Through Our Lens: Sonic Transmissions presents Nérija

Thursday 15 Dec 2016 at 19:30, Total Refreshment Centre

We collaborated with Nérija and the Total Refreshment Centre on our second Sonic Transmissions session – an evening of conversation, live performance and collective listening of Nérija’s newly released EP, along with two brand new tracks commissioned for the London Jazz Festival.

For those of you who don’t know (you should get to know), Nérija are a collective of London-based musicians whose sound and vibe channel a long history of jazz, fusing different styles, rhythms and tones. They’re part of a generation who have grown up listening to R&B, hip-hop and afrobeat, along side jazz and its sub genres, and they allow these influences to seep into their tracks.

Skin Deep’s Erica McKoy chatted with Sheila Maurice-Grey, Rosie Turton, Cassie Kinoshi, Nubya Garcia, Shirley Tetteh, Lizy Exell and Rio Kai (depping for Inga Eichler) about gender and the presence of trans musicians in the jazz scene, influences and categorisation, the effect of a music ‘education’ on musicians and performance, and our favourite: what comes first, the feeling or the music?

Big up to Daisy Gaston for putting together this video from the night.

And big thank you to Jordan Matyka for capturing the vibes. You can buy Nérija’s EP off bandcamp (great Christmas gift), and to see where they’ll be playing next, check out their facebook page.We’ll see you in the New Year for number three…