New Audio: Naná Rizinni Teams Up with Mark Cake on Quirky and Off-Kilter “Fifth Life”

Naná Rizinni is a São Paulo-born, London-based drummer, composer and producer, whose musical journey began in the mid-2000s, studying with acclaimed Brazilian drummers Lilian Carmona, Vera Figueiredo, and Duda Neves. Rizinni has been a highly sough-after drummer and producer in her native Brazil ever since, touring and recording with acclaimed Brazilian artists like Tiê, Johnny Hooker, Ana Cañas, Bárbara Eugênia, and Thiago Pethit, while recording and releasing four solo albums.

In her native Brazil, Rizinni was known for her fluid, experimental approach to genre with her work evolving from the post rock and garage rock textures of her earliest work into a hybrid, jazz-forward language rooted in rhythm, texture and improvisation.

Adding to a growing profile in her native Brazil, Rizinni has recorded music for television, film and ad campaigns while also making a run of the international festival circuit with sets at Lollapalooza, Rock in Rio, SXSW and Primavera Sound among others.

In 2020, the São Paulo-born artist relocated to London, where she wrote and recorded her highly-anticipated album, Epiblast. Slated for an April 24, 2026 release through Bridge The Gap, Epiblast was written and co-produced by Rizinni and saxophonist and producer Mark Cake over the course of the Brazilian artist’s last two years in London.

Epiblast reportedly sees Rizinni diving deeper into experimental territory with the album sonically sitting somewhere between the synth-heavy sounds of The Comet Is Coming and the future jazz of corto.alto while also nodding at the progressive fusion of jazz and electronics pioneered by fellow drummer/producers Mark Guilianna and Richard Spaven.

Thematically the album chronicles a full cycle of life in all of its intensity, beginning with the excitement and joy of new parenthood, along with adjusting to the pace of life and the creation of relationships in her new home. But along with that the album was in many ways a companion for Rizinni’s grieving process after the tragic loss of her brother. “The title Epiblast comes from an early embryonic layer from which the entire organism develops,” Rizinni explains. “For me, it represents multiple births and rebirths — new roles, identities, and directions — capturing both fragility and infinite potential.”

The forthcoming album will include the previously released “Familiar Stranger” and “The Right Side of the Escalator,” which have received airplay internationally from BBC Radio 3, Rinse FM, KEXP, PBS-FM, as well as its third and last pre-release single “Fifth Life.” Seemingly drawing from early Hiatus Kaiyote, and Mildlife‘s “How Long Does It Take,” “Fifth Life” is a quirky and playful composition anchored around an off-kilter rhythmic-driven groove that’s one part Afrobeat-inspired, one-part Brazilian music-inspired paired with a soulful saxophone and flute solo.

“’Fifth Life’ is probably my favourite track on the album,” Rizinni explains. “It has a quirky, playful vibe that I really relate to. I wrote it on top of a beat I had been developing, and when I brought it to Mark, the guitars he came up with reminded me of a band I loved in the early 2000s called Screaming Headless Torsos, and guitarist David Fiuczynski in particular — a connection that added an extra spark to the track.”

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