The Confluence

The Nigerian-British keyboardist and bandleader Dele Sosimi is a London fixture, an Afrobeat ambassador with links to the great Fela Kuti, directing the latter's Egypt 80 line-up before going on to work with Femi Kuti & the Positive Force. A keen collaborator, Dele continues to lend his insistent baritone and freewheeling chords to everyone from dub experimentalist Prince Fatty to acclaimed Cuban-Bangla-Afrobeat outfit Lokkhi Terra; here he ventures further left-field with Essex musician Sam Duckworth, the musician/producer/hit maker/Africa Express stalwart also known as Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.

The results are surprisingly soothing – a description seldom applied to Sosimi, a man frequently given to protest-fuelled bombast. But backed by the newly monikered Estuary 21, a jam-based collective featuring Pete Fraser on horns and percussionists Afla Sackey and Snowboy, and using the chants and intersecting rhythms of Afrobeat as a template, Dele et al follow a trail that flows organically, shimmering here and there with sun-lit horns and synth-powered grooves. Vocalist Aby Dosunmu adds sweetness to several of the album's six tunes. Rising Essex star Sam Eagle throws in some lovely washes of ringing highlife guitar. Throughout, jazz and pop motifs are discovered, followed and explored with a gentility that adds to the Afrobeat canon. There's comfort to be found in the sense of freedom, a calm amid life's ongoing storm.