About the label
Started in a Yaba basement
Midnight Ember began in 2019 as a monthly party with a borrowed sound system. It became a label when the artists who played it needed somewhere to release their music.
Our story
Built for the city after dark
Founders Adaeze Nwosu and Tunde Bakare ran the first parties in a basement off Herbert Macaulay Way.
By 2021 the queue went round the block and the regulars were the artists themselves. The Ojo Collective became the first signing, recorded live in the same room. Today the label runs a studio, a live team and a small vinyl and cassette operation, still from Yaba.
Example figures for this demo.
What we believe
Four rules
Written on the studio wall.
Artists first
Fair splits, clear statements and no one signs anything they do not understand.
Lagos, not a copy of elsewhere
We back sounds that could only come from here.
Live is the test
Every release is played to a real room before it is finished.
Power on
No session or show ever stops because the lights went off.
The archive
Tapes, sleeves and posters
We keep every master, flyer and test pressing. Some of them hang in the office, the rest live in a dry room with its own air conditioning.
Team
People behind the label
Invented team for this demo.
Adaeze Nwosu
Co-founder, A and R
Tunde Bakare
Co-founder, creative director
Chidera Okafor
Head engineer
Got a sound Lagos has not heard yet
We listen to every demo. Send a private link and a few lines about you, and our A and R team replies within three weeks.