diff --git a/.release-notes/standalone.md b/.release-notes/standalone.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..c33d74f83a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.release-notes/standalone.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+## Fix broken libponyc-standalone.a
+
+When we switched to LLVM 12, we accidentally picked up zlib being required to link against libponyc-standalone.a. That additional dependency makes the standalone library not so standalone.
+
+We've fixed our LLVM configuration so that zlib is no longer needed.
diff --git a/lib/CMakeLists.txt b/lib/CMakeLists.txt
index e01b6f975a..122e488fbc 100644
--- a/lib/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/lib/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -121,6 +121,7 @@ set(LLVM_INCLUDE_BENCHMARKS OFF)
 set(LLVM_INCLUDE_TESTS OFF)
 set(LLVM_TOOL_REMARKS_SHLIB_BUILD OFF)
 set(LLVM_ENABLE_ZLIB OFF)
+set(LVM_ENABLE_ZLIB:STRING OFF)
 
 if(${CMAKE_HOST_SYSTEM_NAME} MATCHES "Darwin")
     set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS "${CMAKE_C_FLAGS} -mmacosx-version-min=10.14 -DUSE_SCHEDULER_SCALING_PTHREADS")