Press release: Ukandanz - Evil Plan

First written as a press release for the album for Ballantyne Communications.

Ukandanz
Evil Plan
Compagnie 4000 (28 mins)

This ain’t yer same old Ethiojazz. Ukandanz have pioneered the sound of Ethiopian crunch – at once soul and heavy metal, jazz and punk, and indisputably Ethiopian – and they’ve perfected it too. A Lyon-based quartet of complex rhythms, screaming saxophone and distorted bass thrums unite under the honeyed voice Asnaké Gebreyes, stalwart singer of the buzzing Addis Ababa scene that he still calls home. Asnaké’s Amharic-language vocals stir the soulful sweetness of Ethiopia’s classic pop into the band’s beefy, bold and intelligently aggressive style.

It’s a refreshingly unexpected synergy that has gained plaudits ranging from revered Éthiopiques producer Francis Falceto to comedian and music obsessive James Acaster. Channelling musical powerhouses as diverse as Ethiopian singer Tilahoun Gessesse and the legendary Black Sabbath, Ukandanz have been not-so-quietly making waves for the past 15 years – now they pay tribute to these musical heroes without imitation, only surprises.

Ukandanz were founded as a four-piece in the mid-2000s in France by bassist / guitarist Damien Cluzel and saxophonist Lionel Martin. But there was something missing, an essential spark that would transform their sound and take them to the next level. That spark was the golden tones of Addis Ababa soul singer Asnaké Gebreyes, a connection made by Falceto himself. Asnaké had been a staple on the Addis scene since he was 16 – he moved from his small home city of Kibre Mengist to earn his stripes as part of the legendary Police Orchestra alongside future stars Getatchew Mekurya and Hirut Bekele, before breaking out into stardom in his own right in the 1980s and later even contributing to Éthiopiques Vol. 15: Jump to Addis. He was a world away from the Ukandanz style, but his acrobatic, flexible voice was a perfect fit, and the connection was clear: “He didn’t know about rock music, about Sabbath, about Iron Maiden, but he has that same energy! It’s like the traditional musicians: it’s not rock, but they’re really rocking,” says Cluzel. And he’s no stranger to collaboration, having worked with Ethiopian legends Getatchew Mekurya and Mohammed Jimmy Mohammed, as well as Dutch jazz-punk collective The Ex and drum experimentalist Han Benninck. With Asnaké on the team, the four became five in 2010, and they’ve not looked back. The musicians live a continent apart, swapping artistic interrogations back-and-forth via WhatsApp, bashing rough-hewn arrangements into shape before polishing them through live tours and studio jams.



Rather than taking obvious cues from the well-known Ethiopian composer Mulatu Astatke like so many bands before them, they instead look to the country’s most beloved musicians – the soul superstars of the 1960s and 1970s. Icons such as Tilahoun Gessesse, Getatchew Kassa and Muluken Melesse are held up as the pantheon of pop music. But Ukandanz aren’t interested in faithful covers or the meaningless meanderings of Westerners trying to make Ethiopian music. “We don’t imitate and we don’t want to make the folklorical fusion shit. Ethiopians play Ethiopian music better than we can.” So the musicians do what they do best, creating an angular, angry math-punk, building complex polyrhythmic and polymetrical tensions based on jazz and allowing Asnaké to work his magic over the top, the two styles converging in the use of the kiñit – the iconic Ethiopian pentatonic scales that makes the music so distinctive.

Now after 15 years as a five-piece, Ukandanz are looking back to their heroes and sources of inspiration of generations past, and finding in them important meanings for the modern day. This is clearest in their intriguing cover of Black Sabbath’s 1970 protest song ‘War Pigs’. As well as hearing the musical relationship in the pentatonic feel and raw, sometimes mysterious energy, Asnaké particularly connected with the song’s anti-war lyrics, which resonate with Ethiopia’s current situation locked in a civil conflict since 2018. Sabbath’s lyrics are translated into Amharic and sung with a keening, melismatic passion. Such politically-charged statements can be dangerous in today’s Ethiopia, but some songs are too important to keep quiet.

On either side of the Black Sabbath classic are two songs associated with the kings of Ethiopian soul. ‘Yene Felagote’ (My Interest) was made famous by Tilahoun Gessesse, and Asnaké absolutely explodes out of the gates to open the album while Martin’s tenor sax bridges the conceptual gap between rock guitar and the sound of traditional Ethiopia, the masenko fiddle. Getatchew Kassa’s song ‘Lewsedesh Andken’ (One Day I Will Take You) is transformed by layers of cross-rhythms, spiky saxophone and funky organ grooves providing space for Asnaké’s charismatic strut. Both are love songs on their surface, but their lyrics are full of double entendre and semantic obfuscations, hiding multiple layers of deep meaning. This playful and poetic treatment is a powerful form of Ethiopian expression known as semena werk, wax and gold: entertaining words with profound significance at their core. Ukandanz make their music in the same way – complexities, contradictions and confluences interweave into a vibrant and effervescent eruption of unique Ethio-European noise.

Nahawa Doumbia - Vol. 2 (Sakòrò-Mery)

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 205, February/March 2025.

Nahawa Doumbia
Vol. 2 (Sakòrò-Mery)
Awesome Tapes from Africa (36 mins)

Awesome Tapes from Africa’s record label started off by reissuing the album Vol. 3 by Malian singer Nahawa Doumbia in 2011, and followed it up in 2019 with Vol. 1. Now, they complete the set by reissuing 1982’s Vol. 2.

This album was originally released just one year after Nahawa’s debut, and very much follows in the same vein. It’s a distillation of the Wassoulou sound, stripped right back to just Nahawa’s voice and the acoustic guitar of her husband, N’gou Bagayoko. This puts the focus directly on the singer, and the sweetness, subtlety and earnestness that permeates each of her lines. The guitar isn’t there to take any limelight, but N’gou does allow himself to decorate the circular accompaniment with delicious flourishes whenever appropriate. It’s a gentler sound than we have come to expect of Wassoulou music – this is music for swaying rather than energetic dancing.

The recordings’ age is obvious from their sound, the remastering process not fully capable of restoring them from an imperfect LP pressing (the masters no longer exist). In the end, though, it is the music and Nahawa’s beautifully controlled voice that matter most. Both shine through and mark Nahawa Doumbia as one of the stars of her style.

Songlines Music Awards 2024, Europe winner: Sam Lee - songdreaming

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 204, January 2025.

Sam Lee
songdreaming
Cooking Vinyl (48 mins)

Since making his debut with the Mercury-nominated album Ground of its Own in 2012, Sam Lee has become one of the country’s most renowned champions of the folksong of these isles. But his work and his sound have evolved through the years. With his fourth album, he continues his mission of connecting the issues of the land with the music of its people, exploring the themes of ecology, wilderness and wildlife that are close to his heart.

There’s no musical purism here. Lee uses folk songs as a medium with which to decorate his own canvas, leaving them recognisable but changed, moulded to his own meanings and shaped for a new era. The music itself moves further away from the traditional. It’s a vast sound, dramatic and atmospheric, informed by contemporary neoclassical movements. Sweeping strings, heavily-reverbed piano and curlew calls mingle with resonant subtleties of nyckelharpa and qanun, as well as appearances throughout by London-based trans choir Trans Voices on their recording debut. There is something mystical about it, almost, or darkly ethereal, with Lee’s elegant yet forthright voice floating through it as a spirit.

This is not a cheerful album. Through his ballads, Lee constructs a complex, sometimes contradictory, weave of emotions. songdreaming is a love letter suffused with controlled fury, but also a dignified, determined and necessary hopefulness – a passionate yearning for the survival of our home in nature. We’ve seen Sam Lee progress from wunderkind singer and song collector to a respected spokesperson of the planet, its custodians (of all species) and its sounds, while his music becomes ever more beguiling and important.

Peter Somuah - Highlife

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 204, January 2025.

Peter Somuah
Highlife
ACT Music (45 mins)

In his previous work, Ghanaian trumpeter Peter Somuah has brought flavours of highlife into the idiom of contemporary jazz. With his third album, he switches it up by accentuating the innate jazz in highlife. Here, Somuah is accompanied by his Dutch and Surinamese quintet, together with guest vocal spots from highlife legends including Gyedu-Bley Ambolley and Pat Thomas, who add a political edge to proceedings with lyrics ruminating on the colonial history and legacy of their homeland.

Although the lyrics are pointed, the music itself is loose and laid back, really bringing out highlife’s eponymous feel-good vibes. The recording and production are also nice and clean, and it all adds up to a supremely smooth sound throughout the whole album. Somuah’s passion for both highlife and jazz is obvious in his compositions, arrangements and sparkling solos, which are invariably the highlights of each track.

Various Artists - Making Tracks 2022 (Live)

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 204, January 2025.

Various Artists
Making Tracks 2022 (Live)
Making Tracks (43 mins)

When eight talented and open-minded young musicians from across the world come together to experience each other’s music and discover pathways between them, there’s always going to be some special results. That’s Making Tracks, and every year or two they empower artists through a creative residency and UK tour. This live album features the pick of Making Tracks’ 2022 concerts.

The pieces chosen for this collection tend towards the calm and deliberate, showing the intensity of listening required to succeed in these connections. In fact, it is the duos that are the best bits here, where two musicians dig deep into each other’s and their own traditions: meetings of Hindustani and Scottish voices over a shruti done; contemporary art explorations between oud and violin; Persian classical singing paired with smallpipes, or kora. Making Tracks is all about exciting and unexpected combinations, and each of these tracks represents another intercultural gem.

Press release: Jupiter & Okwess - Ekoya

First written as a press release for the album for Ballantyne Communications.

Jupiter & Okwess
Ekoya
Airfono (36 mins)

Veteran stars of the Kinshasa street music scene Jupiter & Okwess return with their fourth album, Ekoya, representing an exciting new chapter for the band, blending their signature sound of soulful Congolese funk, rock and soukous with new influences from across Latin America, inspired by eye-opening cross-cultural encounters and the shared history of African people on both sides of the Atlantic.

Recorded in Mexico, Ekoya (‘It Will Come’) explores themes of change and resilience, of Indigenous peoples’ issues and the joys and struggles of everyday life. With guests including Brazilian singer Flavia Coelho, Mexican Zapotec rapper Mare Advertencia, and Congolese singer Soyi Nsele, and featuring lyrics in eight languages across its 12 tracks, Ekoya marks Jupiter & Okwess as both proudly Congolese and profoundly international.

This is music that is unmistakable in its origins, its rhythms and melodies shaped by three decades of evolution on the streets of Kinshasa. But Latin America looms large over Ekoya. The album was conceived in 2020, when Jupiter & Okwess were touring South America, an adventure shaped by the spectre of lockdowns. Once the tour concluded, the band were forced to pause in Mexico before returning home – a transformative experience as they found themselves immersed in Latin American culture. Jupiter reflects: “Latin America has influenced us a lot… but our music hasn’t changed, it has just been given a new dimension. When we were there, we discovered things that pushed us to think differently. Because it’s like a continuation of Africa. There are people there who have African roots, Congolese roots – they are part of the story of Africa. They are part of us, and they are a part of our music.” When it came time to record the album, Mexico was the natural destination, where they spent time in studios in Guadalajara and Mexico City, and worked with producers including the renowned Camilo Lara (Pixar’s Coco; Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever). “Each time we visit Latin America, we’re happier, we’re more comfortable. And it’s best to record in a place with nice people, good food, and good weather!”



Since his debut in 2013, Jupiter’s sound has been defined by its weight, a purposeful heaviness, a rawness, even a darkness tinting the driving Kinshasa funk-rock and the softer, more introspective and sometimes ominous moments. Those signature styles remain, but are joined here by moments of lightness, sometimes ascending to a full-on dance party with soukous at the forefront – a well-known Congolese style that itself is infused with an indelible Latin influence, shown to full effect on the song ‘Nkoyi Niama’. Okwess’ choppy guitars, bouncing bass, glorious harmonies and pounding beats push that classic sound to the next level.

All throughout his music, Jupiter displays his mastery of the poetic word, communicating deep meanings through proverbs and parables. Lead single ‘Les Bons Comptes’ warns against being in debt to friends. “Good accounts make good friends,” sings Jupiter in French, adding in the Mongo language: “a deadbeat is like a cuttlefish, they only take and never give.” Be a good friend, be honest and pay your bills. The message is also taken up by Brazilian songstress Flavia Coelho, whose lusciously smooth and light voice works a beautiful counterpoint to Jupiter’s resonant, gravel-worn rumble. “It was good to share this with Flavia,” Jupiter explains. “She’s been a friend for a long time. When we see her at a festival, we share a song on stage, just for fun. So, when we’re in Latin America, and we’re making a new album, it was only natural to ask her to join us.”

Themes of change and resilience permeate Ekoya. “Everything is changing, on a global scale,” says Jupiter. “Politics, climate change, Covid. You feel it in Europe, and we feel it even stronger in Kinshasa. But, on the other hand, tout passera – everything will pass. After life, nothing. You don’t have to be so focused on material things, on money, on property – tout passera. That’s not optimist or pessimist – it’s just the truth.” Resilience is also found in lyrics presented by powerful Indigenous women activists, including Mongo singer Soyi Nsele who calls upon the ancestors to intercede against the unthinkable destruction of the Congolese rainforest in the opener ‘Selele’; and Zapotec rapper Mare Advertencia, who leads a hard-hitting demand for rights and justice for oppressed Indigenous communities around the world on the song ‘Orgullo’, with the words: “We demand our right to exist / For the memory of those they took from us / For the justice we are still seeking!”

When Jupiter was young, he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father, who was a diplomat. But, as he says, “Destiny is complicated. Life changed, and my life was making music on the streets in Kinshasa. But now we are performing all over the world, doing interviews, telling the world about the Congolese people – well, now I have the chance to be a diplomat. I did it differently.” Developed in Kinshasa, blossomed in South America, born in Mexico and now released on the world, Ekoya continues Jupiter & Okwess’ important work as skilled wordsmiths highlighting universal issues, as champions of a world that is safe and welcoming for all, and as musical diplomats of their very own brand of forward-facing roots-focused Congo sound.


Photo: Jupiter & Okwess, by Marcelo Quiñones.

Making Tracks 2024 - Grand Junction, Paddington, London

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 203, December 2024.



Making Tracks 2024
Grand Junction, Paddington, London
3rd October 2024

Now on its fifth edition, Making Tracks is one of those not-to-be-missed occasions once autumn rolls around. Eight young artists, each from a different musical world, get together for two weeks of concerted collaboration, which continues to evolve across a two-week tour. This year featured participants from the UK, Syria/Germany, Denmark, Kenya, East Turkestan and Finland (see makingtracksmusic.org/fellows for the full list; they deserve more recognition than space allows here!).

For this tour’s penultimate concert at London’s Grand Junction, we were treated to two-and-a-half hours of unique collaborations interspersed with solo showcases from each musician. All eight remained on stage throughout, and it was always exciting to see who would stir to join in the next piece – will it be a medley of Newfoundland, Uyghur and Swedish songs? A composition for Arabic violin and tama (talking drum)? Hurdy-gurdy and Kenyan drums? It’s impressive just how accomplished these musical relationships were after such a short – albeit intense – gestation. Interspecies connections were also emphasised this year, with nature embraced as an equal participant, from transcriptions of whalesong to electronically-wrangled biosignals of sea-kale. The high, intricately decorated Victorian church ceilings of Grand Junction afforded interesting reverberations, highlighting acoustic elements that would have been lost in a less cavernous venue – a lovely marriage of sound and space.

Making Tracks has hit upon a winning formula, for the creation of both beautiful music, and lasting artistic partnerships. In his opening speech, director Merlyn Driver referred to the concert as “nourishing music” – this really is the sort of project that can achieve meaningful new musical directions.


Photo: Making Tracks 2024 at Grand Junction, by Andrea Terzuoli. L-R: Nina Harries, Anna McLuckie, Shohret Nur, Christian Mohr Levisen, Kasiva Mutua, Ossi Raippalinna, Ayman Hlal (Helen Anahita Wilson is obscured behind Hlal).