Following his celebrated debut performance at the Nyege Nyege Festival, East African vanguard Mwami is proud to announce the release of Olympean, his highly anticipated full-length album. The LP ventures into the full spectrum of dance music, blending East African rhythms with global influences to create a groundbreaking and emotionally electrifying experience. Set to be released later this month, Olympean explores themes of love, loss, and the poignant ache of displacement through a deeply moving sound journey.
Executive produced by Mwami alongside Polish experimental sound designer @ys, Olympean tells its story across twelve masterfully crafted tracks. Each song reflects on the complex emotions of separation and longing, embodied through themes of love, distance, and adventure. The album showcases Mwami’s continued evolution as an artist, combining his roots in East African music with a bold fusion of genres, including house, zouk, garage, and afro-fusion, creating an unmistakable sonic signature that resonates with listeners worldwide.
Inspired by the album’s themes, Mwami co-directed The Olympean Collection, a trilogy of short films in collaboration with East African visual artists. The films, featuring music from the album, add another layer of depth and nuance to the themes of the LP, offering a visual accompaniment to the emotional narrative. The Olympean Collection has already been screened in Nairobi, Toronto, and New York.
Track highlights include standout singles ‘Waterbody’, ‘AA SIDE (Olivine & Danser)’, and the Wes Anderson-inspired fan-favourite ‘Boy Scout’. These tracks capture Mwami’s signature ability to blend dance floor energy with introspective narratives, making Olympean not only a musical journey but also an emotionally cinematic one.
Olympean features collaborations with some of East Africa’s most exciting emerging voices, further cementing Mwami’s place at the forefront of the alternative East African music scene. Known for his bold experimentation, Mwami continues to redefine the boundaries of dance music, crafting a space where listeners can reflect, connect, and release across both dance floors and headphones.
Olympean is set to release later this month.
