Patti Smith is still doing her thing. Soundwalk Collective and Smith’s daughter, Jesse Paris Smith, have joined the punk legend, author, and poet to collaborate on a wonderful ambient poem entitled “Killer Road” for an album of the same name due this fall. Undeveloped versions of the piece surfaced as early as 2014, but an official recording sees official release today. The piece is a transfixing existential meditation on the tragic death of Velvet Underground collaborator Nico, who died while riding her bike on the island of Ibiza in the summer of 1988. The words are extracted from some of the last poems Nico wrote, and they hauntingly foreshadow her death while contemplating the ever-elusive meaning of life. Soundwalk Collective envelops Smith’s voice with found sounds and samples of Nico’s signature harmonium for an alluring immersion into the last thoughts and expressions of a mystic artist. Listen.

Killer Road is out 9/2 via Sacred Bones in the US and Bella Union in the UK.