Rbma Announces Tokyo 2014 Participants

Red Bull Music Academy jury has selected the 60 music makers who will gather in Tokyo in autumn for the next Academy edition. There, they will participate in lectures and music workshops, collaborate in the RBMA’s custom-built studios, and perform in a festival of events in the city’s most iconic venues.

Receiving over 6000 applications (60% more than in 2013), the job of narrowing down the huge number of canditates must have been a pretty hard task. The 60 applicants that were selected this years represent 34 different countries, including, for the first time, Kenya and Egypt. The final 60 were selected to represent a diverse array of styles, skill levels, methodologies and cultural backgrounds. They will each participate in one of two fortnight-long ‘terms’, with 30 artists attending each term.

Representing the UK are East London’s Ossie; who’s blend of sub-Saharan rhythms, funked-up synths and seamless production has been winning him fans since 2011; industrially avant-garde grime futurist Mumdance; electronic impresario Sylas aka Fred Gibson and two Liverpool-based singer-songwriters: Laura J. Martin, combining her skills on MPC, flute, mandolin and piano into an eclectic display of performance prowess, and Mickey Dripping, aka Joseph Wills, the idiosyncratic vocalist and producer whose artistry helped steer the debut albums of Mikhael Paskalev and Dan Croll.

You can view the full list of participants here.