ALA MEDA & Noums Dembele — 26th Jazz From New Festival 2026

ALA MEDA & Noums Dembele is a meeting of experimental, electronic and rhythmic language of the Bydgoszcz group with the musical tradition of West Africa. The joint project premiered at the beginning of 2026 and was created as part of the Bydgoszcz UNESCO City of Music residency program. Its basis is not a simple juxtaposition of two different stylistics, but the search for a common language in which electronics, an extensive rhythm section and improvisation meet the sound of the cortex.

ALA MEDA has been moving for years on the frontier of experimental, electronic and dance music. In the “Spectra” series launched in 2022, the band reaches for rhythms and inspirations related to, among others, Africa and South America, combining them with free jazz, krautrock, IDM, UK bass or post-industrial sounds. A characteristic element of this music remains the close combination of electronics with the intense play of the lively rhythm section.

The band is joined by Noums Dembele, a multi-instrumentalist from Burkina Faso. Music accompanies him since childhood — as a three-year-old boy he started learning to play ngoni, later he also reached for balafon and bark. Its main instrument today is the kora, a West African harp strongly associated with the Mandinka tradition. Dembele develops this tradition, while also willingly entering into collaborations with artists representing completely different areas of music.

Cooperation with Noums Dembele has also directed ALA MEDA itself to new areas. As the musicians of the band emphasized, the characteristic sound of the bark became an impulse to rethink the current language of the group and opened the space also for more ambient and calmer forms, alongside the intense, club energy characteristic of ALA MEDA.

At the 26th JAZZ Od Nowa Festival the project will be performed on October 15, 2026 at 20:00.

Composition: Noums Dembele (Burkina Faso) — choir, voice, percussion Jacek Buhl — drums, percussion Rafał Iwański — African drums, percussion instruments, sanza Łukasz Jędrzejczak — electronics, percussion instruments Piotr Michalski — bass guitar, percussion Jakub Ziołek — acoustic guitar, electronics