Thursday 5 March 2026, 7.30pm
Sakina Abdou, one of the most exciting rising voices on the international improvised music scene, makes her first appearance at Cafe OTO, presenting her lead projects in the UK for the first time. A fearless and distinctive saxophonist, she has presented her solo work at major festivals across Europe and North America, including FIMAV, Torino Jazz Festival, Berlin Jazz Festival, Météo, Music Unlimited and Summer Bummer.
This first two-day residency at Cafe OTO marks a special moment, spotlighting a body of work she has developed over the last few years in close collaboration with the US label Relative Pitch Records.
Across the residency, Sakina Abdou will unfold several facets of her music: her solo project; the trio Abdou – Gouband – Warelis with Marta Warelis (piano) and Thomas Gouband (drums, stones, leaves); a specially extended solo set with Mariam Rezaei; and a duo with a special guest to be announced.
Moving freely between jazz, experimental, noise and improvised music, Abdou has recently released a duo album with Bill Nace. She is also an active member of the Lille-based collective Muzzix, a vibrant hub for creative and free music, through which she has collaborated with artists such as Satoko Fujii, Jean-Luc Guionnet, Raymond Boni and Ingrid Laubrock.
Bold, uncompromising and deeply personal, this residency is an invitation to dive into Sakina Abdou’s musical world. Two nights to catch an artist in motion, tracing where she’s been and pushing into what’s coming next.
MARCH 5:
The second night shifts towards expanded forms and encounters. An extended solo set with Mariam Rezaei explores friction, resonance, dialogue and depth, opening new perspectives on Abdou’s musical language, followed by a trio with Elaine Mitchener and Neil Charles, bringing together singular voices from London’s adventurous music scene.
Described by The Wire as “one of the most technically adept and creatively daring artists to use the turntable as a musical instrument,” Mariam Rezaei is a multi-award-winning composer, turntablist and performer. Working at the nexus of experimental new music, free improvisation, mutant club musics and hip-hop, Rezaei uses a digital vinyl system, allowing her to manipulate an expansive range of samples in real time. Her work has been described as “genuinely ground-breaking” (London Jazz News 2022) and “high-velocity sonic surrealism” (The Guardian 2022). Praised by The Wire, Uncut and Bandcamp Daily, her latest release FRACTURED (Heat Crimes) is one of The Quietus’s cassette releases of 2024.In November 2022, she received the Paul Hamlyn Foundation #AwardsForArtists in recognition of her contribution to music composition. She previously led experimental arts projects TOPH, TUSK FRINGE and TUSK NORTH, and is writing a book on turntablism for Repeater.
In addition to her solo work, Rezaei’s projects include a Turntable Trio with Evicshen and Maria Chávez (making their US premiere at Big Ears 2025), supergroup The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (with saxophonist Mette Rasmussen, trumpeter/electronics Gabriele Mitelli and drummer Lukas Koenig), and orchestral compositions with Matthew Shlomowitz (6 Scenes for Turntable and Orchestra). She recently performed Anthony Braxton’s Ghost Trance Music with guitarist Kobe Van Cauwenberghe. Other collaborations include duos with Jennifer Walshe, Edward George, Farida Amadou, Valentina Magaletti, Lasse Marhaug, Evicshen, Lukas Koenig, Mette Rasmussen, Gabriele Mitelli, Okkyung Lee and Ali Robertson, Black Top with Pat Thomas, Orphy Robinson, Cleveland Watkiss and Leon Foster Thomas, and a quartet with DJ Sniff, Rex Chen and DJ SlowPitchSound at Taipei Biennial 2023.
Elaine Mitchener is a veteran of vocal expression in the global Black Avant Garde, traversing free improvisation, cross-disciplinary music theatre and contemporary composition with clarity and joy.
Her debut album SOLO THROAT released in May 2024 under Café Oto’s OTOROKU label has been described as “An uncompromisingly imaginative approach to text that does credit to the power of the human voice, as well as the mind that pushes it on to previously unheard paths.” (Jazzwise)
Experimental musicians and improvisers she has worked with include Moor Mother, Joelle Leandre, Hamid Drake, William Parker, Pat Thomas, Black Top, David Toop, Xhosa Cole. Elaine is founder of the collective electroacoustic unit The Rolling Calf. Composers, visual artists and poets she has worked with include: George E Lewis, Jennifer Walshe, Matana Roberts; visual artists The Otolith Group, Christian Marclay, Sonia Boyce; Jay Bernard, Roy Claire Potter, Dante Micheaux; chamber ensembles Apartment House, ICE, Ensemble MAM, Klangforum Wien, Van Huynh Co.
Neil Charles is one of the most in-demand musicians on the scene, with a huge array of credits to his name, including Jack DeJohnette, the Sun Ra Arkestra, Mingus Big Band, Jose James, Jerry Dammers, Courtney Pine, and Terence Blanchard. His own projects have included Zed U, with Shabaka Hutchings and Tom Skinner, and the more recent ensemble Dark Days, dealing with the work of James Baldwin. Most recently, he has been heard across the international scene with Gabriels. As well as being known as a bass player with a huge sound and immaculate sense of time, he is equally renowned as a producer, going by the alias Ben Marc.
"Bassist Neil Charles went flying, from the first moment filling the space with the sound of his mighty wings Henning Bolte," – Europe Jazz Media Chart
