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LAGOS PARIS LONDON The new EP by Yannis & The Yaw featuring Tony Allen is out now! Signed vinyl available in the Shop 🔥 https://yannisandtheyaw.ffm.to/lagosp... Statement from Yannis: Tony and I met in 2017 on a cold January morning in Paris. I'd just finished a long tour with Foals and arrived slightly crumpled at the '70s studio he'd made his base in recent years. It was early, Tony was sat wrapped in a scarf and woolly hat, blowing smoke trying to shake off the January damp, maybe slightly annoyed at the start time that'd been agreed. I couldn't really tell whether he knew who I was or how much he knew my music. But Vincent Taeger , Vincent Taurelle and Ludo (the other collaborators on the 'YAW' project) helped me set up and I nervily started playing the opening notes of the Walk Through Fire riff to figure out my pedal chain as I'd only brought my Travis Bean with me on the Eurostar. Before Id really got comfortable he was in the booth playing like only he can, quieter than expected but with energy and groove. His records had lived for so long in my head that having him in the room with me was like an illusionist's trick, like he'd morphed from over there in the speakers to here in the very room beside me. He'd soundtracked nights back from the pub, lazy park afternoons, end-of-tour house parties and hungover mornings with coffee. Now though he was sat at his kit right there playing to the riffs and loops I was offering up. It was a beautiful joyful trip. We worked fast & recorded the first three tracks of the EP in two days fuelled by tonnes of tiny bitter coffees, a thousand smokes, some madeleines and lots of whiskey. I think you can hear it in all the ep, it shares a freedom and a fire. Tony and I had barely talked before we'd started to play but within hours we felt entwined. That's the power of playing music and the connection it can bring. We came together through different generations, different cultures, instruments and genres to make this small treasure together. Two musicians at opposite ends of their journeys meeting somewhere in the abstract middle, somewhere in this terrible gyre to summon some energy to make some music. To make a mark. This is the first taste of that. Can’t wait to share the rest. Let Tony’s drums play forever. Big big love x