A soulful family portrait and 10:25 minute short-film that will leave you pondering heritage and fatherhood while your feet start to boogie.
Upon making waves in UK’s RnB scene with his self-produced Ep Raw Volumes 1 and 2, Nigerian born producer and singer-songwriter Azekel (Azekel Adesuyi) shares Chapter 1 (Family) and Chapter 2 (Mental Health) of the short film accompanying his debut Album Our Father, set for release this May.
Tracks composing Chapter 1—Don't Wake The Babies, Can We Have Fun (In This House Tonight)?, Black Is Beauty (Daughters)—and Chapter 2—Pyramids & Starships, Loading, and Hollow—have the temper of an RnB jam and cathartic levity of a lullaby. Perhaps the sum up of a childhood filled with Fela Kuti, Whitney Houston, Marvin Gaye, but also genre-crossing collaborations with artists including the likes of Massive Attack and Gorillaz?
"The film shows my story as a young black father. The first chapter tells where I'm currently at, learning my identity as a young family man, but also as a black man faced with teaching my kids to embrace who they are,” Azekel explains. “We also wanted to show a new take on Black Britain, different than what we're used to seeing in music videos.” Video director Alex Motlhabane tells us. Indeed the visual narrative resulting from their collaboration is nothing short of picturesque, the main reference for the portrait section being the works of Malick Sidibe & Seydou Keita. “I was looking at a lot of work by black and African photographers from the 1960s and 70s at the time and that bled through all aspects of the films. Olan Collardy (Director of Photography) brought his own flair to it and turned the ideas into consistent looks.”
“I was looking at a lot of work by black and African photographers from the 1960s and 70s ”
But there is more to come. Azekel plans on releasing the final chapter of his project in the near future and we are certainly excited to find out where his sound and lyrics will take us next!
“Being a great father is like being a great musician it takes practice.”
