A true multicultural woman, Somi was born in Illinois to immigrants from Rwanda and Uganda, then spent her early childhood in Zambia. The African cultural legacy is as vital as ever in her current music, which Somi likes to call New African Soul. But so too is the music she heard upon relocating to New York, with American jazz singers like Nina Simone and Sarah Vaughan as essential to her artistic development as the legendary African female voices of Miriam Makeba, Cesaria Evora and Sade. Her third album "If The Rains Come First" (out now on ObliqSound) is a stunning collection of self-penned story-based songs, a meditation on opening ourselves up to life’s blessings and challenges much in the way that we accept the rain and all that it brings.

Moni Pineda is a Colombian, NY-based multimedia artist whose work spans through music, theater, photography, writing & video production. She has shared billing with artists such as Paul McCartney, Maceo Parker, Amy Winehouse, Mos Def and DJ’d in England, France, Japan, Colombia, Canada and the Philippines. She has released two CDs, one for The Fader’s Suite 903 series and another entitled “Friends We Love” for the Japanese label Toy’s Factory. Moni has been named one of "NYC's 15 Hottest DJ's" and been featured on the cover of the Village Voice, in Trace, Suede, NY Post & Time Out NY. In 2007, she was selected as the resident DJ for Gilles Peterson’s label Brownswood Recordings monthly club night in NY.