Ibibio Sound Machine is the new confirmation for the – already sold out – day July 6th at the Heineken Stage of the 15th edition of NOS Alive.
Led by Nigerian singer Eno Williams, Ibibio Sound Machine are a fusion of African and electronic elements inspired in equal measure by the golden age of West African funk and disco and modern post-punk and electronica.
The band’s eponymous debut album was released in 2014 by Soundway Records, followed by Uyai released in 2017 and Doko Mien in 2019.
Already in 2022, the fourth studio album Electricity, produced by Hot Chip, is received positively by the critics, with highlights in Pitchfork and The Guardian. Clash Music magazine called the album “brilliant, dynamic, and continually innovative” while the Exclaim website noted that “Ibibio Sound Machine manages to sound extremely focused and imaginative, staying true to their extremely diverse and fluid modus operandi.
Even in difficult times, “there is no love without electricity.” This is how the group’s fourth and most progressive album, and like every good Afrofuturist story, begins: with an existential crisis. “It’s darker than anything we’ve done before,” says Eno Williams, the group’s lead singer. “That’s because it grew out of last year’s turbulence. It exists a bolder world.”
July 6th marks the group’s debut at Passeio Marítimo de Algés, as they take the Heineken Stage at NOS Alive.