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Niels Brouwer

Boi Akih effortlessly weaves modern jazz and improvised music with folk traditions from all over the world

Guitarist and composer Niels Brouwer and vocalist and lyricist Monica Akihary have formed a duo under the name of BOI AKIH since 1997. BOI AKIH forms the solid and inseparable core of collaborations with a wide range of musicians and poets.

For more than twenty years, boundless curiosity has driven BOI AKIH to ever new experiments and discoveries. As a result they are now at home in musical traditions from all corners of the world – from modern jazz to classical Indian music and from Melanesian, African and European folk to improvised music. For the musicians, all these different traditions and influences are not the final destination, but an inspiration and a starting point for musical development. They can be heard in the colour and texture of their music, in complex compositions and free improvisation, in their use of voice and playing techniques, in daring line-ups and also in the unusual collection of instruments they use – often self-built and tailored to their own individual musical ideas.