Columnist and Musician, Buraka Som Sistema

Kalaf Epalanga

A musician, columnist and record producer, he moved to Lisbon in the late 90s, aiming to get the best possible education and return to Angola. He learned how to listen to Jazz and to appreciate art and design so deeply that he decided to postpone his return to his country of origin indefinitely. The poetic adventure started in late 1998, when Lisbon discovered new rhythmic languages, seeking new avenues for urban sounds in Portuguese. At that time, he contributed to many projects, creating artistic complicities with Sara Tavares, Sam The Kid, Type, Nuno Artur Silva, among others, and in 2003 he joined producer João Barbosa and the duo 1 Uik Project was born. Later they founded the record label Enchufada, a creative and dynamic platform that promotes new music styles from Portugal around the world, and went on to form the MTV Europe Music Award-winning band Buraka Som Sistema. He’s written two collection of chronicles, Estórias de Amor para Meninos de Cor (2011) and O Angolano Que Comprou Lisboa (por Metade do Preço) (2014).