ODD OKODDO & OGOYA NENGO

The inaugural release for Nairobi label From Cool Waters is a feverish amalgam of traditional Kenyan currents and moody, minimalist electronics. Emerging from the confluence of three special talents – Nairobi-based Nyege Nyege collaborator and experimental drummer Sven Kacirek, esteemed 83-year-old folk artist OGOYA NENGO and dodo singer/songwriter and luthier Olith Ratego – PALAGOMA channels an electroacoustic synergy unlike anything you’ve ever heard before.

The artists have collaborated in various guises before; German-born Kacirek co-produced and recorded Nengo’s 2014 captivating debut LP for Honest Jon’s, Rang'ala, while Ratego and Kacirek formed the duo ODD OKODDO in 2018, performing at Uganda’s influential Nyege Nyege Festival in 2023 and at events all over the world. However, PALAGOMA combines their abilities for the first time. Within the album’s bedrock of hard-edged daydreamy folktronica, the trio carve out messages of love, pain, and courage that draw on their multiple trajectories.