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Unlocking Our Sound Heritage is delighted to welcome critically acclaimed rapper AWATE to the British Library as the project’s Artist-in-Residence.

Published date:

9 March 2021

AWATE

An Eritrean born in Saudi Arabia and raised in Camden, AWATE has been producing music for over fifteen years, learning the craft from mentors including Stylah and Lowkey from the iconic UK group the Poisonous Poets, BBC 1Xtra’s DJ Semtex and boyhood hero and legend, Yasiin Bey.

Also an accomplished multimedia artist, AWATE served as The Roundhouse’s Resident Artist in 2016 where he was heavily involved in their 5* rated 2015 Bloomberg Summer installation, ‘Utopia’. The Roundhouse also commissioned AWATE to produce a work, ‘Askari’, commemorating the centenary of the end of World War 1 for a project called ‘Cause & Effect’, alongside seven other musicians.

In 2017, the twenty-eight year-old was also one of six UK-based performers to collaborate and tour the nation with six Asian acts for the Southbank Centre and British Council's ‘Alchemy Tour’ for which he created new music. AWATE was also the PRS Foundation and British Council’s ‘São Paulo Musician in Residence’ 2018, working in Brazil with street and classically trained musicians in state of the art studios and immersing himself in the art and political spaces of São Paulo for a month.

Recently nominated for 'Best Urban Act' at the 2018 Unsigned Music Awards, AWATE’s music, including his Happiness EP - praised as a ‘British rap masterpiece’ by Trench Mag - has been featured on BBC Radio 1, 1Xtra and 6Music, as well as Noisey, Spotify and Complex.

The Residency

Bringing his visionary creative approach to the British Library this autumn, AWATE will serve a five-month residency, using the extensive sound archive to weave together a long-form genre-bending musical piece exploring the subject of diaspora and human migration.

Working with two youth music groups and local musicians in the London scene, he aims to incorporate archival sound recordings alongside voices and poems, using contemporary production techniques.

Project updates (March 2020)

Dates for the performance of AWATE’s residency piece, ‘The Unearthed Odyssey’, will be rescheduled. Follow @BLSoundHeritage for future announcements