Antonis Antoniou, the driving force behind award-winning bands Monsieur Doumani and Trio Tekke, has returned with another unconventional and skillfully produced solo album, expanding his musical language even further towards exhilarating and unmapped territories. With one foot in the East and the other in the West, with one ear in the past and the other in the future, Antonis Antoniou boldly dives deeper into his experimental and often eccentric practice, inventing new methodologies and developing new contexts, wherein various seemingly incompatible ingredients find fertile ground to intertwine. Carrying in his creative luggage his remarkable musical experience, knowledge and craftsmanship, he approaches music composition, arranging and production in a totally idiosyncratic way. Throisma is exactly the intoxicating outcome of this course. Throisma was nominated for a Songlines Music Awards 2023.
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Gnawa music goes back centuries to a time predating the Gnawa people being held as slaves in North-West Africa; their songs often revolve around storytelling that reflects upon their suffering. Today, Asmaa Hamzaoui is the foremost female ambassador of Gnawa music, and with her group Bnat Timbouktou, she has begun spreading her scintillating brand of evangelistic desert blues all across the world. In the fall of 2019, Asmaa & Bnat Timbouktou released the much-anticipated début album, Oulad Lghaba, this seminal work focuses on the spiritual side of the Gnawa tradition. The songs pay homage to both the spirit world and life in Africa and reflect on the importance of us all living in harmony with nature and the consequences we face if we abuse our planet. These amazing female musicians deliver their contagious songs in their native Gnawa language. They break new ground not only in music, but also in regards to speaking up for equal rights. Asmaa Hamzaoui will release a new album “L´bnat” in 2024.
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With a background in classical music, brothers, Anthony and Demetri Kastellani embarked on an excavation of their Cypriot heritage through a common education of bond and blood. Recorded in their ever changing home studio, their often aleatoric approach to recording encouraged a curiosity in each other's experimental nature, resulting in a charming duality of idea and practice. The debut album ‘To Know Where It’s Going’ represents their love affair with ‘Éntekhno song’ (art song) and its relation to soundtrack music. Athos create a meticulous hive of their shared experiences, existing in a realm solely their own. Growing up as part of the Greek Cypriot diaspora in London, the search for meaning in identity was of course a powerful one, and is by definition a profoundly disruptive experience - a continuous feeling of liminality. With the intention of illuminating the longstanding political struggles and division of the island, the auto-biographical record details the relationship between remembering and experiencing self. The narrative develops through their formative encounters of village life on the island of Cyprus with a focus on the imaginative epithets of places and people. Through a personal, musical love letter to their childhood, the space between conjured memories from the past, and those formed anew, we pay close attention and embrace the natural disruption that surrounds us - encouraging us to notice more keenly the things that last.
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The Denmark resident Gambian musician and composer Dawda Jobarteh is one of the biggest enrichments to the global music scene. He not only amplifies his instrument, the kora, a traditional West African harp that he transfers masterfully into the here and now - as a wanderer between the cultural heritages of West Africa as well as Northern Europe he is equally at home in both worlds. Out of that background Jobarteh on his new album skillfully creates a highly unique sound universe between folk and afro jazz from two very different musical traditions, drawing on influences from two century-long historical cultures while still being firmly rooted in the modern age. But Jobarteh´s execellence is clearly not limited to music: As a scion of West Africa‘s most famous griot family, whose career as a professional percussionist started at the age of 12, Jobarteh was born into a family tree with decades of musical heritage. In the tradition of the griots, the musicians, not unlike the blues singers, not only have the duties of keeping the music alive, but also to preserve and tell historic tales . So it´s of little wonder that Jobarteh's lyrics are as empathetic and wise as the music of this man oscillating between the cultural contrasts of his adopted Northern European home and his West African native on his tours around the globe.
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Dorea writes songs. From an early age, before he knew what he was going to do with his life, he did it in the school notebooks. As a musician, he made his way for more than a decade playing guitar and singing in bars in Salvador and six years ago he started Tribute to Belchior, a project that he runs with the participation of a faithful and interested audience. In 2021 he released his first author single, O Mapa do Brasil, and this year he shares with the world his debut album, Grande Coisa. With deep original poetics in his lyrics, Dorea has his musical roots rooted in rock, folk rock, Brazilian music and in everything that touches and surrounds him.
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LuizGa (aka Luiz Gabriel Lopes) [BR] and Edgar Valente [PT] face each other singing as they explore the creative territory of the Portuguese language diaspora around the world, creating new harmonies, rhythms, and textures that redefine the cultures involved. The echoes of Lusophony become the starting point to investigate repertoires in various languages, through the prism of researching multiple mythological and spiritual egregores that connect this web. Complementary dramatic elements come into play, illuminating different aspects of the same source, woven together by voices in mysterious alchemy, in a generous multicultural collaboration. Aiê’s debut album, recorded in 2020 during the pandemic, was later finalized and co-produced by Guilherme Kastrup, a Grammy award winner who has worked with artists like Adriana Calcanhoto and Elza Soares, and is released by the Swedish label ajabu!. The album consists of 10 original songs, featuring collaborations between the two artists, and previously unreleased tracks by other authors such as Sérgio Pererê and Gustavito, bringing together a plurality that encompasses the ancestralities and experiences shared by the artists throughout their musical journey over the past decades.
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Ian Lasserre is an Brazilian artist and singer-songwriter from Bahia, born in 1987. He has released three albums and the second album 'Átimo' was among the 100 best albums on the World Music Charts Europe in 2020. His song 'Minha Bahia' exceeded the mark of 700 thousand plays on Spotify platform. Ian has recently released his third studio album, ‘Meu Único Medo É Primavera’. With a production focused on mixing the contemporary jazz genre with MPB, the album shows that the artist reinvented himself during the 2-year hiatus without releases. Ian listen to a lot of contemporary jazz, in addition to our renowned masters of Brazilian music from MPB, mainly from the “tropicalista” sector. Artists such as Caetano, Gilberto Gil, João Donato, Moacir Santos and Toninho Horta, who were a great blender in the global aesthetic fusion, either from the world of their time, or from other cultures, but at the same time preserving a Brazilian and modern identity”, points out the musician, who also mentions his grandfather, who is immortalized in the audio of the track ‘Vinheta’, and his father as great inspirations: "both cross the tradition of Brazilian song, my grandfather with a pre-bossa and samba song repertoire and my father was already post-tropicalist, more modern and already embracing other languages such as pop, rock and reggae.
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The album “Em Cantos de Oriṣà” (Oriṣà Chants) by the singer Irma Ferreira, shows some of the beauty of the Afro-brazilian religious repertoire of the Candomblé, in a junction between tradition and contemporary music. The debut album from Irma has nine songs divided between prayers (Àdúrás) and chants (Oríkìs) that bring characteristics of each Oriṣà represented. In the songs we can hear the plurality of Èṣù, the femininity of Oṣun, the strength of Ògún, the subtleties of Iyemanjá, the mutable energy of Oyá, the justice and authority of Ṣàngo and the clarity of Ọlọ́jọ́ Ọní saluting the day. In this way, through the songs for the Oriṣàs, the album walks between music making and religiosity and brings this ancestral magic to the listener. In addition to Irma Ferreira’s voice “Em Cantos de Oriṣà” is produced by Sebastian Notini, also playing different instruments, percussion by Ogã Luan Badaró, guitar by Ruan de Souza and a small traditional Candomblé choir formed by Angélica Ferreira, Everton Neves, Luan Badaró and Jota Oliveira. It also features the wind instruments of Ari Haraldsson, in addition to the phonetic revision of the historian and researcher of Afro-brazilian religious culture Everton Neves.
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Singer, modern dancer and actress from Algeria - Karima Nayt is a multi-talented artist who has troll-bounded audiences all around the world. Rewarded by the National Conservatory of Algiers, Karima started her career as a dancer as well as an actress both on film and on stage. Attracted by the dynamic cultural life in Cairo, she decides to move there in 1998. She, then, becomes a soloist-dancer in the modern dance company of the Cairo Opera House, and a singer with Grammy-awarded musician and composer Fathy Salama and his group Sharkiat. Karima has performed on festivals and stages all over the world both as a singer and a dancer. She won numerous prizes including the Grand Prize of best actress at the 16th International Festival of Experimental Theatre in Cairo for her outstanding performance in the piece On the table listening to Wagner by Mohamed Shafik. Since she left Cairo in 2007 Karima has worked mostly in Europe, participating in different dance productions and recording her long-awaited solo-album Quoi d’Autre? which was produced in Sweden and won the prize for best Cd of 2012 at the "Swedish Folk & World-music award" 2013.
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La Brígida Orquesta is a Chilean band formed in 2017 that is characterized by mixing jazz and rap. After releasing their first album "Corte Elegante", LBO was awarded under the category of Revelation Artist at the Pulsar Awards 2019. Composed by 11 musicians, the band is led by jazz pianist Gabo Paillao, who together with MC Matiah Chinaski, a solid rhythmic base and a 7-wind orchestra, create outstanding atmospheres. In 2022 they presented Antípoda, an EP that was released live at the Teatro Nescafé de las Artes. That same year, the band had an outstanding participation in the Felabration festival in Matucana 100 and in October they performed the "Brígidamente" concert at the Cúpula del Parque O'Higgins, a show to a full room that they gave a few days before going to WOMEX festival, in Portugal.
New single in spring Featuring Ana Tijoux. New EP September 2024.
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Maher Cissoko grew up in Casamance in the southern Senegal but has lived in Sweden for 15 years and has established himself as a well-known name in folk and world music circles, among other things through nominations such as best folk music release at the Manifest Award and several nominations and awards at the Folk and World Music Gala in Sweden. He has also collaborated with artists such as Tiganá Santana and Cheikh Lo and hip hop artists Timbuktu and Gee Dixon. The base of Maher Cissoko's music is the Kora, a 22-string West African harp. In Maher's family, one of West Africa's largest Kora playing families, the tradition of singing and playing Kora is said to have been passed down from generation to generation for over 700 years. New album Kora World out now on ajabu!. Kora World nominated for a Manifest Award 2024.
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Mazaher is one of the rare ensembles in which women play a leading role and are connected to a most ancient tradition practiced in several countries in the region. The musicians of Mazaher: Um Sameh, Um Hassan, Nour El Sabah are among the last remaining Zar practitioners in Egypt. The music presented by Mazaher is inspired by three different styles of the Zar music in Egypt: the Egyptian or Upper Egyptian Zar, Abul Gheit Zar and the Tamboura or African Zar. Zar is a community healing ritual of singing, polyrhythmic drumming and dancing whose tradition is carried mainly by women (men have the second roles) and whose main participants are women. It’s distinctively different from other Egyptian music traditions. This ritual has been widely misconceived as a form of exorcism. However, the goal is to harmonize the inner lives of the participants. The Zar is a space in which the human being can work out the tensions and frustrations of social constraints, which limit their movements, their dress, their voices and even their dreams. It is an ancient purification rite and it aims at pacifying numerous spirits. Communication with unseen spirits is driven by the insistent and varied drum rhythmic interaction, which can lead to an altered state of consciousness and even, trance. The experience can be cathartic, a physical and spiritual purification that leaves one calm and ready to face the world again. A featured instrument in the Zar ritual in Egypt is the tamboura, the six-string lyre, which, like the Zar practice itself, exists in various forms in a an area stretching across East Africa to the Arabian Peninsula and Persia. Although this sacred instrument is pictured on the walls of tombs and temples of the Ancient Egypt. Other instruments are the Mangour, a leather belt sewn with many goat hooves and various percussion instruments. The marginal status of Zar can be attributed to a complex dynamic of magic, sacrifice, mystery, Moslem, Christian and pagan spirits and its function as an alternative to mainstream social, healing and religious practices. Because Zar is a part of the underground culture, the music and songs have survived in its original form without any major interference.
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Mika Takehara is a percussion /marimba musician who fascinate the audiences with her sound creations and her musicality. Born in Japan and shortly lived in San Francisco at the age of 9, she studied piano and percussion/marimba as a kid both in Japan and in the US. Mika studied marimba with Keiko Abe at Toho Gakuen University of music in Tokyo and then at the age of 23 she moved to Sweden for studies with former member of the Kroumata Percussion Ensemble, Anders Loguin, and received her soloist performance diploma in Stockholm with the highest honours, giving her diploma concert with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and continued to develop her carrier and established herself as a soloist with orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmonic Orchestra, Gothenbourg Symphony Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Lucern Philharmonic Orchestra and Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Orchestra and Los Angels Philharmonic Orchestra.
Mika is also a member of Maestro Seiji Ozawa's the Saito Kinen Orchestra with yearly performances in Matsumoto, Japan and tours in Europe and USA with concerts at the Royal Albert hall, Carnegie Hall etc. ajabu! have released Mikas solo album Silence and also the duo project Klakimara and will also releas the up coming album with Zawa Zawa that Mika have together with Lisa Nordström. Zawa Zawa debut album will be out soon on ajabu!.
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Mitu is the electronic music duo of Julian Salazar, guitarist of Bogota's psychedelic cumbia band Bomba Estereo, and Franklin Tejedor, a master percussionist of Palenque's great rhythmic traditions. Salazar builds dynamic and dance-inducing layers of sound on synthesizers and drum machines which Tejedor matches with the alegre drum and occasional vocal improvisations in Palenquero, to create pulsing slabs of shimmering electronica driven by insistent roots rhythms. The analogue electro sounds are generated live, without the use of pre-programmed sequences from a computer, giving the musicians space for spontaneous interaction with each other and the audience.
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Nathan Francis is an extraordinary bassist and composer from the United States, who has found a musical home in the enchanting landscapes of Finland. With his exceptional talent and versatility, Nathan Francis has become a prominent figure in the European music scene. For the past five years, Nathan Francis has immersed himself in the rich cultural tapestry of Finland, infusing his compositions and performances with a unique blend of influences. His seamless integration of diverse musical elements has garnered widespread acclaim and solidified his reputation as a boundary-pushing artist. Under the esteemed record label Ajabu, Nathan Francis has released three remarkable albums, each showcasing his distinct artistic vision and mastery of the bass. These albums serve as a testament to Nathan Francis' compositional prowess, pushing the boundaries of genre and captivating audiences with innovative soundscapes. As a true music enthusiast, Nathan Francis embraces the opportunity to collaborate with a variety of talented artists and groups. Whether performing with his own ensemble or joining forces with other musicians, Nathan Francis brings an unparalleled level of musicianship and passion to every stage he graces. His performances throughout Europe have left audiences spellbound, resonating with the captivating melodies and infectious rhythms that define his signature style. As Nathan Francis explores new horizons and pushes the boundaries of his artistry, his passion for music remains unwavering.
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Brazilian composer, guitarist and singer Pedro Rosa released his debut album ´Midnight Alvorada´ in May 2023. Pedro, who was born in São Paulo in Brazil but have lived in Spain for over 15 years, has a long musical road behind him and now share his debut album that reveals his most intimate and respectful relationship with music and composition since he was 10 years old. The debut album features a combination of rhythms, such as samba, baião, ijexá, bossa nova and waltz and features the participation of prominent names in Brazilian music, such as Jurandir Santana, Mônica Salmaso, Vanessa Moreno, Zé Luis Nascimento, Andreas Unge and Ivan Sacerdote.
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Raf Vilar is originally from Rio De Janeiro but has been active at the London music scene for more than ten years where he has built an international network of eminent musicians who is now appearing on his new album “Cliché”. Participating are bassist Ben Reed, who otherwise plays with Frank Ocean and David Byrne. Alex Rose (Minus the Bear), Tuca Milan (Let Drum Beat) and Phil Stevenson (Foufoulah). The album is mastered by legendary multiple grammy nominee Felipe Tichauer in Miami and is a meeting of various Brazilian traditional and more modern styles and singer songwriter tradition mixed with folk and pop influences. The artwork for the album is created by the Brazilian artist Manuela Eichner.
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The project Sonica Sequence came to life in Cuba in 2012. In an abandoned lot turned makeshift soccer pitch in old Havanna Lisa Nordström met up with the percussionist Hanser Santos Gómez. Two musicians who had never played together before, never rehearsed together and not even talked about what they were going to play. With the city’s soundscape as a backdrop they explored each other’s musical expression and the end product turned into the first step on a four year long journey for Lisa Nordström. Sonica Sequence has taken her from Cuba to Japan, Cyprus and Indonesia in search of musical meetings in everyday environments. In a karaoke bar, a busy subway car, a back alley or in the middle of a rice field - all perfect settings for improvised musical gatherings with humans from different cultures communicating only in the universal language of musical expression. The project became a critically acclaimed documentary film that was reborn as the album Volume. In 2021 the Sonica Sequence duo also releases the soundtrack from the movie. The album collects musical encounters, sounds and reflections from different corners of the world and come together as a naked and curious whole.
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Sofi Hellborg is a well-established saxophonist, musician and composer nowadays based in Lund/Sweden. She lived in Paris and London for 16 years and played with legendary musicians like Mory Kante and Tony Allen. Sofi is a unique musician in many ways and her music, mixing afro, funk and jazz is sophisticated and smart, at the same time as it will fill every dance floor. Her latest release on ajabu! is about solidarity and standing up for our rights, giving and sharing. Wahala is an afrobeat song that invites us to dance, meaning “Trouble” in pidgin English. Scared of living is an afro bossanova song with a sad tone and lot´s of rhythms.

Multiple award-winning Senegalese/Swedish duo crossing borders in their music just like in their life together. Constantly on the move with musical and human meetings as their principal driving force. Maher was born to play kora and Sousou is one of very few female kora players in the world. Sousou and Maher both grew up in families of musicians and it was the interest and love for the West African kora (a harp lute) that brought them together. An important guideline for the troubadour culture which the kora is part of is the preservation of the musical heritage through its musicians’ continuously finding new ways. In the interpretation of Sousou & Maher Cissoko it means magnificent kora playing and soulful singing combined with a rhythmic energy and influences from reggae, folk, soul and jazz.As follows from the heritage of the Cissoko family of West African storytellers, the songs bring about an important message of coming together and creating links instead of boundaries between countries and people.

Brazilian composer, singer, instrumentalist, poet, music producer, curator, researcher, professor and translator, Tiganá Santana began his musical studies on the guitar at age 14 in his native city Salvador (BA). At the age of 16 he was already composing in different African and European languages. He created his own guitar, which he called the "violão-tambor" (drum-guitar), with its own tuning, texture and chordal arrangement. He graduated in Philosophy from the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) - where he is a professor of the Interdisciplinary Bachelor of Arts - and got a PhD in Letters from the University of São Paulo (USP). He was the first composer to record as a composer and performer an album with songs in African languages in Brazil, and was elected by the English magazine Songlines one of the ten main Brazilian musicians today. Tiganá release a new solo album on ajabu! in spring 2024.
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Vid Šketa is a young up-and-coming trumpet player from Slovenia, currently based in Paris. Vid began study jazz at a very young age, and has since then been diving into the art of jazz with the guidance of several teachers and musicians, including Igor Matković, Manuel Dunkel, Jukka Eskola, Jukkis Uotila, Jussi Lehtonen, Chuck Israels, Aaron Goldberg, Tim Hagans, Joe Magnarelli, Byran Davis, Philip Dizack. He studied at the Conservatoire of Music Ljubljana and finished the bachelor’s degree in jazz music at Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. During his years in Finland and Slovenia, Vid collaborated with some of the more notable big bands in those areas, Radio and TV Big Band Slovenia, UMO Jazz Orchestra, Euroradio Jazz Orchestra, Espoo Big Band. In addition, he has been and is working as a performing musician with many smaller groups, featuring various worldwide known and accomplished musicians, such as Chuck Israels, Danny Grissett, Vladimir Shafranov, Dana Hall, Eero Koivistoinen, Mikko Innanen, Jussi Lehtonen, Antti Lötjönen, Teppo Makynen, Mikael Jakobsson. Up to today, Vid has contributed to records like Nathan Francis’ The House That Bobby Built and Olli Virtanen’s Yellow Light, Go!. His debut record is set to be released in Spring 2024 on ajabu!.
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Marie-Claude Lambert Philéas has been on stage since the age of 13, first in the family group led by the illustrious and legendary Gramoun Lélé, her father, a zarboutan (pillar) of Reunion culture, then in those of her brothers. His band, Votia (named after his mother, originally from Madagascar), plays the traditional music of Reunion Island, the maloya, in its most powerful and fastest expression, that of the east of the island. Africa and India are all close, and we can hear them not only in the instruments (n'goni, tanpura, tama, bansuri, takamba, djembé…) that the group has mixed, here and there, with the voices and percussions that constitute the essence of maloya. Percussion and voice. Here, all percussionists are singers, and polyphonic arrangements serve writing and voice - what a voice! - by Marie-Claude. With her, her husband, two of her children, a nephew, a niece, and cousins: a family affair, a business of transmission. A connection to loved ones already gone, too. On stage, Marie-Claude is at home, and we feel it immediately. Not surprisingly, with Gramoun Lélé, she has played in Brazil, Canada, Japan and all over Europe. And among the Phileas, maloya is not just music, it is a way of life: music is simply inseparable from their being. This music is powerful, engaging, in its incredible energy as in the slowest tempi: music of trance, it is first used in ceremonies of homage to the ancestors. The life of the family is not exactly a long, quiet river, and Marie-Claude has much to say, to pass, to tell. In Malagasy and Reunionese Creole, its maloya is a cry and a blues, but also and above all a celebration of the joy of being, singing, playing and dancing, and sharing, with authentic generosity.
New singles and album “Vie Kaz” out worldwide spring 2025.
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Zawa Zawa consists of the two internationally acclaimed musicians and artists: Lisa Nordström (flute, voice, electronics) and Mika Takehara (vibraphone, percussion). A dynamic meeting between two very expressive and highly individual artistic spheres. Musically, they move seamlessly between composition and improvisation in an organic exploration of acoustic and electronic sonic landscapes. Debut album out on ajabu! in fall 2024.
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