Michael Kiwanuka Joins Daniele Luppi For ‘To Some Degree’
Orion Sun also appears throughout the project, while Shungudzo contributed lyrics to its songs.
Daniele Luppi has announced Wilma, a new album conceived as the soundtrack to a romance film that does not exist. The Los Angeles-based Italian composer, producer and arranger made the record with Michael Kiwanuka and Orion Sun, who each sing on half of its songs and collaborated with Luppi on the songwriting across the record. The project is introduced by “To Some Degree,” featuring Kiwanuka.
Inspired by vintage Italian films and their music scores, Wilma extends Luppi’s interest in cinematic composition into an imagined love story. Its cover reproduces a publicity still taken by avant-garde Spanish photographer Antonio Gálvez on the set of Luis Buñuel’s 1969 satire The Milky Way, with actress Edith Scob pictured in the image. Luppi approached the choice of singers less like assembling conventional featured guests and more like casting voices for characters in a film. Zimbabwean-American singer Shungudzo also contributed lyrics, continuing her role as Luppi’s trusted poetic confidant.
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“To Some Degree” places Kiwanuka’s vocal over an arrangement of strings and woodwinds. The song addresses longing and the possibility of a relationship enduring through uncertainty, setting out the romantic frame behind Wilma. Luppi said Kiwanuka’s voice and writing made him a natural fit for the project. “I was drawn to Michael’s profound sense of humanity. It’s there in every lyric he sings and every performance he gives.” Across the album, Kiwanuka and Orion Sun divide the vocal roles evenly, giving the record two distinct voices within Luppi’s film-inspired concept.
A new vinyl edition of Milano arrived on August 8, 2025 through 30th Century Records, revisiting Luppi’s 2017 project with Parquet Courts and Karen O. In 2024, Luppi was credited as a composer on HBO’s Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show. On September 6, 2023, Hollywood Records released his two-track I Am Groot: Season 2 single, featuring “Everybody’s Groot” and “Groot Winter Bossa Nova” from the Marvel Studios series. On September 16, 2022, Verve released Charm of Pleasure, Luppi’s five-track collaborative EP with Cigarettes After Sex frontman Greg Gonzalez, preceded by the singles “You Never Loved” and “The Rose You Kept.”
