Broken Cassette
Jessica Ackerley
Guitarist and composer, Jessica Ackerley, has been described as “one of the most exciting guitarists to have emerged from the free music scene in recent years” (Wire Magazine). Expanding the lines between avant-garde jazz, contemporary classical, and ambient music, Ackerley has distinguished their musical voice across 25 releases as a bandleader and co-leader working with labels such as Innova, AKP Recordings, and 577 Records. Their music has garnered acclaim from publications like Pitchfork, BBC Radio, Wire Magazine, GRAMMY News, WholeNote, Musicworks and BandCamp, among others, making multiple critics’ year end Lists. As a performer Ackerley has toured extensively throughout North America, Asia and Europe, performing at noteworthy venues like The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Met Breuer, Vortex (U.K.), Bang on a Can LOUD Weekend (Mass MoCA), The Stone, Roulette Intermedium, Earshot Jazz Festival, Something Else! Festival, Ironworks Fest and Coastal Jazz Festival. As a side musician and collaborator they have worked with Tyshawn Sorey’s conduction ensemble, Zakir Hussian, Luke Stewart, Patrick Shiroishi, and Daniel Carter among others. Over the past four years Ackerley has expanded their musical practice to composition and has collaborated with Unheard-Of Ensemble, Brightwork, Blaurenz Duo, Tacet(i), Tony Arnold, HYPERCUBE, and Clara Kim. They have been commissioned by Bang on a Can, NYSFA, Continuum (Toronto), Adult Swim, Mutual Mentorship, and New Music USA; awarded funding from Canada Council for the Arts and Foundation for Contemporary Arts; nominated for the prestigious Academy of Arts and Letters Music Composition Award; and attended residencies at Banff Center for the Arts, Atlantic Center for the Arts, the International Gugak Workshop (Seoul, Korea) and Arctic Circle Residency.
Gahlord Dewald
Gahlord Dewald creates textural music that shifts memory through the sensory experience of sound, replacing, reorganizing, reconnecting. Inspired by physical and academic research into the processes of change, he stitches together audible moments into gestures that shimmer the future. He resides in the mauka side of ahupuaʻa Waikīkī.
Max High
Max High is an artist and DJ of Japanese-Filipino-French descent currently based in Honolulu. Formally trained as a flutist and drummer, Max has been an active musician for over half his lifetime. Max approaches music-making as an experimental practice of transcendence and connection with a focus on dream-like states. In 2023, Max’s album "Recordings 3" was released on vinyl via record label Aloha Got Soul. His music ranges from ambient soundscapes, to indie lo-fi jams and dancefloor-ready electronic tracks.
Navies Najafi (Illnomadic)
Navid Najafi aka Illnomadic is a musician and arts professional whose practice is activated hip hop, with lyrics that explore themes of migration, culture, solidarity, and home. He is a founding member of the conscious rap collective Super Groupers and a three-time Na Hoku Hanohano Award winner for Hip-Hop Album of the Year in 2012, 2013, and again in 2023 for the hip hop anthology of Hawaiian history album he created in collaboration with 7 other artists through the Moloka’i based non-profit Hui o Kuapā called Ho’okupu. Navid was born in Tehran, Iran but at the age of 8 fled with his family to New York at the height of the Iran-Iraq war. After several relocations and years of feeling unrooted, he finally found home when he came to Hawaii at the age of 19. Understanding what it means to be a good guest, which is a pillar of his Persian heritage, he has always worked to uplift and center the voices and stories of Kanaka Maoli and Hawaiian Nationals, his treasured hosts. Along with the Super Groupers, he founded Soundshop, a hip hop education workshop program with public school students at the Honolulu Museum of Art. Navid Najafi is currently the Associate Director of Programs & Social Practice at Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design.
Navies Najafi (Illnomadic)
Navid Najafi aka Illnomadic is a musician and arts professional whose practice is activated hip hop, with lyrics that explore themes of migration, culture, solidarity, and home. He is a founding member of the conscious rap collective Super Groupers and a three-time Na Hoku Hanohano Award winner for Hip-Hop Album of the Year in 2012, 2013, and again in 2023 for the hip hop anthology of Hawaiian history album he created in collaboration with 7 other artists through the Moloka’i based non-profit Hui o Kuapā called Ho’okupu. Navid was born in Tehran, Iran but at the age of 8 fled with his family to New York at the height of the Iran-Iraq war. After several relocations and years of feeling unrooted, he finally found home when he came to Hawaii at the age of 19. Understanding what it means to be a good guest, which is a pillar of his Persian heritage, he has always worked to uplift and center the voices and stories of Kanaka Maoli and Hawaiian Nationals, his treasured hosts. Along with the Super Groupers, he founded Soundshop, a hip hop education workshop program with public school students at the Honolulu Museum of Art. Navid Najafi is currently the Associate Director of Programs & Social Practice at Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design.
Max High
Max High is an artist and DJ of Japanese-Filipino-French descent currently based in Honolulu. Formally trained as a flutist and drummer, Max has been an active musician for over half his lifetime. Max approaches music-making as an experimental practice of transcendence and connection with a focus on dream-like states. In 2023, Max’s album "Recordings 3" was released on vinyl via record label Aloha Got Soul. His music ranges from ambient soundscapes, to indie lo-fi jams and dancefloor-ready electronic tracks.
Jonny Lam
Jonny is a Hawaiʻi based steel guitar player (pedal steel and lap steel) and guitar player. An active player, he’s worked with a broad and diverse array of bands and producers in the studio and on stage — David Byrne, Norah Jones, Billie Joe Armstrong, EmmyLou Harris, Busta Rhymes, Benny Blanco, Keb Mo, Sean Paul, Steve Earle, Pharaoh Sanders, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Jamie Lidell, Charles Lloyd, Taj Mahal, Jim Campilongo, Alexis Taylor(Hot Chip) and more.