Uya, the third studio album of the Austrian ensemble Synesthetic Octet was released on Jazzwerkstatt Records in December 2021 and is already nominated for the German Record Critics Award in the category “Crossover Productions”. Andreas Felber, Journalist and head of the Jazz department of the Austrian Broadcasting Network called the music on Uya “complex and rhythm driven music that you won’t hear from anyone else even on an international level” and “ingeniously wonky chamber jazz / dada rap”. The raps in an invented language are supposed to remind the listener of what it’s like to be touched by vocals that you can not understand. As a young teenager, band leader Vincent Pongrácz was fascinated by the expressive power of American rap music even though he couldn’t understand the words. The composer and clarinet player founded Synesthetic Octet in 2013 during a concert series at the renowned jazz club Porgy & Bess in Vienna. The name of the ensemble is inspired by Olivier Messiaen, who was a synesthete himself.