Yarrow was made during lockdown 2021. The intention of this record is inviting deeper connection between Scottish traditional music and electronic dance music, recognising and honouring the roots of electronic dance music in the cultures of the African Diasporas.

Project leaders Zazim and Rua Soul collaborated with 9 wonderful guest artists: Monkey Jhayam, Paix, Erick Mauricia, Jonny Hardie, Jackill, Nyasha Kanyimo, Anoushka Nanguy, Tom Campbell-Paine and Simon Gall.

Zazim + Rua Soul acknowledge that as white artists engaging with Black culture, the dance music we made previously to this album was largely disconnected from our cultural roots in Scotland. We recognise this disconnection as part of pattern of appropriation, exoticism and extraction common in the practices of white artists engaging with Black Culture.

Yarrow documents us beginning to address our ancestral disconnection and to embrace our own culture. We have worked reflectively to begin healing our ways of processing, communicating and making decisions. Our aim is to identify and unlearn the privileges and power dynamics in our inherited way of being. We want to make and collaborate in a way that is nourishing for all involved.

The record was made primarily in Scotland, between our home studio in Govanhill, Glasgow, Clashnettie Arts Centre in the Cairngorms & Starla Recordings in Lochwinnoch. Outside of Scotland, collaborators also made recordings in Brazil and Senegal.

Production influences include Dub, Kuduro, Hip-Hop, Salsa, UK Bass
music and Electroacoustic Music.
Cultural influences in the music include: Malinke Drum Ensemble music, Bothy singing, Reggae and Soundsystem Culture, Afrobeats, Shona Mbira music, Jazz, Hip-Hop, Afro-Cuban Percussion music and Traditional Scottish tune playing.