“Chimera” presents Snarky Puppy and the Metropole Orkest at their most intricate. Recorded live in Utrecht and conducted by Jules Buckley, the single previews Somni, the new collaborative album due on 21 November 2025 through GroundUP Music.

Written by bassist-composer Michael League, the piece is built around four simultaneous rhythmic sequences, each in a separate key and tempo, divided between orchestra sections and four drum kits. League describes it as the hardest composition of the project, pushing both ensembles into deliberate disunity. The title reflects its nature: a hybrid form that constantly shifts shape while never collapsing.

Across its seven minutes, “Chimera” moves through overlapping rhythmic sections. Brass stabs and string surges collide as four drummers maintain separate metres. Electric guitars cut across the orchestral texture, while woodwinds insert brief phrases that vanish as quickly as they appear. The tension grows through shifting rhythm and density, sustained until the final convergence.

“Chimera” distils the concept of Somni: the dream as an unstable state where logic fractures and hidden impulses surface. For Snarky Puppy, it marks a return to orchestral scale after a decade, extending the dialogue first opened with Sylva in 2015.

Stream the single HERE