Venna
OXFORD ART FACTORY, 38-46 Oxford Street, 2010 Sydney Directions
Thu 19.11.2026 19:30
There are artists who arrive already formed, and others who seem to unfold in public, still becoming. Venna feels closer to the latter. This November, Venna brings that world to Sydney.
A Grammy Award-winning South London saxophonist, producer, and composer, Venna has built a language that doesn’t sit neatly inside genre. It drifts between UK rap, drill, hip-hop, jazz and something more open-ended. Less a fusion than a flow state, resisting definition because it was never designed to be contained.
He began playing piano at six and took up the alto saxophone at twelve, early enough for music to feel instinctive rather than learned. Since then, Venna’s saxophone and musical sensibility have moved through a widening circle of contemporary artists. His horn work is most clearly heard on Burna Boy’s Alarm Clock from the Grammy Award-winning Twice As Tall, while his broader creative presence has shaped projects alongside Wizkid, Knucks and longtime collaborator Yussef Dayes. Whether audible or unseen, Venna’s contribution often lives in the atmosphere of the record, shaping tone and feeling without asking to be foregrounded.
Now, with his debut album MALIK, that presence turns inward. The album moves like a conversation with that identity. Featuring Jorja Smith, Leon Thomas, Smino, MIKE, Cari, and Venna himself, MALIK dissolves the edges between player, producer, composer and voice. Built with collaborators including Rocco Palladino, Elijah Fox, AoD, J Warner, Marco Bernardis and Yussef Dayes, it holds a collective memory inside it.
Jazz is present, but it is not the boundary. Neither is R&B, soul, bossa nova or rap. Instead, MALIK feels like something being passed through Venna rather than built by him alone.
He describes himself as a vessel of music, a stream of consciousness moving through him while he creates, a life force present in the room. He speaks to a belief that something larger is at work when he makes music, allowing him to stay open to whatever emerges and to express himself without limitation.
There is a rarity in artists who work this way. A sense that what you are hearing is not constructed, but received. In that space, Venna’s music becomes less about performance and more about presence.
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We acknowledge that this event is held on the stolen lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to Elders, past, present and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded.
Performers
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Venna
After two EPs and an illuminating start to his career, Grammy Award-winning saxophonist Venna releases his debut album, MALIK.
For Venna, it’s been a whirlwind of a journey to arrive at this point. He’s spent the better part of three years on the road touring, while coming back to London intermittently. In the spaces he finds himself in as a musician, he’s often the youngest in the room. This period gave him the confidence to embark on this next stage of his career.
Venna says ‘’The album MALIK was named by my mother 26 years before the album was made - on the day I was born. A strong name that means King or leader in Arabic. A name that I’ve lived with all my life. A name that my nearest and dearest have called me & a name that I’ve learnt to become.”
Featuring vocals from Jorja Smith, Cari, Leon Thomas, Smino, MIKE, and himself, MALIK is where listeners can get lost and find themselves again. The album also features a long list of musicians including Rocco Palladino, Elijah Fox, AoD, J Warner, Marco Bernardis and longtime collaborator, Yussef Dayes.
MALIK embodies the melting pot of sounds that reflects Venna’s environment. Venna doesn’t want to be rooted in jazz alone; his previous work for the likes of Burna Boy, Beyoncé, Kali Uchis, Wizkid, Knucks, J Hus and many more indicates that his saxophone and sound has been a pivotal part for a lot of great artists music.
It’s easy to categorise any music with horns and a rhythm section as jazz, but Venna has long tried to avoid the finite limitations of his music being labelled as a genre. There are elements of jazz on MALIK but also bossa nova, R&B, soul and rap. “I allow myself to be a vessel of music. A stream of consciousness flows through me when I’m creating – almost like a life force is present with me. I believe God is there with me always when I’m making music & through my everyday walk of life. Allowing myself to be open to whatever the day brings has given me the freedom to express myself in any and every way through the music with no limitations. Whether it’s playing sax, producing, singing or co-ordinating the musicians in the room – I am capable of anything when in the studio.”
It’s a beautiful rarity when an artist sees themselves as a vessel of the music, and though MALIK is a manifestation of his experiences and how he sees the world and years of craft, Venna wants MALIK to be an invitation. An invitation to let go, be present and submit to the sonic journey of MALIK.
MALIK the album out 5th September 2025.
