AntahKarana, Safiya Labelle - The Space Between Us [EP]

WAYU welcomes Canadian producer AntahKarana and singer-songwriter Safiya Labelle with The Space Between, a two-track collaboration that explores two very different sides of their shared musical world.

Our connection with AntahKarana goes back to 2024, when we met in the Dominican Republic during BeatRetreat. We kept in touch after the retreat, sharing music along the way, and earlier this year she sent us a rework she had made of First Light, a song originally released by Safiya in 2024.

We immediately connected with what she had done. AntahKarana had taken the emotion at the heart of Safiya’s original and surrounded it with subtle percussion, organic textures and a warm, understated groove. It felt familiar, but at the same time like the song had found a completely new place to exist.

That rework became First Light Rekindled.

Knowing that AntahKarana and Safiya are close friends and collaborators, we loved the idea of taking the release beyond a single rework and showing another side of what they create together. That conversation eventually led to Already Know, an original collaboration and a much more intimate counterpart to the first track.

Where First Light Rekindled finds its energy through rhythm and movement, Already Know turns inward. AntahKarana strips things back into a warm, spacious downtempo production, leaving room for Safiya’s voice and songwriting to sit at the center.

Together, the two tracks became The Space Between: a release shaped as much by contrast as by connection, moving between movement and stillness, rhythm and reflection, and two friends finding different ways to meet through music.