Based in the unique sounds and traditional afrobeat from South Sudan, Jal's music reflects upon the resilience of his history and heritage. With support from United Freedom Collective and Echoes in Smoke.
Rapper, singer, actor, activist, and public speaker Emmanuel Jal overcame grave dangers and adversity growing up to become a world-renowned talent. He escaped life as a Sudanese child soldier and began making music in the early 2000s, cultivating a specific brand of hip-hop that reflected his political and spiritual beliefs. Over the years Jal would collaborate with stars such as Nelly Furtado, Peter Gabriel, and RUN D.M.C.'s Darryl McDaniels, bringing messages of peace and enlightenment to albums like 2008's War Child and 2014's The Key. He also contributed to his sister Nyaruach's Juno Award-nominated 2018 album Naath.
Jal was born in South Sudan around 1980. His mother died when he was still a young child of seven or so, and Jal was forced into a military training camp in Ethiopia, where he was trained to be a child soldier and participated in military battles before he was even a teenager. Eventually he left Ethiopia and made the dangerous, grueling journey across Sudan to Waat, which was near his Upper Nile home.
From there he was smuggled by his mentor and protector Emma McCune into Nairobi, Kenya. Following McCune's death, Jal became one of the millions displaced by Sudan's violent civil war. McCune's friends and associates saw to it that Jal received an education, and he was able to attend Tala Academy. He began singing around 1998, was soon active in his local church choir, and began working on the earliest forms of his public musical output. In 2005 he independently released his debut album, Gua, the title track of which was a number one hit in Kenya.
Jal collaborated with Abdel Gadir Salim, a Sudanese musician, for the album Ceasefire, which was released later in 2005, and included a re-recording of "Gua." Since Jal was from the south of Sudan, and Salim was from the north, the collaboration of the two musicians symbolized the kind of unity many have hoped for in the Sudan conflict, and Ceasefire represented a plea for peace and sanity. Third album Warchild arrived in 2008, and that year also saw both a full-length documentary about Jal's tumultuous journey and an autobiographical book, all sharing the title Warchild.
Fourth album See Me Mama arrived in 2012, and 2014's The Key featured a long list of highly accomplished collaborators, including Nelly Furtado, Nile Rogers, Das Racist, and even string arrangements from Peter Gabriel. In 2014 Jal also co-starred alongside Reese Witherspoon in the film The Good Lie, a drama set during the Second Sudanese Civil War, which Jal had firsthand experience with. By-then living in Toronto, Jal was working as a public speaker and political activist in addition to passionately pursuing his musical dreams. In 2018, he collaborated with his sister Nyaruach on Naath, an album that fused Afrobeat rhythms with pop production and was nominated for a Juno award. In 2021, he was appointed the African Union ambassador for peace.
United Freedom Collective
United Freedom Collective are a new act singed to Maribou State’s label Dama Dama, a sub-label of Ninja Tune. Their debut EP ‘Am Ta’ created waves in late 2022 with radio support from the likes of Gilles Petersen, Jamz Supernova, Tom Ravenscroft and Don Letts, as well as two sell-out live shows in hometowns Margate and London.
In late 2020, Mathieu Seynaeve and WaiFung Tsang, musicians as well as clinicians and researchers of psychedelic therapy, met up with music producer and yoga teacher Robbie Redway for a sound journey on a remote barn on Bodmin Moor, Cornwall, which resulted in a set of tracks and practices that shaped the blueprint of what United Freedom Collective is now.
The retreat consisted of meditations, noble silences, cold sea swims, eating plants and mushrooms, meanders and medicine songs by stone circles – all to facilitate space for music with intent. The intention that the music created could offer value to others, healing value, a way to the space where we can feel free but also connected to the unity we are.
As an ever-expanding collective, collaborating with artists such as Falle Nioke, Eliza Shaddad, Jordan Stephens and William Rees, the sound continued to develop into something wider than the imagination. They have been influenced by birds, trees, Buddhism, yoga, headless way meditations, Jungian analysis, Zen Taoism, Chinese plant medicines, indigeneity, Amazonian and psychedelic cultures, icaros, worldwide healing traditions…
Echoes in Smoke
Echoes in Smoke are a Barcelona-based alternative indie trio merging groovy psychedelia with electronic soundscapes, surfing into the dystopia with touches of post-punk as a wake-up call.
Formed by musicians from Sweden, UK, and Chile; expect a mix of playful melodies with a dark twist on lyrics, surf guitars, pulsating bass lines, and tribal drumming. Their imagery ranges from landscapes, dreams of pirates & heroines to artificial intelligence.
They have a mountain of new material in the making and 2023 is set to be a busy year, with a new album on the way their UK debut – Rough Trade record Nottingham and Noisily Festival, playing alongside Space Rock legends GONG!
Rush Down (DJ duo)
Afrobeats and amapiano from the South London duo.
TIMINGS
2000 Doors open
2030 Echoes in Smoke
2200 United Freedom Collective
2330 Emmanuel Jal
0100 Rush Down