BORN::FREE, with support from AD93 Records, invite you to celebrate the release of Jump Ship, Sit Lean, Be Still, Stand Tall, a collaborative LP from BZDB, comprised of Duncan Bellamy and Belinda Zhawi (MA.MOYO). Come for an evening of artistry, sound, and conversation, and be among some of the first to experience Jump Ship, Sit Lean, Be Still, Stand Tall (AD93, 2024) in full, with select insights shared by Bellamy and Zhawi on the creation of this emotive work. At this listening party, you’ll be immersed in the album’s unique blend of contemporary classical compositions and intimate, layered vocal experiments that transition fluidly between form and feeling. Witness Zhawi’s elliptical, thought-provoking poetry in dialogue with Bellamy’s sonic explorations, resulting in a melancholic yet hopeful resonance that is both introspective and expansive.

There will be a conversation after the listening session between BZDB and acclaimed author and journalist, Emma Warren plus DJ sets from Coby Sey and Tasker.

Vinyls of the album will be on sale and you can also pre-order it here.

Artist Bios

Belinda Zhawi (b. Zimbabwe) is a literary & sound artist based in London & Marseille, author of Small Inheritances (ignitionpress, 2018), & experiments with sound/text performance as MA.MOYO. Her work explores African diaspora research and narratives, and how art and education can be used as intersectional tools. Her literary and sound works have been featured on various platforms including The White Review, Vogue, NTS, Boiler Room & BBC Radio. She has held residencies with Triangle-Asterides, France; Cove Park, Scotland; Serpentine Galleries; ICA London and was a Brixton House Associate Artist 2022 - 24. Belinda’s the co-founder of literary arts platform, BORN::FREE. Zhawi is working on her first full poetry collection.

Duncan Bellamy (b. 1986, Cambridge, England) lives and works in London. Encompassing painting, photography, sound and music, his diverse practice explores the correlation and discrepancy of our present with the distant past. He is a founding member of Mercury Prize nominated Portico Quartet and has contributed sound work to the artist Hannah Collins audio-visual installation I Will Make Up A Song as well as to Hania Rani’s latest album Ghosts. Bellamy is working towards a solo exhibition and an album of new music.

Emma Warren has been documenting grassroots music culture for decades. She’s the author of Make Some Space: Tuning Into Total Refreshment Centre (2019), which was a MOJO Book of the Year and was re-released by Chicago record label, International Anthem; her pamphlet Steam Down: Or How Things Begin (Rough Trade, 2019) was named an Irish Times Read of the Year; and Document Your Culture: A Manual (2020). Warren was a founding contributor to Jockey Slut magazine, worked on staff at The Face, and worked as the editorial mentor at youth-run Brixton publication, Live Magazine. Her Worldwide FM radio show ran for six years. Her latest book, Dance Your Way Home: A Journey Through the Dancefloor ((2023), is published by Faber Books.

Coby Sey is a vocalist, musician and DJ from South East London who offers a shifting, disorienting vision of club music.

Tasker runs the record label AD 93 and has a monthly radio show on NTS.