EPK (English) – AfuriKo

AfuriKo 2025 trailer

“AfuriKo’s new music really flies in the face of jazz, opening up your ears to a world of possibilities.”
Carol Banks Weber, Festival Peak

“In B Town” from Tao (2019)

“Tao is full of dualities…: simple and complex, exotic and highly listenable, bare-bones in format while busy and full in execution.”
Geno Thackara, All About Jazz

“Oleleko” (excerpt) from Tao (2019)

“AfuriKo is in essence an absolutely atypical duo. … I urge you to discover them and slowly enter their world.”
M. M., Afrique Asie

“Kpanlogo” music video from On the Far Side (2014)

AfuriKo – a Japanese portmanteau word combining Afurika (アフリカ) and the suffix -ko (子), which means “child” – is an African-infused jazz duo comprised of percussionist Akiko Horii and pianist Jim Funnell. Together, they offer a joyful, hybrid dialogue, in which the freedom of jazz improvisation allows itself to be shaped by the orderly, cosmological nature of African drumming — like a griot walking a tightrope. On stage and in the studio, a special connection gently unfolds as the djembe’s ancestral stories seamlessly integrate with the modern harmonic colours of the keyboards.

“… a tuneful, joyous album that brings about a life-affirming sense of sunshine and light.”
Graham Spry, London Jazz News

Their first two albums – On the Far Side (2014) and Style (2016) – were produced with the support of SACEM (the French Society of Authors, Composers, and Music Publishers). Their third opus Tao (2019), successfully funded on Kickstarter and released to critical acclaim with reviews on London Jazz News, All About Jazz, and Festival Peak, is a shamanic jazz journey from ancestral Africa to NYC, steeped in deep grooves with shades of Funk, Pop, Reggae, Bulgarian, and Enka music.

“… Tao blends African, Asian, and Western influences into a joyous melting pot of notes and rhythms.”
Bob Hatteau, Improjazz

The duo was featured on Congahead and has toured extensively in the UK (London Jazz Festival, Ronnie Scott’s, Vortex Jazz Club), Japan (Kanazawa Jazz Street, Big Apple), the United States (ShapeShifter Lab, Rockwood Music Hall), France (Le Baiser Salé, Sunset Sunside Jazz Club), Estonia (Philly Joe’s), Uruguay (Jazz a la Calle), Nepal (Kathmandu Jazz Festival), South Korea (Jazz Alley), and many other countries across Western and Eastern Europe.