Alfa Mist

Prioritising feeling over perfectionism. This is the credo that drives the restless creativity of multi-instrumentalist, rapper and producer Alfa Mist.

Since the release of his first full-length project Nocturne in 2015, Alfa has established himself as one of the UK’s most focused, in-demand and distinct musical voices. He has worked with the likes of Jordan Rakei and Tom Misch. Artists look to him for his unique blend of intimate bedroom production and expansive jazz group orchestration, since Alfa is yet to be boxed into a specific genre. His music spans everything from hip-hop beat-making to producing for artists such as rapper Loyle Carner, composing neo-classical works for the London Contemporary Orchestra, and reworking tracks from composer Ólafur Arnalds and pioneering jazz label Blue Note.

By 2017, Alfa had written, arranged and produced the eight tracks that make up his debut album, Antiphon. Featuring bassist and singer Kaya Thomas-Dyke and guitarist Jamie Leeming, who are still members of his band today, Alfa blended snippets of conversation with his two older brothers on the importance of family amidst intricate, driving instrumentals and luscious acoustic arrangements. It was a breakthrough success, amassing over 10 million views on YouTube and millions more on Spotify, marking Alfa out as a fresh talent with a remarkably mature and self-assured poise in the studio.

Following albums, 2019’s Structuralism and 2021’s debut for ANTI-, Bring Backs, continued Alfa’s musical introspection. Structuralism produced nine searching yet deeply soulful tracks, questioning how we formulate our identities through Alfa’s experience of being raised by his Ugandan mother. Bring Backs, meanwhile, featured groove-based explorations and meandering fragments tied together by a remarkable poem written by Hilary Thomas expressing the sensuous realities of creating community in a new country.

Where his previous work might have largely traded in a mid-tempo, meandering feel of self-analysis through instrumentation, his 5th album Variables found Alfa driving forwards with renewed intensity and purpose. “The whole album is more uptempo and influenced by the freedom of returning to gigs,” Alfa explains. “It felt like I was coming back to my early days of making grime beats and creating tracks that made me want to bop my head fast.”

The return to live shows was a welcome one for Alfa and his fans, resulting in an instantly sold-out run of debut US shows as well as headline performances at London’s Barbican, Outernet, Cross The Tracks and the renowned Sydney Opera House. The urgent energy of Alfa’s five-piece band provides an infectious vitality to his gigs, as well as producing instinctual responses to his music in the studio.

That practice is certainly fruitful. Alfa currently heads up his own label Sekito as well as continuing to host the Are We Live podcast with Barney Artist and Jordan Rakei. For his latest Sekito offering, Alfa revisits his stellar 2024 performance with Manchester’s extraordinary string outfit Amika Quartet at heralded venue Kings Place (London), capturing the magic of the evening within an awe-inspiring live album.

Continuing to evolve his creative vision, Alfa Mist released his latest album, Roulette, in 2025 via his own label, Sekito Records. Roulette is a sci-fi concept album set in a dystopian near-future where reincarnation is a scientifically proven fact. Conceived, written and produced by Alfa, the record features New York rapper Homeboy Sandman, British soul star Tawiah, and vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Kaya Thomas-Dyke. Alongside the album release, Alfa performed a special headline show at London’s prestigious Royal Albert Hall on 25th November with the Black Snow orchestra.

“Music is the gift that will never stop giving because I am always trying to figure out something new,” he says. “There will always be a question and I’m just searching for new ways to answer it.” We are the lucky ones, left to listen to Alfa’s soulful responses