Club des Belugas: Lounge with a Brazilian Pulse

Club des Belugas make music that sounds like a late-night party in a city that doesn't quite exist: part Rio, part Berlin, part a 1960s soul revue.

The project is led by Maxim Illion and Kitty the Bill. Together they blend contemporary European lounge and nujazz with Brazilian beats and the black American soul of the fifties, sixties and seventies. It's a mix that is rooted in the past but never sounds like a museum piece. Few acts in Germany do it as well, and perhaps few in Europe.

Guests add to the colour. Californian jazz singer Brenda Boykin, Nighthawks trumpeter Reiner Winterschladen and the Swedish vocalist anna. have all joined the circle.

Their catalogue runs across more than fifteen years. Start with the slow, hypnotic "Peace Will Come With Sleep - Triple Bass Mix" from 2008. Then move to the soulful "Save a Little Love for Me" (2012), and on to the newer "Set Fire to It All" (2021) and "New Attitude" (2024). You'll hear us play all of them on Red Light Jazz Radio.