New Stories

This duo recording presents an intriguing clash of cultures. Eve Crazy is a Senegalese female rapper perhaps best-known as a member of hip-hop collective Gënji; Mar Yo is a Finnish musician and singer whose work is based around her playing of the kantele, a zither-like stringed instrument. Under her birthname of Marjo Smolander she’s previously released an album, 2021’s Cosmologies. Formed in Dakar, Senegal in 2021, the duo’s music tends to work best when Smolander’s kantele playing and Finno-Ugric folk vocal aesthetics provide a light and airy foil to Eve Crazy’s rapping. They provide a dreamlike and atmospheric backing to Eve Crazy’s strident flows on tracks like ‘Violences’ and ‘Jigéen ñi’, a track previously released as a single and which celebrates global female togetherness. Elsewhere ‘Immortel’ finds Smolander’s Finnish folk singing take centre stage while ‘Sama Xarit’ and ‘SP-Party’ find the pair introducing elements of techno-pop to their music with winning results.