Lagos

For Lagos Pepper Soup, Michael Olatuja's second solo release, Michael picked a core band of Terreon Gully, Aaron Parks and Etienne Stadwijk, and then enlisted the talents of Angelique Kidjo, Dianne Reeves, Regina Carter, Joe Lovano, Laura Mvula, Lionel Loueke, Gregoire Maret, Becca Stevens, Brandee Younger, Robert Mitchell, Onaje Jefferson, and top studio arrangers David Metzger, Joseph Joubert and Jason Michael Webb to realise his vision of what he calls Cinematic Afrobeat. Michael has integrated all of his diverse musical influences, incorporating his guests' talents while allowing his own personality to clearly shape the overall direction. His own virtuoso melodic bass playing shines throughout - "I wanted Lagos Pepper Soup to feature my own playing, as well as songwriting and production - all my influences are here, all my favourite musicians, and I feel there's an element of divine favour in how amazingly it's turned out."

Yannis Philippakis’ collaborative EP with pioneering drummer Tony Allen, ‘Lagos Paris London’ comes exclusively pressed to multi-splatter LP, limited to 500 copies and hand-numbered to order. The pair met in 2016 and quickly established an intuitive telepathy, and the music, germinated from jams and loops, and was complemented by a unique atmosphere of two cultures and creatives colliding. Joined by Tony's regular collaborators Vincent Taeger (percussion, marimba), Vincent Taurelle (keys) and Ludovic Bruni (bass, guitar) that first meeting resulted in a handful of near complete songs, which were further developed during a couple of subsequent sessions. But between scheduling issues and Covid restrictions the recordings were not completed before Tony passed away in April 2020. Yannis felt a deep duty to complete the project, not only as a bittersweet way to honour and celebrate his friend, but also because Tony had been so eager to share these songs with the world. The result is this five-track EP, Lagos Paris London, under the Yannis & the Yaw umbrella.

Yannis Philippakis’ collaborative EP with pioneering drummer Tony Allen, ‘Lagos Paris London’ comes exclusively pressed to multi-splatter LP, limited to 500 copies and hand-numbered to order. The pair met in 2016 and quickly established an intuitive telepathy, and the music, germinated from jams and loops, and was complemented by a unique atmosphere of two cultures and creatives colliding. Joined by Tony's regular collaborators Vincent Taeger (percussion, marimba), Vincent Taurelle (keys) and Ludovic Bruni (bass, guitar) that first meeting resulted in a handful of near complete songs, which were further developed during a couple of subsequent sessions. But between scheduling issues and Covid restrictions the recordings were not completed before Tony passed away in April 2020. Yannis felt a deep duty to complete the project, not only as a bittersweet way to honour and celebrate his friend, but also because Tony had been so eager to share these songs with the world. The result is this five-track EP, Lagos Paris London, under the Yannis & the Yaw umbrella.