Seven years after the release of his first album, The Golden Age, French artist Woodkid has today (24 April) unveiled a new single titled Goliath. Goliath is the first extract from the long-awaited second album by Yoann Lemoine, and marks a seismic return to the spotlight for the artist. A skillful blend of meticulous sound design, futuristic electronics and majestic strings, on which he lends his hauntings vocals, compliment the piece seamlessly. We were honoured to welcome Yoann into Studio Two to record the strings for Goliath with Abbey Road recording engineer John Barrett and assistant engineer Christopher Parker.

Yoann Lemoine spoke to us on the joy of working on the single at Abbey Road: “What a privilege to record with John in a place like this. I never thought my passion for the orchestral work would lead me to Abbey Road one day.

Only in a studio like Abbey Road and with such a team, could I have gathered so many incredible musicians, in such an unusual formation - including 3 contrabassoons! - to perform the challenging task of recording Goliath. A song where sound dimension, mix and texture are so prominent and important. I am so grateful. Thank you to John, all the musicians, producers involved and the wonderful teams at Abbey Road.”

Abbey Road's John Barrett who engineered the sessions added: "The Woodkid sessions, from around this time last year, are now more than ever particularly memorable. Not only did I have the opportunity to work with a great artist who had a very clear artistic vision and concept, we were blessed with great music that was beautifully and creatively orchestrated, and in turn performed by a fabulous array of London's finest musicians in Studio Two. It also helped that we managed to have a really great time recording it too!"
 

From 16.30 BST today, Woodkid will hosting a live Q&A via his YouTube page, before the official release of the accompanying video to the single at 17.00 BST.

The Golden Age, Woodkid's debut album released in 2013, celebrated its seventh birthday last month on 18 March. As much of a conceptual project than a record, the cinematic release from Woodkid is an assured, cohesive and intelligent record, building the central theme of the move from childhood into adulthood and the subsequent desire to return to that ‘golden’ age.

Notable tracks from the album include Iron and Run Boy Run that received vast acclaim, and were used to promote the video games Assassin's Creed: Revelations and Dying Light. The music video Run Boy Run was also nominated for a Grammy Award in 2013 in the category of Best Short Format Music.

Before becoming a musician, Yoann had made a name for himself as a videographer, producing music videos for Lana Del Rey's Born To Die and Katy Perry's Teenage Dream, and more recently, Harry Styles' Sign of the Times. Yoann has also leant his many skills to film scoring, where in 2015, he scored the soundtrack to Divergente 2 as well as Desierto from Alfonso Cuaron. 

The single is available now to purchase and stream.