Momoko Gill - Momoko (2026 Strut Records Vinyl LP)

Momoko Gill - Momoko | Vinyl LP - 2026 Strut Records (STRUT501LP, mastered and lacquer cut by Alex Gordon at Abbey Road Studios)

• Debut solo album from London's self-taught drummer, vocalist and producer, following her 2025 collaboration Clay with Matthew Herbert, spanning jazz, soul, electronica and avant-garde across eleven tracks
• Recorded at Total Refreshment Centre in East London, self-produced by Gill and mixed by Matthew Herbert, with contributions from Shabaka Hutchings, Soweto Kinch, Alabaster DePlume, Tamar Osborn and a 50-voice choir
• Mastered and lacquer cut by Alex Gordon at Abbey Road Studios, released on Strut Records

Momoko Gill grew up between Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom, and has spent the last several years as a presence across London's experimental and jazz scenes without ever quite stepping to the front. She has toured behind the drum kit with Alabaster DePlume, collaborated with Coby Sey and Tirzah, and released Clay with Matthew Herbert in 2025. This is the first record under her own name, self-produced and recorded at Total Refreshment Centre in East London, a venue that has been central to the UK's jazz and improvised music community for the better part of a decade. "Satellite" opens with Gill's voice immediately establishing the album's tone, melismatic and softly textured, hovering somewhere between Martina Topley-Bird and Little Dragon's Yukimi Nagano. "No Others" follows with a funk-inflected bass and drum groove that shows the Herbert influence, while "Heavy" pulls back into something more reflective, with Marysia Osu's harp providing the harmonic bedding. "Rewind/Remind" is the track that sits closest to conventional jazz territory, built around Gill's own drumming and Twm Dylan's bass.

The middle of the record shifts. "Shadowboxing" moves into darker, more confrontational space, and "Test a Small Area" follows as an eerie, left-field instrumental beat that retains Herbert's electronic sensibility. Side B opens with "2close2farr" and "Anyway, I'm Drowning" before "When Palestine Is Free" arrives as the album's most expansive piece, Gill surrounded by a full jazz ensemble and a 50-voice choir that includes Shabaka Hutchings, Soweto Kinch, Alabaster DePlume, Coby Sey and Marysia Osu among others. Tamar Osborn's baritone saxophone and trumpet solos are prominent, and Gill's drumming drives the piece through three passes of the vocal refrain, each with a different instrumental emphasis. "River" returns to a more intimate jazz setting before "Ineffably" closes the album as a fragile piano ballad. The range across eleven tracks is wide, but Gill's voice and drumming hold the centre. Mixed by Matthew Herbert, mastered and lacquer cut by Alex Gordon at Abbey Road Studios.