DOJO – for the first time in Germany at Freedom Sounds Festival

You might have realised already: We love to bring brand new acts to our festival stage. Here’s a highly talented group from London we have been tracing secretly for a quite a while: Dojo are a collective of jazz and reggae musicians from London, Paris, Nigeria, and Lebanon, whose starkly political 21st century outlook and uncanny talent for melody and harmony is destined to take reggae from the underground to the mainstream.
Dojo formed in 2014 when punk Hammond Organist for hire, Ben Cormack ecruited Robin Porter, winner of the George Murphy Trophy for Jazz Saxophone, and V-Drum World Championship finalist Conor Bailey to produce the critically acclaimed debut EP, Descry, which built the nuanced melodies of jazz and soul on a bedrock of roots reggae and afrobeat. Since then the line-up has grown to 10 musicians, which allowed Dojo to bring the big sound of their studio recordings to the live stage.
Fronted by Parisian singer Mileva Corenthin and backing vocalists Comfort Emmanuel and Marwah El-Murad, Dojo’s music is a celebration of the rich heritage of African, European, and American music. Lyrical content featuring up-to-the-minute political and philosophical observations comes from a combined Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, and Atheist viewpoint. Explorations of joy, despair, human nature, and the reality of living on the breadline in a world city, are underpinned by an overriding theme of harmony and spiritual connection between all living things. All of this can be heard on their debut album Gaia, released in April 2017.
In the UK, they have played at all many major festivals and together with artists ranging from Lee Perry and Max Romeo to Groundation and Resonators. We are extremely happy that Dojo have chosen Freedom Sounds to be their first German show.