Sudan Archives, the Los Angeles-based violinist, singer, and producer who redefined modern R&B with her experimental edge, has released her third studio album The BPM today through Stones Throw Records. The album cements her reputation as one of the most inventive forces in contemporary music, combining her signature violin sound with global club rhythms and futuristic production.
Across fifteen tracks, The BPM presents a confident and liberated Sudan Archives, real name Brittney Denise Parks, exploring rhythm as a source of power, joy, and personal freedom. Describing her new mantra as “The BPM is the power,” Parks merges human feeling with machine precision, creating a soundscape where technology becomes a tool for expression rather than control.
The BPM follows her acclaimed previous albums Athena (2019) and Natural Brown Prom Queen (2022). On Athena, Parks introduced her distinctive fusion of classical strings, soulful vocals, and electronic textures, earning widespread critical acclaim from The Guardian, Variety and The Quietus. Natural Brown Prom Queen expanded her palette, offering a bold and playful take on identity, femininity, and creativity, and earned her two Libera Awards in 2023 for Best Breakthrough Artist/Release and Best R&B Record.
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Parks began teaching herself violin as a child, playing by ear rather than traditional notation. Her early exposure to the diverse sounds of her stepfather’s work at LaFace Records gave her a taste of pop, while her fascination with underground raves and global sounds later shaped her eclectic approach. Moving to Los Angeles at 19, she studied ethnomusicology at Pasadena City College and immersed herself in the city’s experimental beat scene, particularly the legendary Low End Theory club nights.
Parks’ mission to “show the Blackness of the violin” became the foundation of her artistry. She discovered African violinists who used the instrument not in orchestras but as part of celebration and rhythm, a revelation that would define her musical identity. “It’s such a serious instrument in a western concert setting,” she once said, “but in so many other places in the world, it brings the party.”
For The BPM, Parks stepped fully into the role of executive producer, recording between Los Angeles, Chicago, and Detroit with family and close collaborators. The album includes the singles A Bug’s Life, My Type, and Dead. The New York Times described Dead as “shape-shifting, maximalist, ultimately unstoppable,” while Stereogum called it “a full-on dance floor rager.”
Throughout The BPM, Parks takes on her alter ego “Gadget Girl” – a nod to her fascination with music technology and the tools that helped her find her voice. “I’m all gadget girled out now,” she says, “but I’ve never felt so free as a human.” The record’s combination of self-assured energy and emotional depth marks a new chapter for the artist, who continues to blur the lines between electronic innovation, R&B intimacy, and experimental composition.
The album concludes with Heaven Knows, a soaring closer that encapsulates the emotional arc of The BPM: freedom through rhythm, expression through sound, and empowerment through creation. Sudan Archives has once again delivered a body of work that feels visionary yet deeply human.
THE BPM Tracklist
Dead
Come And Find You
Yea Yea Yea
Touch Me
A Bug’s Life
The Nature Of Power
My Type
She’s Got Pain
David & Goliath
A Computer Love
The BPM
Ms. Pac Man
Los Cinci
Noire
Heaven Knows
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