Kokoroko - ABUSEY JUNCTION // WE OUT HERE

Their long-awaited debut album Could We Be More, is due for release on August 5th 2022 via Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings.

A primer on London’s bright-burning young jazz scene, this new compilation brings together a collection of some of its sharpest talents. A set of nine newly-recorded tracks, We Out Here captures a moment where genre markers matter less than raw, focused energy. Surveying the album’s running order, it could easily serve as a name-checking exercise for some of London’s most-tipped and hardworking bands of the past couple of years. Recorded across three long, fruitful days in a North West London studio, the results speak for themselves: they’re a window into the wide-eyed future of London’s musical underground.

Kokoroko (meaning 'be strong' in Urhobo), are a collective of young musicians brought together by a love for Afrobeat led by trumpeter Sheila Maurice-Grey. They specialise in a soul shaking, horn fuelled sound with West African roots and inner London hues.

'Abusey Junction' is a ballad written by guitarist Oscar Jerome (fast making a name as an artist in his own right). It was written on the roof of a compound in Gambia where the band spent time last year immersing themselves in the soundscapes of the region.

Sheila Maurice-Grey - Trumpet
Cassie Kinoshi - Alto Sax
Richie Seivwright - Trombone
Oscar Jerome (Laurence) - Guitar
Yohan Kebede - Keyboard
Onome Edgeworth - Percussion
Mutale Chashi - Bass

We Out Here compilation released 9th Feb 2018

[BrownswoodRecordings]

New Album "Could We Be More" here:

[ledgengoad]

Memories of the smell of home cooked food penetrating throughout your home as you play next to an open window carrying a chilled evening spring breeze…

[mubaraktn]

Feb 5, 2024


I had been searching for this song for a long time. The only details I could recall were that it featured an empty town with blinking billboards and a red cat (yeah, it's a fox).

I also remembered a comment about a guy playing the song through giant speakers to an empty street in Serbia during the lockdown period.

With just these two pieces of information, I embarked on a YouTube search using numerous keywords, although I knew it might be futile.


Afterward, I checked my list of liked videos, which contained 3, 397 videos. After nearly an hour of searching, I finally found the song.


Perhaps some 'genius' methods were at play, but after obtaining the song and rediscovering that guy's comment (somewhere below), I felt happy and delighted.


It turned out to be a meaningful accomplishment on my birthday😊

[HHeraclio]

This song is the literal feeling of "everything will be ok in the end."

[vincenzodionisio]

Many years ago I had a Spanish girlfriend and after almost a year of long-distance relationship I decided to move;
For a few months she took me around many Spanish regions and showed me places she knew, among them was Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, a humid island across from Africa...
There were numerous incidents of misunderstanding, we were from two different cultures and had very distinct customs (I am Italian) and that was my first real trip away from home for so long, we traveled for about a month and a half continuously.
That week in Las Palmas was unforgettable, dances, spectacular food, warmth of the people who offered you everything with their love, this song reminded me a lot of a photograph I took of the neighborhood where I stayed that week, same balconies, cats around, and those porches of the building where I slept...
I miss that time, thank you for reading this comment and sharing this song with me.
Hugs to all, travel and fall in love!

[serenity_vibe]

Comment from 2024. The world has gone crazy. Hopefully, people will find something they have lost deep inside their souls, and the world will find peace 🕊️. Music like this definitely helps and touches our deepest heartstrings! ❤

[dreifachesM]

The most beautyfully commented Video on YouTube i guess. Humans are not bad at all. Thanks for all of the beautiful comments.

[Genshinwierdo]

I remember when my sister was only a year old and at night my dad would hold her dancing her to sleep to this song🥹it truly is my comfort song

[WillyDTheRapper]

I know that all of these comments are years apart. But it feels like all of us are in the same moment, feeling the same thing. Damn, music is a pretty cool thing.

[b.franco]

I used to play this to my dad, while he was slowly dying of cancer. If one thing united us was love of discovering and listening to new music, I love this song and its warmth, makes me remember the love my dad always gave me, can't listen to it without crying. Profoundly powerful. We out here on quarantine!

[DusanRodic]

Playing this vinyl on giant speakers through my window during lockdown in Belgrade Serbia. Everything was silent, not a soul on the street, the whole neighbourhood just heard this amazing trumpet . We Out Here!

[nikag.h]

IM TURNING 50 TODAY
THANK YOU UNIVERSE FOR MY LIFE, MY PARENTS, I LOVE YOU AND IL SEE YOU IN HEAVEN, MY KIDS, THANK YOU FOR LOVING ME SO MUCH, MY FRIENDS, THANK YOU BODY FOR THESE 50 YEARS OF GOOD HEALTH, THANK YOU UTUBE FOR ALL THE GREAT MUSIC !!!! I AM GRATEFULL, I AM SO HAPPY TO BE ALIVE !!! 💗

[mixtube]

Amazingly touched reading the comments on this song.
Music is undoubtedly the most beautiful human invention.

[JamesEdwardsjimmykwoods]

"If you cry because you miss the sun, you will also miss the stars." - Rabindranath Tagore

[garthgaspar]

“One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain”

[imyourfooly]

2024- WE OUT HERE TRY TO MAKE IT IN THIS CRAZY WORLD. PEACE LOVE AND FREEDOM

[trillywilly]

One of my father’s favorite song he just passed away I’ll always play this for you Baba 🇿🇦🙏🏾❤️

[nicholasrosella]

For some reason this song never loses its touch, no matter how many times I play it.

[T]

I just got out from many years in prison to a halfway house. Im on the rise once again. Stay up, God bless!

[patrickgastaldon]

This bring back cold, dark memories.
Venice, a girl that stole my heart was deprived of her father too early and violently, I will never forget the damp cold tears going down my face listening to this, wishing to be somewhere warm and safe with her.
"You know what you desire, but you must follow the quiet flow of the river"
If you're going through hardships, just remember, there's plenty of beauty in the world