Mandé jazz sensations Balimaya Project release their new album, When the Dust Settles, via New Soil in conjunction with Jazz re:freshed on July 21, celebrating the event with an augmented big-band blowout at London’s Barbican on October 17.

A follow-up to the ensemble’s stunning debut, Wolo So (which bagged the boys Best Newcomer at 2022’s Songlines Music Awards), When the Dust Settles finds the kinetic collective further cultivating their infectious fusions of West African rhythms and the peppy spontaneity of London’s new jazz tribe across 10-groove-laden tracks, while composer/arranger and djembe doyen Yahael Camara Onono tackles the deeply intimate, handing the mic over to guest vocalists including Afronaut Zu, Obongjayar and Fassara Sacko, to broach personal themes including the death of his older brother and the mysteries of fatherhood.

Balimaya Project will bring their new opus to life when gather as an expanded 18-strong unit for a special performance at the Barbican on October 17, with support coming from those magnificent Moroccan Gnawa-power evangelists, Asmâa Hamzaoui and Bnat Timbouktou.