SUPERORGANIC ANNOUNCES RICH MIX SHOW FOR NATIONAL BUY A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT DAY

SUPER­OR­GAN­IC is a cul­ture lab where hip hop, spoken word and jazz meet high vibra­tion — where boom-bap col­lides with bound­ary-blur­ring sounds, con­scious lyr­i­cism, jazz tex­tures and soul-deep grooves. Cur­ated and hos­ted by Alain ‘Fusion’ Clapham, the event con­tin­ues a grow­ing move­ment rooted in col­lab­or­a­tion, impro­visa­tion and community-building.

This spe­cial edi­tion intro­duces Ancient Sounds x Future Focus, a live explor­a­tion of how music car­ries his­tory, iden­tity and pos­sib­il­ity. At its core is a rare dia­logue between the Ney, one of the world’s old­est instru­ments, and the steel pan, one of the new­est, brought into dia­logue through hip hop as a liv­ing bridge between past, present and future.

Tak­ing place on Nation­al Buy a Music­al Instru­ment Day — a glob­al moment cel­eb­rat­ing the joy and trans­form­at­ive power of play­ing music, the event invites audi­ences not just to wit­ness per­form­ance, but to recon­nect with music as a shared social force. From first notes to mas­tery, from tra­di­tion to innov­a­tion, the night reflects the uni­ver­sal call to pick up an instru­ment and par­ti­cip­ate in cul­ture, not just con­sume it.

The steel pan is rep­res­en­ted by Mar­lon Hib­bert, a lead­ing voice in the instrument’s con­tin­ued evol­u­tion bey­ond its Carib­bean roots, push­ing it into jazz, hip hop and exper­i­ment­al spaces. He is joined by Ney play­er Faris Ishaq, known for his express­ive, med­it­at­ive approach to one of the world’s most ancient wind instru­ments. Togeth­er, they cre­ate a cross-cul­tur­al exchange that reflects both tra­di­tion and innovation.

A lim­ited num­ber of con­ces­sion tick­ets will be made avail­able to young people from the loc­al com­munity, rein­for­cing SUPERORGANIC’s com­mit­ment to access and participation.

FEA­TURED ARTISTS

Faris Ishaq — Palestini­an Nay mas­ter and com­poser, bring­ing one of the world’s old­est instru­ments into a con­tem­por­ary jazz and exper­i­ment­al space

Mar­lon Hib­bert — UK steel pan vir­tu­oso and Pan Clash Cham­pi­on, push­ing the bound­ar­ies of the instru­ment across genres

Biro — emer­ging UK rap artist known for intro­spect­ive lyr­i­cism and cine­mat­ic storytelling

Ay Hearts — poet and lyr­i­cist blend­ing spoken word with hip hop energy

Apex Zero — ver­sat­ile mul­tidiscip­lin­ary artist and edu­cat­or blend­ing lyr­i­cism, film­mak­ing and immers­ive sound to explore ances­tral nar­rat­ives and glob­al hip hop culture

Mz B Ryan — poet and author explor­ing love, trauma and resi­li­ence through power­ful live expression

+ more artists to be announced

This show marks the next chapter of SUPERORGANIC’s forth­com­ing Spir­it Level EP. Many of the artists shap­ing the pro­ject — a core col­lect­ive at the heart of SUPERORGANIC’s sound — will fea­ture through­out the night, rep­res­ent­ing a grow­ing move­ment groun­ded in trust, exper­i­ment­a­tion and shared language.

Along­side live per­form­ances, the even­ing will include con­ver­sa­tion and col­lab­or­at­ive exchanges explor­ing themes of her­it­age, dia­spora, iden­tity and the role of music in shap­ing col­lect­ive futures.

Set with­in Rich Mix, the event marks the begin­ning of a new annu­al tra­di­tion, with plans to grow SUPER­OR­GAN­IC into a recur­ring cul­tur­al moment cel­eb­rat­ing Nation­al Buy a Music­al Instru­ment Day.

SUPER­OR­GAN­IC: Ancient Sounds x Future Focus is delivered with sup­port from the Ron­nie Scott’s Char­it­able Found­a­tion and PRS Foundation’s Power Up ini­ti­at­ive, rein­for­cing our com­mit­ment to devel­op­ing artists, sup­port­ing cul­tur­al innov­a­tion and cre­at­ing path­ways for emer­ging talent.

Fusion states, “This is about more than a per­form­ance — it’s about build­ing some­thing people can return to each year. Music is one of the most power­ful tools we have to con­nect, to reflect and to ima­gine new pos­sib­il­it­ies. May 22 is the per­fect moment to start that.”

EVENT DETAILS

SUPER­OR­GAN­IC: Ancient Sounds x Future Focus
Fri­day, 22 May 2026
Time: 7.30 – 11PM
Rich Mix, 35–47 Beth­nal Green Road, Lon­don E1 6LA

Tick­ets : https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/su­per­or­gan­ic-ancient-sounds-x‑fu­ture-focus-tick­ets-1987746852344