Auntie Flo - 'Birds Of Paradise' Album and Live Show
Album Release and London Jazz Cafe launch party are set for 23rd October, pre-order the record and grab your tickets on Monday
This week, I’m very excited to share the news of a new album I’ve been working on. It’s called ‘Birds Of Paradise’ and is a culmination of my work over the last few years building my London studio, plus February’s trip to Goa where I managed to set up a temporary studio in ‘The Loja’ - a small fisherman’s hut in the backyards of Aldona in the north, 30 mins away from where Auntie Florie (who’s name I lovingly borrowed) is buried.
My albums to date have followed a similar process - an intense writing session that takes place over a few days in a ‘State Of Flow’, where the ideas come together very quickly. I usually find an instrument, effect, patch, or some unique combination of sounds that sound in some way true to me and like nothing I’ve heard anyone else do.
In this case, I worked across the Kalimba preset of my Casio CZ-5000, the tropical drum sounds of the classic Roland 707 and 727 drum machines, the vintage beauty of the Yamaha CS-60 and basslines from the Novation BassStation in combination as the sound palette that is consistent on each track.
With my previous albums, I would subsequently call upon various musicians to do recording sessions where we add live instrumentation and vocals to the tracks, and often they’d end up sounding very different from the original ideas.
With Birds Of Paradise, I chose a different path - completing the tracks not with human voices and instruments, but with field recordings - mainly from The Loja in Goa. This allowed me to stay true to my dancefloor roots and deliver the raw ideas without overthinking or procrastination. Which is the best approach? I’ll leave it to you to decide…
The Loja in Northern Goa is definitely the spiritual home of this record, and where I found my ‘paradise’. A spot of natural beauty, secluded at the end of a long lane away from the main road and situated within a ‘Soniferous Garden’: a tropical jungle with coconuts, porcupines all sorts of plant life (and a cobra that only came out at night), next to a body of water where the mangroves dripped into the river and the water was warm enough to swim in without flinching (I was later told to watch out for crocodiles, so perhaps paradise might have been lost!).
I’ll explain more about the process of making the record in the coming months as well as sharing the first single very soon. My track Ceibo is included as it was made during the same sessions, even though we released it last year.
It will be released on 23rd of October on A State Of Flo Records. Artwork is by Sijya again, who’s done a great job. You can pre-order it here:
Launch Party: Live at the Jazz Cafe 23/10/25
I’m delighted to announce that we’ll be hosting a launch party at the renowned Jazz Cafe in London on release day - 23rd October. After the success of the sold out live show in Omeara earlier this year, and shows in Kenya, Goa and some festivals this summer, I wanted to go all in on an event that brings together as many people I’ve been working with in a big celebration - and hoping followers of this newsletter can join us too!
I’m putting together a band for this, and hoping to bring Ambassa Mandela over from Kenya to sing Green City (as well as some new killer afro-funk tracks we’ve been working on). Ziggy Funk will return on guitar and I’m trying to coax the legend Andrew Ashong out of his semi-retirement… On support duties, Sijya, who I work with on artwork, is also a brilliant musician and has just been signed to One Little Independent Records - home to Bjork, Poppy Ackroyd and countless others. She’ll be flying in from India to perform tracks from her new EP Leather and Brass.
TICKETS WILL BE ON SALE THIS MONDAY!!
Standing - https://www.ticketweb.uk/event/auntie-flo-live-jazz-cafe-tickets/13946484?pl=JC
Restaurant - https://www.ticketweb.uk/event/auntie-flo-live-jazz-cafe-tickets/13946494?pl=JCT
Please help us spread the word - I hope to see you there :)
A final note to say ‘Paid Supporters’ will receive a copy of the album in the next few weeks, months ahead of release day. ‘Founding Members’ will get a copy of the vinyl record as soon as it’s ready and everything from our back catalogue!