Marr and Anoushka Shankar)
- The Sad God (feat. Black Thought, Ajay Prasanna and Anoushka Shankar)
‘The Mountain’ will be available in the following formats: Digital Download; Standard CD; Deluxe 2CD; Standard Vinyl; Hardback Book Vinyl Edition; LP Picture Disc Vinyl; Individual Character Cassettes; Limited Edition Collectors Box (incl. Art Prints). Pre-order HERE.
Pre order / pre save ‘The Mountain’ HERE.
‘The Mountain’ Tour 2026:
Tour Tickets & Information: www.gorillaz.com
UK & Ireland Dates:
13 March – BRADFORD, Bradford Live (Warm Up Show) – SOLD OUT!
14 March – BRADFORD, Bradford Live (Warm Up Show) – SOLD OUT!
20 March – MANCHESTER, Co-op Live – NEW DATE DUE TO DEMAND!
21 March – MANCHESTER, Co-op Live
22 March – BIRMINGHAM, bp pulse LIVE
24 March – GLASGOW, OVO Hydro* – SOLD OUT!
25 March – LEEDS, First Direct Arena*
27 March – CARDIFF, Utilita Arena* – SOLD OUT!
28 March – NOTTINGHAM, Motorpoint Arena*
29 March – LIVERPOOL, M&S Bank Arena*
31 March – BELFAST, SSE Arena* – SOLD OUT!
01 April – DUBLIN, 3Arena* – SOLD OUT!
02 April – DUBLIN, 3Arena* – NEW DATE DUE TO DEMAND! SOLD OUT!
*support from Trueno
20 June – LONDON, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
With support from Sparks and Trueno
About GORILLAZ:
Created by musician Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett, Gorillaz is singer 2D, bassist Murdoc Niccals, drummer Russel Hobbs and Japanese guitar prodigy Noodle. The BRIT and Grammy-winning virtual band formed following a collision of mishaps, meetings and pure luck to blow up a pre-digital world with their colourful backstory and ground-breaking virtual ways. Based at Kong Studios, Gorillaz settled into a life of musical innovation with an eye-wateringly exciting roster of collaborators, a list that includes musical legends, geniuses and future stars from Elton John to Little Simz, MF Doom to Jean-Michel Jarre, Grace Jones to slowthai, Kali Uchis to Sidiki Diabaté, plus so many more. With eight albums to their name, ‘Gorillaz’ (2001), ‘Demon Days’ (2005), ‘Plastic Beach’ (2010), ‘The Fall’ (2011), ‘Humanz’ (2017), ‘The Now Now’ (2018), ‘Song Machine: Season One – Strange Timez’ (2020) and ‘Cracker Island’ (2023), Gorillaz is a truly global phenomenon, achieving success in entirely new and unique ways, touring the world from San Diego to Syria, Montevideo to Manchester and winning numerous awards including the coveted Jim Henson Creativity Honor.
About ANOUSHKA SHANKAR:
To read a list of sitarist and composer Anoushka Shankar’s accomplishments is to read many life stories in one: prolific 13-time Grammy®-nominated recording artist; touring veteran; film composer; artistic curator; published author; impassioned activist. Anoushka was the youngest and first female recipient of a British House of Commons Shield at the age of eighteen; an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music; the first Indian musician to perform live or serve as presenter at the Grammy® Awards, and the first Indian woman ever nominated; one of the first five female composers to have been added to the UK A-level music syllabus; the recipient of an Honorary Degree in Music from Oxford University; an Ivor Novello-nominee for her A Suitable Boy soundtrack and, most recently, winner of the 2025 Ivor Novello Innovation Award.
Anoushka is currently celebrating thirty years of global touring since her prodigious debut at the age of thirteen. She began studying the sitar and Indian classical music under the intensive tutelage of her father, Pandit Ravi Shankar, learning by ear not only the musical tradition that has been passed on through generations but also the improvisatory freedom for which her father was so renowned. A love of this creative freedom has drawn her across borders and timelines to collaborate with a mind-bogglingly diverse array of artists including Herbie Hancock, Patti Smith, Sting, Zubin Mehta, Joshua Bell, Arooj Aftab, Jacob Collier, Nils Frahm, M.I.A, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and her half-sister Norah Jones. Her versatility is built from years honing her craft on stages from legendary jazz cafes to iconic symphony halls and festivals of 40,000 people, playing with venerable orchestras and ever-changing band formations, expanding the confidence to be artistically truthful and to connect to her audience from the heart.
Anoushka most recently released ‘Chapter III: We Return to Light’, the final part of a trilogy of mini-albums, and was Guest Director of Brighton Festival 2025. She is a singular, genre-defying artist known for breaking new ground across realms, with a boundless commitment to forging connection, hope and peace through music.
About BIZARRAP:
BIZARRAP (BZRP), Argentine artist and producer, stands out as a central figure in the global music scene. An innovator in Latin music, he captivates international audiences and has established himself as one of the most streamed artists worldwide in recent years.
Winner of 4 Latin Grammys and 4 Guinness World Records in 2023, BIZARRAP has elevated the role of the producer, leaving an undeniable mark on music history. Ranked among the Top 10 most-streamed artists globally, he has surpassed 16 billion streams across Spotify and YouTube and became the first Argentine artist to place three songs at #1 on the Global Chart. Twenty-eight of his releases entered the Global Top 200, and his Session #53 with Shakira achieved the biggest Spanish-language debut in the history of Spotify and YouTube.
His only EP, “en dormir sin Madrid,” has exceeded 1 billion streams on Spotify. In 2024, BIZARRAP embarked on his LIVE TOUR, performing his DJ Set as one of the headliners at Coachella, one of the world’s most iconic festivals, and bringing his own show for the first time to Mexico, New York, and Puerto Rico.
Most recently, BIZARRAP released his long-awaited session with Daddy Yankee, becoming an instant global success. With this milestone, he made history as the first Argentine artist to perform during the halftime show of an NFL game, further solidifying his global impact.
About KARA JACKSON:
Kara Jackson is an award winning poet, singer songwriter, producer, and performer based in Chicago, Illinois. Raised in Oak Park by family with deep roots in the American South, her work traces a living map from the Deep South to the Midwest, exploring lineage, place, and memory. Drawing heavily on the stories and experiences of the women in her family, Jackson’s writing and music examine how inherited histories shape the present. She is the 2019 National Youth Poet Laureate and served as Youth Poet Laureate of Chicago in 2018. Her work has appeared in POETRY, Frontier Poetry, Nimrod Literary Journal, Rookie Mag, The Lily, and Saint Heron. In April 2023, she released her critically acclaimed debut album Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?, which received support from Pitchfork, NPR, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker Magazine, Billboard The Needle Drop, and Pigeons & Planes. Jackson is also the author of the poetry collection Bloodstone Cowboy.
About TONY ALLEN:
The contours of his incommensurable musical journey, which ended with his sudden – one could be forgiven for saying untimely – passing shy of his 80th birthday in April 30th, 2020, are well-known: Born to a Nigerian-Ghanaian family, the rhythms of his parents’ Ga, Ewe, and Yoruba cultures, and the wider musical universe of the Bight of Benin, inhabited him from a young age. They were soon joined by the swing of the great jazz age and bebop drummers he so greatly admired: From Gene Krupa to Max Roach, to Tony’s hero Art Blakey.
As much as any of the virtuoso drummers who inspired him, Tony Allen created his own, immediately identifiable musical creole, a language that redefined the sound and rhythms of the instrument across multiple genres and eras. Gestated in the cultural cauldron of late colonial and post-independence Lagos, Tony’s ground-breaking Africana fusion emerged and matured into brilliance during his 15 years playing behind Fela Kuti, blossoming even further when he stepped out of Fela’s shadow to forge his own serpentine path as a bandleader and artist. As the album before you so well demonstrates, the language he created was as supple and pleasing to the ear as it was complex and difficult to decipher, moving with ease across the avant-garde of modern popular music on both sides of the Black Trans-Atlantic – from jazz to highlife, funk to electronica, hip hop to the full spectrum of African music and its American and European diasporas.
Miles famously said that the essence of music inhabited the “space between the notes.” In a similar vein, Blur and Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn explained that what made Tony a singular musician was his ability to create space, “the space of Tony… to allow other things to inhabit the mind.”
“I play yours, you play mine. The music never ends.”
The wisdom of Tony Allen’s words was as deep as his grooves, and these two sentences, which announce the dozen songs that follow, truly capture the spirit of There is No End. Tony’s motivating concept and desire was to work with younger artists, and especially the new generation of rappers, and give them voice in a time of global turmoil when music has never been more important – not necessarily as a “weapon” for the future in the manner of Fela’s violently political songs, but also as medicine to heal a fractured world today.
For all those who knew him, he was a deeply spiritual man whose life’s mission was not just to create a new musical language, but to pass it on to subsequent generations. In thinking back on the incredible process of creating this album without Tony physically present to guide him, producer Vincent Taeger remarked that his friend and mentor “was a teacher without speaking… a drummer and a guardian, with a great artistic vision and that vision filled the songs even after he had left us.” Ben Okri, like everyone else involved in this valedictory album, had a very similar experience, declaring in awe that “this man could have lived another 150 years and kept creating new worlds. He had become the master shaman of his art. He knew himself and his mind. He wanted the album to be open to the energies of a new generation… but like a great mathematician or scientist who found a code of for a new world, with just a few beats, he created this extraordinary canvas.”
For his last album, his thoughts were for the younger artists who continued to flock to him, especially in the fraught historical and political moment in which we live. “I want to take care of youngsters; they have messages and I want to bring them on my beat. The idea is to transmit to the young generation, to mix different universes – the hip hop world to the Afrobeat world.” Featured artists include Skepta, Sampa The Great, Lava La Rue, Danny Brown, Koreatown Oddity and many others.
About KONG:
KONG is Gorillaz’ own label. The band’s ninth studio album ‘The Mountain’ is KONG’s first release, with global digital and physical distribution via The Orchard.
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