For more than a decade, the Berlin-based Daniel Haaksman has put out urban sounds from Brazil via his compilations and releases on his label, Man Recordings. In 2012, he traveled to Angola for a DJ gig and plunged into the world of Kuduro, that specific Angolan high-speed dance style that originated in the late 1980s from hybridization of Euro house, American rap and Angolan semba. He then encountered various musical concepts for the future that are far from the nostalgic look of pop and club music in Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States, on a trip through the former Portuguese speaking colony Mozambique, as well as numerous visits to Lisbon.

Throughout and after those trips, Haaksman tells us, he found himself wondering, “What kind of sounds are associated with the African continent? How does Africa sound in the 21st century? What is ‘African’ music in the age of digital media and a frenzied globalization?”

He attempts to provide answers in his new album, African Fabrics.-Sound and Colours

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