- artist:Boi Akih
- event type:WOMEX 21 Showcase - Official Selection
- date:29 Oct 2021
- time:00:45 - 01:30
- city/area:Porto
- venue:Theatre Stage
- country:Portugal
- event posted by:Piranha Arts
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Vocalist Monica Akihary and guitarist and composer Niels Brouwer are the core of Boi Akih. The duo have been working together since 1997, releasing nine albums fusing Brouwer's borderless jazz visions and Akihary's Indonesian Moluccan Islands heritage connection across a range of collaborations with international musicians from differing worlds of improvised, classical, folk and jazz music. The latest album, Storyteller, sees Brouwer's 7-string classical guitar fluently conversing with the custom-built 35-string kora played by Sekou Dioubate from Guinea, as Akihary's vocal improvisations and songs in both English and Haruku – the endangered language of her father's island – are expertly enhanced by the expressive recorder playing of Dodó Kis from Hungary. All four fluidly interpret and enhance Brouwer's mellifluous compositions, each telling their own stories to evoke unique boundary-dissolving sounds.