Dele Sosimi is the UK based afrobeat ambassador, the former rhythm keyboardist for Fela Kuti’s Egypt 80 and co-founder with Femi Kuti of the Positive Force.

On his new album, The Confluence LP, alongside British musician Sam Duckworth – aka Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly – we will hear later-life musical renewal, as Dele explores the soulful side of jazz, r ‘n’ b, funk and new afrobeat fusion.

Final single from the record is Stories, a song with an incredibly uplifting feel, but one with a serious narrative.

The latest promo package revisits a single from last year and album track, Mo Se Bola Tan, which found it’s way onto BBC 6 Music’s playlist. It’s a song about the acceptance and acknowledgement of our individual creativity, shining through in spite of the trials of life.

Dele Sosimi explains: “Stories has a deep longing, yearning need and desire to hear the untold true stories of how we got to where we are today. Dedicated to ‘truth be told’ warriors, campaigners, agitators et al, known and unknown, inactive due to becoming an ancestor, alive and yet to be born. For tomorrow is another day.”

Having released an EP together in 2022, Dele and Sam’s journey continues.

They also team up with various British musicians, for what is at times eccentric, yet constantly a life-affirming record.

It was the drummer Tony Allen – who was the indisputable rhythm section of the afrobeat genre and original member of Africa 70 – who Dele refers to as “an uncle to me” and who was a great influence on Dele in those early years. Tony would encourage him, on his trips to The Shrine to perform with The Positive Force. Dele spent seven years in Fela’s artistic and infamous commune Kalakuta Republic between 1979 and 1986 where he was given responsibility to train the new recruits to Fela’s Egypt 80 band (when the band went overseas on tour, often there were no-shows on the return flight). He also oversaw the band and The Shrine, whilst Fela was detained in prison. With Femi Kuti, he recruited and toured extensively with The Positive Force, which had a huge influence globally.

Dele also found his calling as a teacher, a passion and philosophy that he continues practising and following today. It was also during this period, in Kalakuta Republic that Dele became schooled in the music of Fats Waller, Wayne Shorter, Grant Green, Alice Coltrane and Dorothy Ashby, with the DJs playing 24 hours a day in the commune, shaping his world view on music.

Since returning back to settle in the UK from Nigeria in 1995, Dele has forged a close relationship with DJ Dom Servini and his Wah Wah 45s label and regularly collaborates with bands and producers. In recent years he’s collaborated with Prince Fatty, Onipa (Real World), Newen Afrobeat and had his work remixed by the likes of house legends Joe Claussell, Timmy Regisford, Detroit Swindle, Medlar and DJ Khalab.

Dele also has an experimental group that works around afrobeat improvisation and the Dele Sosimi Afrobeat Orchestra continues to astound worldwide audiences, with its powerful big band sound, channeling those early experiences working with Fela Kuti.

Sam Duckworth, the producer and mainstay on this new recording, has been releasing music as Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly for half of his life. A catalogue that includes four top 40 singles, two top 40 albums (including the gold certified Chronicles of A Bohemian Teenager that recently celebrated its 15th anniversary), a German club number one single and collaborations with artists ranging from Shy FX, Baaba Maal, Lily Allen and Jehst. Recently, he produced Benjamin Frances Leftwich’s album To Carry A Whale and has been working on the forthcoming album by Kate Nash.

For more: Dele Sosimi – Bandcamp.