Mihá

Mihá (feat. Elin Kåven)

Hawaiian Daydream by Kort Blu

Saboda

Ataque Al Subconsciente

Dhanvantri Dub - Flow De Los Devas (Original Mix)

Afro-Finnish band Maajo return with their third album, “Water of Life,” a fluid celebration of various influences. Supported by two preceding singles, “Better Days” and “Unelmissani,” the album is the group’s first release with the Brooklyn, NY-based tastemaker label Wonderwheel Recordings. Maajo’s signature Afro-Balearic sound meets late eighties new age and fusion, with touches of modern soul. The addition of two band members, Waina and Gilbert K, as well as featuring artists Issiaka Dembele and Ismaila Sané, has rooted the album’s stories in a diverse range of backgrounds, featuring vocals in no less than six different languages. 

Gilbert K’s drum grooves pay tribute to the late Tony Allen’s legendary heritage and the percussion experiments on a more melodic and atmospheric tip. Cold synth pads and 303 squeaks blend with warm guitars, fretless bass, and Issiaka Dembele’s sublime kora harps and balafon mallets. “Water of Life” shows a band at its maturation point, reaching the cross-cultural coalescence of Finnish-African sound that’s ready for the dancefloor or home-listening. 

The three vocalists take centre-stage on the album: Waina hails from Zambia and sings in Nyanja, English and Finnish; a renowned musician in Zambia for over two decades who now calls Finland home, Waina wrote a song that reached the finals of the 2020 Afrimusic contest. Gilbert K primarily sings in his native Mauritian Creole while comprising part of the percussion line. He made his way to Finland by way of South Africa and China, eventually winning the Voice of Finland show. Gilbert K has played with such legends as Tony Allen, Andy Summers, Diana King, and Suzanne Vega. Ismaila Sané is from the Casamance region of Southern Senegal and sings in Wolof (a widely-spoken language in West Africa) on “Ndekete,” and in Jola (a smaller language in Casamance) on “Èwàn”. 

Maajo is a sonic, linguistic, and cultural melting pot that has come together in Tampere, Finland, like a tropical breeze from the cold north. Their musical explorations lead from equatorial soundscapes to the woods and moods of their native Scandinavia. African influences, electronic beats and organic rhythms, ethereality and the sounds of nature all make up the patchwork sound of Maajo. 

Not only is Maajo’s music a way of travelling to faraway places, the songs themselves have travelled all over the globe. Maajo has evolved from a sample-based electronic music project to a full-sized band, including African vocalists and musicians. The group has put out two full-length albums and three EP’s on Queen Nanny records, in addition to a release on German label Permanent Vacation. Maajo has received the remix treatment from artists such as Luke Vibert and Call Super, and has toured festivals and clubs internationally. The band has built a dedicated international following having been championed by the likes of Gilles Peterson (Worldwide FM), Tom Ravenscroft (BBC Radio 6), and Tim Sweeney (Beats In Space), while they’ve been featured by KEXP (Song of the Day), Resident Advisor, Ransom Note, and Pan-African Music. 

“Water of Life” is out on Wonderwheel Recordings October 14th, 2022, both digitally and as an exclusive, limited-run 2xLP.

Buy LP Here

Maajo - Exhaling Mountain Mist

Maajo - Ndékété (feat. Ismaila Sané)

Axai Iquiyaqtole - Coro Qom Chelaalapi & Lagartijeando

Meta_ is Mariana Bragada, a singer, composer, and producer from the region of Trás-os-Montes in Northern Portugal. Her debut album, XIV - A Integração, is intimate and organic, with deeply emotive vocals and acoustic instrumentation, yet at the same time heavily features electronic production with deep bass and atmospheric soundscapes. She brings together elements of organic downtempo and trip-hop with ancestral wisdom and yearning vocals that express her hardships and fantasies while reflecting her Portuguese roots. 

XIV- A Integração is the sonic journey of Meta_, born in Trás-os-Montes Portugal, from her roots to South America. 
In 2019 she traveled to Pucallpa, Peru, where she had the opportunity and honor to connect with the Ayahuasca medicine plant and be in the presence of a family of Maestros and Maestras from the Shipibo tribe. Coincidentally, in the following 2 weeks, she performed Live Sound Design for Theatre shows of UmColetivo in Belo Horizonte, Brazil and Montevideo, Uruguay. 
This album is Meta_'s ode to Mother Earth and the human experience, highlighting the symbiosis of organic sound with electronics, tied together with her unique voice. 
Emotions, visions and lyrics are expressed in 3 languages ​​- Portuguese, Spanish and English. It is in this complementarity that a unique sonic universe is created, born of Portuguese ancestry united with the internal and external journeys of Meta_ across the world. 
The songs were written, composed and sung by Meta_ with 2 international collaborations - Labaq (Brazil) and Bom Beijo (Sweden) and percussionist Manu Idhra (PT). Meta_ produced the album, with Bom Beijo jointly producing 7 songs. 
This is the space for integrating Meta_'s life lessons. Beyond duality, this album is based on the colorful, intimate and empowering spectrum of revealing yourself to the world, just as you are, with fears, dreams, pain and love. It’s about death, about life, about being here. 
It was in South America that Meta_ was born again and, so far from the land where she lives, she felt at home. It is with this journey and its alchemy manifested in the album, that the common and cross-border value that music has of union, ancestry and healing is visibly awakened. 
“I use the roots as wings, I will be a flying tree.” 
credits
released May 19, 2023 

Instrument & Voice Recordings- Bragança, in my family’s backyard kitchen (2020), Porto (2021), Sertã, Passaria- Martin and Juliana’s House (2022) 
Voice Recording- with Pedro Pulga in SoundHill Studios, Porto, Portugal 

Mixing: Cláudio Tavares 
Mastering: Yosi Horkiawa 
Design: Clau Smith 
Photography Cover: Ana Marta Dias 
Tapestry- João Freitas, amargo, Ruben Roxo, Meta_ 
Card Photography Team- Makeup- Ruben Roxo, Styling- Gonçalo Vieira , Vídeo- Flávio Silva, Jewerly- Mariana Castro, Vibes- Sofia Costa, Frederico, João Freitas, Support- Bernardo Bacalhau, Daniela Gandra - Aldeia de Couce, Porto 

Card inspired by VisionQuest Tarot by Gayan S. Winter and Jo Dose

Saboda

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