It’s been over five years since Frank Ocean‘s last album, Blonde. Since then, he’s sporadically released singles, like 2017’s “Biking” and “Provider,” but no full-length work. His fans freak out any time the musician releases anything, and on Christmas Day, they got a nice present: an untitled track, which premiered during an episode of Frank’s Blonded radio show on Apple Music, that runs a full nine minutes.
coming up on #blondedRADIO… a conversation with Wim (Iceman) Hof
(via @blonded on IG Stories) pic.twitter.com/xDVtSbcRTS— Frank Ocean Daily (@TeamFrankDaily) December 25, 2021
In a post to his Instagram Story, Frank explained how the song came together, revealing that it was recorded in a single take during the summer of 2020. He also spoke about speaking with Dutch extreme athlete and motivational speaker Wim “The Iceman” Hof after the death of Frank’s younger brother Ryan Breaux in August 2020.
“Me and @iceman_hof had a conversation some time ago when I was in the earlier stages of grief and I remember marbling afterwards at how his energy blasted through the phone,” Frank said. “So much vim in this Wim. We spoke for a while about his work, the purpose of grief and how going into the cold water changed his life.” He added, “It reminded me of conversations in the studio with players I know. Freewheeling, psychedelic, emotionally charged, intelligent and generous. I enjoyed listening to him, so in this edit I just let him speak interrupted.”
The nine-minute track is Frank’s first release since he shared “Dear April” and “Cayendo” in April 2020.
You can hear the new song in the video above.