JOY. presents
Ata Kak
+ Mohamed Errebbaa

Strange Brew 
Wednesday 26th August 
£17.50 adv + BF
19:00 -22:30 
< u>Ata Kak< /u>

Ata Kak created a peculiar slice of Ghanaian music history with his debut album “Obaa Sima”. While it barely made a ripple at the time of its release in 1994, the cassette found a new life online in 2006. A not-so-underground cult obsession grew after it appeared on the blog Awesome Tapes From Africa as its very first post, a sort of manifesto for the project. His addictive amalgam of left-field electronic music and Twi-language hiplife reached surprising levels of awareness among music fans of many stripes. The mystery behind the musician’s identity grew. Eventually Yaw Atta-Owusu came out of the shadows, from his quiet home in Kumasi, to tour the world playing high-energy, sweat-soaked performances at major festivals like Glastonbury, Sónar and Pop Montreal.

Now, for the first time since 1994, Ata Kak releases new music. Honed in studios around Kumasi over the last several years, the songs feature the rapper-singer’s acrobatic rap, signature scatting, dramatic drums and even traditional Akan harp. The compositions are more ambitious than his earlier work, with more complex arrangements and layered harmonies. Ata Kak’s new songs are also the natural expression of a restless artist—he is a prolific poet and author of a half-dozen books, as well as an active gardener and busy painter.

Born in Ghana in 1960, Ata Kak wasn’t always involved in music. But his travels and openness to the world lead him into the music industry. While living in Germany, he was invited to play drums in a reggae band and subsequently played in highlife bands in Ontario after moving to the Toronto area. He recorded “Obaa Sima” there at his home studio and released it in Ghana in 1994. He didn’t participate in music much in the intervening years until “Obaa Sima” was reissued in 2015. He started performing his song live with the help of a brilliant cast of London-based musicians and has toured three continents and played to thousands of fans in venues of all kinds.
< u>Mohamed Errebbaa< /u>

Mohamed Errebbaa was born in Rabat, Moroccan musician and Master in the GNAWA world. He spent a decade travelling throughout Morocco, studying the diverse regional musical traditions under some of the leading musicians in the country. In southern Morocco, Issawa, and Deqqa folkloric percussion, becoming especially passionate about the three-stringed Gnawa bass lute, the Guembri, before launching his international career.

Receptive to the fusion of musical genres, he has collaborated with many leading international artists

Tickets sold by Strange Brew on behalf of the promoter, Joy Concerts. All ticket revenue belongs to the promoter.

Entry requirements: no age restrictions (under 18s to be accompanied by an adult over 21yrs, 1:1 ratio) — Read more — Read less