Ah I love you DJ Meredith from NYC ❤️ She’s played my whole album Flash of the Spirit in the last 12 episodes of her Afrobeat Show on the BTR Radio! I’m amazed at how she’s managed to find suitable spots even for the most delicate pieces like Dreamer and Hopeful Stars (well usually towards the end of the set to bring her vivacious global journey to a calmer end). I’m taken by the length at which she’s introduced the album in most episodes, it’s been hugely flattering to be featured alongside such icons of mine like Fela Kuti, Femi Kuti, Rokia Traoré and Tony Allen.

https://www.btrtoday.com/artist/ilpo/2019/

It’s always interesting to hear your pieces on the radio or playlists surrounded by a lot of different music, because then you realize how different your music often sounds. I was never aware of this until some friends mentioned years ago that I had my own sound and that I should explore it. For a while I considered it a failure, then the words of Samuel Beckett appeared: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” For me, the idea of making music has always been to “produce things that are as strange and mysterious to you as the first music you ever heard”, to quote Brian Eno. Music holds the promise of a different world, and I’ve never understood the point of making music that just sounds like more of the same. Remember the first music you ever heard, what did it make you feel, imagine? Music is art and research like anything else, responding to the evolving world. “Stop making music, start making something that excites you right now.” (my personal note).