Alan Walker Releases New Single On EDC’s Compilation
After Alan Walker was allegedly outed for ghost producing earlier this week, Alan Walker has released his newest single “Sky.” The collaboration with Alex Skindo will officially be released on Friday June 9th alongside other tracks on Insomniac Records Presents: EDC Las Vegas 2017 compilation.
Like other songs by Alan Walker, Walker follows the infamous sound as many of his other tracks. Listen to his new release “Sky” below.
How the release fit into the EDC compilation
Insomniac’s EDC Las Vegas compilation series gave Insomniac Records a way to spotlight exclusive tracks from a wide roster of artists ahead of the festival each year, and having Alan Walker contribute a single was a notable get given how quickly his profile had grown since “Faded” broke through in 2015. Pairing with Alex Skindo, a fellow Norwegian producer, kept “Sky” within the same melodic, synth-driven electro house lane that had defined Walker’s sound up to that point, and the shared Norwegian connection reflected the tight-knit production circle that had helped shape Walker’s early sound. Compilation appearances like this one also gave festivals a way to build direct musical ties to their lineups, turning the album itself into a promotional tool for the event.
What happened next
The ghost-producing allegations that circulated around Walker that same week became a recurring conversation throughout his early career, as questions about how much of his production was outsourced followed him even as his catalog and popularity kept growing. Walker continued to release prolifically in the years after “Sky,” eventually building out a full album and a globally recognized visual brand built around his masked, hooded persona that helped shift public focus away from the earlier controversy and toward the scale of his live shows and visual identity instead.
A crowded moment for Walker’s brand
2017 was an especially eventful year for Walker’s public image, with the ghost-producing story breaking in the same week as this release and a rapid string of new singles and festival appearances following close behind. That density of activity, both controversy and output arriving almost simultaneously, became something of a pattern for Walker in his early career, where scrutiny and commercial momentum seemed to move in lockstep rather than one following the other.
Why it mattered
“Sky” is a minor entry in Walker’s catalog, but it’s a useful snapshot of a specific moment: an artist working through public scrutiny while still delivering consistent output on schedule, a dynamic that would recur throughout Walker’s rapid rise in the years that followed as his profile continued to outpace the controversy surrounding it.
