Based in the San Francisco Bay Area and uniting influences from mystical Sufi trance songs, Indian ragas, African grooves & the Australian Aboriginal didgeridoo, BARAKA MOON delivers pulsing, soulful and spiritually charged dance music with a positive message of peace for the whole world!
BARAKA MOON Members:
Sukhawat Ali Khan – Baraka Moon’s charismatic and passionate vocalist draws from his luminary family's 600 year-old Pakistani singing tradition with a voice that comes straight from the heart and soars to the heavens. He can also be heard squeezing and cajoling sweet ragas and shredding blues riffs from his harmonium.
Stephen Kent – A one-man band Didgeridoo/Percussion virtuoso is a globally acclaimed pioneer in bringing the ancient Aboriginal instrument to the contemporary world. With a primal shout he conjures a deep and earthy pulse that is the vibratory core of Baraka Moon’s compelling groove engine.
Peter Warren – Our Drummer/Percussionist is responsible for the irresistible and dynamic power of Baraka Moon’s full-on dance-beats, with grooves honed over many years performing with African musicians and dancers in the U.S. and his native Canada.
Anastasi Mavrides – Bringing his unique and seasoned guitar playing to the music, Anastasi blends-in shimmering chordal voicings with soaring anthemic melodies and downright super-funky rhythms. He also provides lush supporting vocals to Sukhawat’s singing.
Born in London to Jamaican parents, Eki Shola was raised in a musical family. She emigrated to New York in the late 1980s and later as a pre-med student at Cornell University, she played in the jazz ensemble performing with legendary musicians such as Steve Turre and Dr. Donald Byrd. Now living in Northern California, Eki Shola released her debut album, Final Beginning, in 2016 and the album has been reviewed, charted and aired around the world. In both 2017 and 2018 Eki Shola was awarded the NorBay Music Award for Best Electronica Artist. She has played across the San Francisco Bay Area, London, and New York City and along with sharing the stage with Georgia Anne Muldrow and Lucky Otis, she has been asked to open for renowned artists such as Kitaro, Bebel Gilberto, DakhaBrakha, and Habib Koité.
Eki Shola and her family narrowly escaped the 2017 Sonoma County Tubbs wildfires. Driving through the flames and subsequently losing everything including her music studio and the clinic where she worked as a physician, writing music became a healing necessity for Eki Shola and within less than a year, she wrote and produced a trilogy album to be released this year. The first album in the trilogy, Possible, was released on February 22, 2019, making placement on WCBN’s chart within two weeks. After submitting her song “Dreaming”, filmed among the ruins of her incinerated home, Eki Shola was selected to perform at the 2018 NPR Tiny Desk Contest. Honoring the one-year anniversary of the wildfires, her personal story was featured in a PBS TV special, “The New Normal: Visions of Healing”.
