Yannis & The Yaw’s debut release Lagos Paris London featuring Tony Allen is out now!

Yannis commented on his first impression of Tony’s drumming: “It’s like hearing a new language on a very familiar instrument. Tony made his own rhythmic language which, above all, feels good in the body. It’s one thing to come up with a technical fingerprint that’s new. That is hard in and of itself. But to do that and have it also still feel good to different generations of musicians from different cultures all around the world? It captures your mind in its complexity—and also in its difference from other styles of drumming. There’s so much rhythmic information. But it never stops feeling good. And he had no father in that. He came up with it. That’s the magic of it.”

As for the experience of working with Tony, Yannis noted: “Making music with somebody, and then death happening, and being in proximity to mortality, but having this record at the end of it, it’s been an important experience for me. Understanding the power of meeting somebody and making something, those serendipitous encounters, meaningful ones where you make something are to be treasured and cherished, because, in many ways, that’s all that’s left at the end.’’

Listen to the new EP here.

Limited signed fire red vinyl available in the Official Shop.

1. Walk Through Fire
2. Rain Can’t Reach Us
3. Night Green, Heavy Love
4. Under The Strikes
5. Clementine

Artwork by @barka.painting

Photo by Kit Monteith