The Ikoqwe project, according to information available in the album's release statement, "arises from the meeting of two accomplices: 'Coqwe' is Pedro Coquenão, also known as Batida (the Angolan artist, born in Lisbon, who is among the exponents of new wave of African electronic music), while 'Iko' is Luaty Beirão, also known as Ikonoklasta, the Angolan 'rapper' who has become an iconic activist ".
'Iko' and 'Coqwe' are two characters created by the duo, who, "coming from a distant time and space, are confronted with today's world", and whose musical inspiration "comes from both old school hip-hop and traditional Angolan music ".
On Ikoqwe's debut album, Batida and Ikonoklasta have guests like Celeste Mariposa, Octa Push and Spoek Mathambo.
"The Beginning, the Medium, the End and the Infinite", composed of 11 themes, "includes electronic drums, vocals in Angolan slang, umbundo, Portuguese and English, conversations about neocolonialism, iniquities and falsified history, radio sounds, utopian solutions and much more".
Some of the themes "feature sounds from the precious archives of the International Library of African Music", which Batida had access to in 2019, when British publisher Beating Heart invited him to revisit the archive of musical collections made in Africa, between the 1920s and 1970, by the British ethnomusicologist Hugh Tracey.
The British publisher "has been working with the International Library of African Music, based in Grahamstown, South Africa, with the aim of keeping these memories alive and presenting them to the next generation".
After artists like Goldie, Rudimental or Auntie Flo, it was up to Batida to dedicate himself to this sound file, "focusing on recordings made in Angola".
Pedro Coquenão baptized this chapter of his career as Ikoqwe, the same that gives his name to the project he shares with Ikonoklasta.
The Ikoqwe project was presented live in July 2019 at the Music of the World Festival, in Sines, Portugal.
In this show, as Lusa reported at the time, two beings from another planet came "to respond to an emergency on Earth" and left a series of messages to the earthlings.
Many world political leaders were called to stone, using 'samples', such as, for example, one of the Portuguese MEP Marisa Matias, addressing the French President, Emmanuel Macron, about the attack against Syria, demanding: " Stop selling weapons. "
On that day, 'Iko' and 'Coqwe' came to Earth "to underline the obvious", that "no one is worth less than the other because of where they come from". "Learn to learn to love", Ikonoklasta appealed at the time, speaking of refugees - who are "not terrorists" - and migrants - important to counter European aging.
Assuming that "maybe" are radical, they sentenced that "solutions that guarantee equality are lacking" and that they want a democracy "where any different thinker" is not "religiously removed".
