Award-winning, London-based Family Atlantica are back with their far-reaching second album ‘Cosmic Unity’, which follows on from their 2013 eponymous debut - an album that won the band a range of awards including Songlines Magazine’s Best Newcomers 2015.
‘Cosmic Unity’, like the band itself, mirrors the mixed-up, intercontinental terrain of their home town. Moving through genres as diverse as psychedelic highlife, steel- pan Ethio-funk, calypso, biao and scorching equatorial jazz underpinned by deep afro-Atlantic dance rhythms, they have created a cohesive, forward-looking sound that echoes classic tropical recordings of the past whilst still sounding fresh and contemporary. Lush string and horn arrangements give way to acidic commentary on the immigration system and slavery as well as incantations of unity.
Producer and multi-instrumental director, Jack Yglesias (also a core member of the underground pysch-jazz-funk unit The Heliocentrics) leads the explosive ensemble. Alongside Jack, the band features the powerful vocals and poetry of Venezuelan diva Luzmira Zerpa and the percussive West African mastery of Nigerian/Ghanaian Kwame ‘natural power’ Crentsil as well as Adrian Owusu (Guitar).
Joining them as guests on the album are two musical legends: The Sun Ra Arkestra’s bandleader Marshall Allen on alto saxophone, ewi and vocals, and Nigerian Afro-beat colossus Orlando Julius on tenor sax who was at the time of the recording living with Yglesias and Zerpa. The diversity of the Family Atlantica project is reflected in the lyrics, with singing and poetry in Spanish, English, Yoruba and Portuguese. This is a rapid-fire, rhythm-heavy journey, simultaneously moving between the past and future of trans-Atlantic roots music.
“A borderline chaotic mix of highlife, Ethiopian jazz and Cuban rumba along with a surface shimmer of 1960s psychedelia” The Independent
“An exuberant, percussive and increasingly sophisticated outfit” The Guardian
Soundway Records was conceived in 2002 by label owner Miles Cleret whilst returning from Ghana with a hoard of dusty old 45s and LPs that had mostly not been heard outside the former Gold Coast since their original release. Planned on a whim the trip was not one of the carefully planned research expeditions that Miles would later embark on to any number of far-flung tropical destinations. On the contrary he left England with no idea of what he might find or that it might be the start of a career in the record business.
Although the label has it's roots in West Africa the scope has grown to include many other parts of the tropical belt with the aim of making available recordings that have in most cases never been available outside of their original countries and often not even there for over 30 years. Over the years Soundway's modus operandi has been to approach the music from a different angle from many of the more established \"World Music\" labels. By focusing on more obscure artists as well as big names and often concentrating on progressive recordings more in sync with Cleret's generation and background in DJ culture and dance-music. Styles have included afro-beat, funk, highlife, ethio-jazz, molam, calypso, cumbia, champeta, biguine, latin-jazz and disco as well as many unclassifiable recordings.
Since 2012 Soundway has begun releasing new material from a carefully selected handful of contemporary recording artists including acclaimed acts Ondatropica, Bomba Estereo and Ibibio Sound Machine
