We Speak Music

Mathis Akengin releases sublime debut album ‘Passage Des Fleurs’

Published

5 months ago

June 12, 2026

Don Reed

Mathis Akengin makes piano-driven pop where silence matters as much as the notes. At times, you can almost hear the flies buzzing… and the next moment everything shifts, like an elephant landing squarely in your chest.

Spotted at the Inouïs du Printemps de Bourges and later programmed at Les Eurockéennes, he’s grown outside the usual paths: first tours at the age of 13, then as a teenager taking Flixbus rides to London to jam with strangers instead of staying in class.

After working with Catfish and Dead Chic, and arranging for Matmatah, he now returns to something more direct, more stripped back.

Somewhere between the lyricism of Agnès Obel and the off-kilter dandy spirit of Baxter Dury.

Franco-Turkish, moving between two languages, with the sense that people can understand each other without saying everything.

His debut album, ‘Passage des Fleurs’, is a letter to his Turkish grandfather. A love story without instructions, where words sometimes fall short but the connection remains. The title comes from the “Çiçek Pasajı”, a passageway in Istanbul where he spent part of his youth, a place of transition where the fragile meets the powerful, the fly meets the elephant.

The album features Mathis’ recent single ‘First Floor’, which has racked up over 920,000 organic Spotify streams and shows the ability of Mathis’ moreish music to spread through avid listeners on its own volition, proving that he is an artist to take note of in 2026.

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We Speak Jazz

Zahili Zamora Wins Two Global Music Awards and Brings Her Afro-Cuban Jazz Quartet to Regattabar

Published

35 minutes ago

November 2, 2026

We Speak Media

Zahili Zamora seated in a burgundy dress, her braided hair styled in a top bun

Zahili González Zamora. Photo by Robert Torres.

Afro Cuban jazz pianist Zahili Zamora brings her Afro Cuban Jazz Quartet to The Regattabar at The Charles Hotel in Harvard Square, Cambridge, on Friday, November 6 at 7 pm, with special guest Yosvany Terry on saxophone. The quartet features Gerson Lazo Quiroga on bass and Zack O’Farrill on drums. Tickets are $35 and $25 plus fees and are on sale now.

Zamora returns this week from a week in Seoul, Korea, where she was performing and auditioning students for Berklee. She has won two Global Music Awards for her recent album Overcoming, taking Silver Medals for Latin Jazz and Afro Cuban music and for album art and graphics. She is also nominated for the Boston Music Awards 2026 Latin Artist of the Year, with winners announced at Big Night Live on Wednesday, December 16, and WBUR has saluted her as one of its 2026 Makers, its annual series highlighting creatives of color making an impact in the local arts scene. Earlier this year she also won the InterContinental Music Award 2026 for Best of Latin America for her composition “Negra.”

The run of dates continues overseas and back in New York. The Zahili Zamora Afro Cuban Jazz Trio, with Gerson Lazo Quiroga on bass and Julien Miltenberger on drums, plays Upstairs at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London on Sunday, November 15, with shows at 2 pm and 8 pm. Zamora then plays duo sets with clarinetist Juan Fer Ruiz at So & So’s in New York on Saturday, November 28, Five Spot Jazz in New York on Sunday, November 29, Fat Swami’s Jazz Bar & Lounge in Guttenberg, New Jersey on Thursday, December 3, and The Delancey on Thursday, December 10.

About special guest Yosvany Terry, The New York Times has written that the Cuban saxophonist, percussionist and composer “has helped redefine Latin jazz as a complex new idiom.” Bassist Gerson Lazo Quiroga, a Chilean born Berklee Presidential Scholar, has performed at Carnegie Hall, SFJAZZ and the Montreal, Monterey, San Jose and Panama Jazz Festivals. Drummer Zack O’Farrill, son of pianist Arturo O’Farrill and grandson of composer Chico O’Farrill, performs regularly across the United States and the globe.