From Grammy winner and P-Funk legend Bootsy Collins to rising Atlantan rap superstar JID to James Blake and Jungle collaborator Erick The Architect…. How does a relatively obscure Swiss group, led by sisters Jasmina and Nabyla Serag, manage to collaborate with such A-listers? It’s all about authenticity and quality. 

The band debuted anonymously with a major-label dance hit in 2014 and reinvented itself as an indie pop group in 2018 with the out-of-the-blue support of BBC Radio 6 Music DJ Tom Ravenscroft, who discovered their Reggae infused comeback single “We’ll Be Fine” and sent it across the airwaves, sparking further plays from the BBC 6 team. 

Since then, Sirens Of Lesbos have released two albums and gained additional high-profile supporters, including US producer Christo (J. Cole, JID, 21 Savage, Earthgang), who has already contributed to several of the group’s tracks. Following a successful concert season across Germany, England, France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland from October 2023 through September 2024, the band is set to release new music in 2025.

“We have changed significantly since our last album,” says Jasmina. A driving force behind this development was the many live concerts—from the Jazz Cafe in London to the Paradiso in Amsterdam to the Fusion Festival in Berlin—where Sirens Of Lesbos not only gained new fans with their musically rich, uplifting and honest performance but also a clearer awareness of their impact on the outside world. “We may be a collective, but on stage, we front the band. We are the face of this group,” says Nabyla about her and Jasmina’s new part. 

As Black women living in the diaspora and in the contrast between the collectivist, North-East African culture of their parents and the pursuit of individuality in a Western society, questions of identity have always played a role for Jasmina and Nabyla, whose parents originate from Eritrea and Sudan. And while society still all too often demands clear-cut identities, it is becoming increasingly clear to them: they have always been many things. 

This variety is also evident in the sisters’ musical range. Their home was filled with popular Sudanese music from Mohammed Wardi and Abdel Gadir Salim, classical Egyptian music from Umm Kulthum, Eritrean Guayla and Saho music (Saho is their Cushitic subgroup), as well as disco from Boney M. and Italian pop from Al Bano & Romina Power. Later, their older brother introduced them to West Coast hip hop, funk, and R&B. “Our own diversity is reflected in Sirens Of Lesbos, where people with different cultural backgrounds come together to create music that sometimes combines three genres in one song and 17 genres in one album”, says Jasmina.

After Jasmina completed her Sound Arts studies two years ago, Nabyla is now finishing her own Sound Arts degree. “We have always been interested in the technical, theoretical and philosophical aspects of sound production and have enjoyed creating abstract sound installations in exhibition settings. But for the foreseeable future, we want to push the Sirens Of Lesbos project to new heights, writing and producing standout indie pop songs, performing live, and giving audiences an unforgettable experience.”