SA Recordings

Nok Cultural Ensemble is a new project from Atyap (Nigerian-British) musician Edward Wakili-Hick (Sons of Kemet, Steam Down, Kokoroko), a fluid and evolving collective, which features an impressive line up of Edward’s collaborators including; Onome Edgeworth (Kokoroko), Joseph Deenmamode (Mo Kolours), Dwayne Kilvington (Wonky Logic), Theon Cross, Sulyiman (Afrorack), Watusi87 (RU1 Fam), Zarak (Blue Alchemy), Niyabja aka Simeline Jean-Baptiste (DJ Noss), David Wehinm (Omah Lay, Ezra Collective) and Angel Bat Dawid.

On the upcoming album Njhyi, the Nok Cultural Ensemble centres diverse Afro-diasporic percussive traditions. Glitching beats unfold on African timelines, expressed through free jazz sensibilities which extend the futuristic pulse of dub technologies.

The collective craft a visionary rhythmic continuum that tunes into living traditions stretching back to the ancient NOK civilisation, and reaches towards liberated futures. NCE foregrounds the diversity of black percussive music styles - from agbaja and apala, soca to bélé, sega, broken beat and beyond. In Wakili-Hick’s own words, they ‘celebrate percussion as a complete music’. Drawing on their own collective heritage - from Nigeria and Mauritius to St Kitt and the UK, the record platforms percussion ensembles as a vehicle for music making whilst centring afro-diasporic knowledge systems and cultures.

The project is the result of compositions, extended group improvisations where collaborators would reason about history and culture whilst experimenting with frequency and time. The relationships at the heart of NCE have been built over the years, coming up through the Tomorrow’s Warriors organisation, Sons of Kemet, Steam Down, Kokoroko and London’s jazz adjacent producer scenes.

Alongside the release of the album, NCE have partnered with Spitfire Audio to release‘ Tape Percussion’, a sample library made at the legendary Ariwa Studios.