︎Art Direction/Graphic Design/Project Branding/Album Design
CALIMA: Balimaya project meets Discos Pacífico all-stars
Calima is a natural phenomenon in which Saharan dust travels on the wind across the ocean, fertilizing the Amazon and the rainforests of South America. Similarly, the African diaspora crossed the sea and, through rhythm, resilience, and memory, transformed displacement into connection and the journey into creative power.
CALIMA was a rare opportunity to build a visual identity for a project that is not only musical, but cultural, ancestral, and deeply collaborative.
As Art Director and Designer for this release, my goal was to create a visual language that could hold the same weight, depth, and hybridity as the music itself — a language that reflects the invisible threads connecting West Africa, the Mandé world, the Afro-Colombian Pacific, and contemporary diasporic jazz.
This project lives in between worlds: between tradition and innovation, between continents, between spiritual memory and modern expression. My approach to the branding and album artwork was to honor that in-between space — not by flattening it into a single aesthetic, but by allowing multiple references, textures, rhythms, and visual “voices” to coexist.
Branding this project also meant creating a visual system flexible enough to hold a 15-piece supergroup, multiple cultures, and a transnational collaboration between Jazz re:freshed, Llorona Records, Balimaya Project, and Discos Pacífico. The identity needed to feel rooted, but not fixed — ancestral, but not archival — contemporary without losing its spiritual and historical depth.
What made this project special for me was that it wasn’t about imposing a look — it was about listening. Listening to the music, the stories, the intentions, and then translating that into form. The final design is not just a cover or a brand; it’s a visual bridge between sound, place, and memory.
Balimaya Project and Discos Pacífico All Stars came together in Tumaco to create CALIMA — a unique album that demonstrates how music remains a powerful, invisible thread connecting the African diaspora. The record is a sonic journey that blends the potent rhythms and rich musical heritage of West Africa and Mandé jazz with the Afro-Colombian pulse of marimba, drums, and Pacific coast chants.
Balimaya Project — a London-based, Mandé-inspired band redefining jazz for the 21st century — dives deep into West African folklore, spinning tradition into something urgent and new. On the other side, The Discos Pacífico All Stars bring together a powerhouse lineup of musicians from iconic Colombian groups like Bejuco and Semblanzas del Río Guapi. Together, they form a 15-piece supergroup that crosses borders — both literal and sonic. Think djembe meets marimba, balafon riffs over Pacific chants, and jazz that grooves with ancestral spirits.
Balimaya Project — a London-based, Mandé-inspired band redefining jazz for the 21st century — dives deep into West African folklore, spinning tradition into something urgent and new. On the other side, The Discos Pacífico All Stars bring together a powerhouse lineup of musicians from iconic Colombian groups like Bejuco and Semblanzas del Río Guapi. Together, they form a 15-piece supergroup that crosses borders — both literal and sonic. Think djembe meets marimba, balafon riffs over Pacific chants, and jazz that grooves with ancestral spirits.
For CALIMA, I developed a visual identity that reflects the album’s cultural, spiritual, and sonic hybridity — a meeting point between West African Mandé traditions, Afro-Colombian Pacific rhythms, and contemporary diasporic jazz.
The album is a sonic journey that fuses the musical heritage of West Africa and Mandé jazz with the Afro-Colombian pulse of the chonta marimba, drums, and the songs of the Pacific coast. Balimaya Project—one of the most innovative acts in contemporary London jazz—joins forces with a powerful lineup of musicians from iconic groups like Bejuco and Semblanzas del Río Guapi, creating a 15-piece supergroup.
Listen to the record and dive into this vibrant convergence of cultures, rhythms, and stories — brought together through music.
This is the poster for the show at the iconic Barnbican centre in London on September 2025.
This short documentary traces the creation of CALIMA, the album born from the collaboration between London-based collective Balimaya Project and the Colombian ensemble Discos Pacífico All Stars, released in 2025.
Through intimate footage of the creative process and performances in Colombia at the National Center for the Arts (CNA) and in London at the Barbican Centre, the documentary captures the spirit of a collaboration that transcends territories, memories, and musical traditions.
