Collection: Momoko Gill

Momoko Gill grew up across Japan, the United States and the UK, studied anthropology in London, found her way to the Total Refreshment Centre in Dalston, and taught herself drums, production and composition inside South London's improvisational music scene without going through any of the conventional routes. She became one of the scene's most valued collaborators: Coby Sey, Tirzah, Alabaster DePlume and Arooj Aftab all worked with her before she released anything under her own name. The Matthew Herbert collaboration "Clay" (Strut, 2025) brought her wider attention. Her debut solo album "Momoko" (Strut, February 2026), self-produced and engineered by Herbert, arrived with a list of collaborators that reads like a register of South London's most serious musicians: Tamar Osborn on baritone saxophone, Shabaka Hutchings, Soweto Kinch, Twm Dylan on bass, Marysia Osu, and a fifty-voice choir assembled for the album's centrepiece, "When Palestine Is Free," a militant choral suite with jazz ensemble. The album sits across trip-hop, spiritual jazz, singer-songwriter intimacy and Brazilian-influenced percussion, held together by Gill's softly melismatic voice and her instinctive drumming throughout. She is based in London.