Essien

Having spent many years living abroad and absorbing the cultural and musical riches of West Africa, the Middle East, India and Paris, Essien made Bristol his home.

Diving into Bristol’s joyful, DIY local music scene, he started to pull together the diaspora of singers, double bassists, accordion players and jazz cats who had also made Bristol their musical Mecca. Working with a tool kit of sharp-end electronica and 70s rare groove samples, Essien’s dream is to carve out a new, inclusive Bristol sound.

A published novelist and influenced by contemporary classical composers like Arvo Pärt and Anouar Brahem, Essien also weaves literary and poetic cuts into his lyrical bag, sampling poets such as Linton Kwesi Johnson and Mary Oliver and scatting on themes of the environment, our shady political system and, of course, love.