Otaak Band is the collaboration of drummer Miguel Merino, from Indiana, USA, and the spectacular Beja singer Ahmed Said Abuamna from Eastern Sudan. Ahmed is a master of the masankop, the ancient East-African lyre at the heart of Otaak Band's sound.

They will be performing music from their 2012 album of lyre music, Bejawiya, the first recording to take the masankop out of its traditional setting and feature it as the lead instrument in a contemporary ensemble.

Banning Eyre, producer of Afropop Worldwide on NPR, says Otaak Band's “best tracks are sensational.”