Lorde has released a companion EP to her latest album ‘Solar Power’, titled ‘Te Ao Mārama’.

The new EP features five songs from ‘Solar Power’ sung entirely in te reo Māori, the indigenous language of the singer’s birthplace, Aotearoa, or New Zealand.

‘Te Ao Mārama’ features Lorde singing ‘Solar Power’ cuts like its title track, ‘Stoned at the Nail Salon’ and ‘Fallen Fruit’ in the language. All proceeds from the EP, which also features fellow New Zealand musicians Marlon Williams and Bic Runga, will go to NZ-based charities Forest and Bird and Te Hua Kawariki Charitable Trust.

Stream ‘Te Ao Mārama’ below:

In a newsletter to fans, Lorde explained that in the process of making ‘Solar Power’ she had the realisation that “much of my value system around caring for and listening to the natural world comes from traditional Māori principles”.

“There’s a word for it in te reo: kaitiakitanga, meaning ‘guardianship or caregiving for the sky, sea and land’. I’m not Māori, but all New Zealanders grow up with elements of this worldview. Te ao Māori and tikanga Māori are a big part of why people who aren’t from here intuit our country to be kind of ‘magical’, I think.

“I know I’m someone who represents New Zealand globally in a way, and in making an album about where I’m from, it was important to me to be able to say: this makes us who we are down here.”

In the same letter, the singer revealed that for the next 48 hours, all proceeds from her merchandise store would go to Texas-based reproductive equality organisation Lilith Fund.

Lorde released ‘Solar Power’, her third studio album, on August 20. In a five-star review, NME called it “an album that grows in quiet stature with every listen, new nuggets of wisdom making their way to the surface, peeking through its beautiful instrumentation”.

“Few artists strike gold on every record they create but, for the third time in a row, Lorde has done it again, crafting yet another world-beater.”