Agatchu Finds Clarity In Motion, Community And Cross-Lusophone Sound on ‘Vibe’ EP

French-Angolan artist, songwriter, and producer Agatchu released his second EP ‘Vibe’ on July 11 via independent label Play Two. The six-track project follows 2024’s introspective Believe and shifts the lens outward: toward connection, presence, and the energies shared between cities and scenes.

Written and pieced together across Lisbon, Paris, London, Luanda, São Paulo, and Lagos, ‘Vibe’ frames movement not as distraction but as a way to locate feeling. The EP’s stated premise, celebrating love in its many forms, from friendship to joy to romantic devotion, sets a clear counterpoint to the self-searching of his debut.

Musically, ‘Vibe’ is built from a broad but coherent palette: afrobeats and R&B at its core, with bossa nova, semba, kompa, and other soulful inflections woven through. Agatchu’s vocal approach, switching between French, Portuguese, English, and Yoruba, does more than showcase range; it allows the songs to inhabit different emotional registers without losing continuity.

“Chance,” a Brazilian- and Lusophone-tinged love song written between Lisbon and Paris, leans into softness and restraint. “Maradona” carries a more cinematic pulse and toys with the interplay between affection and ego, nodding to Nigerian roots. Across the set, the tracks read like “vibe checks” for the heart - compact sketches that favor feeling over maximalism.

Collaboration is central to how ‘Vibe’ lands. Features from Angolan mainstay Cef Tanzy, Congolese artist Ya Levis, and Cape Verdean-Dutch star Nelson Freitas pull the project further into a shared Afro-Lusophone conversation, adding timbral contrast without crowding the songwriter’s own voice.

On the production side, the EP was shaped with musicians working between Luanda, Paris, Lisbon, and London - an infrastructure choice that mirrors the record’s themes of community and exchange. Agatchu frames the intent plainly: music that treats presence as practice, “live fully, love deeply, and stay present”, rather than slogan.

The EP also positions his solo work within a longer arc. Before stepping forward as an artist in 2024, Agatchu wrote and produced for afropop names including Dadju, Tayc, and Ya Levis, and collaborated with Teni, MHD, and BackRoad Gee.

Early singles such as “New Maserati,” “Bekanise,” and “Mopepe” established his blend of traditional rhythms and contemporary production, while Believe introduced collaborators and multilingual writing (including Yoruba, Lingala, and English). Vibe narrows the message: fewer declarations, more lived-in details, and a throughline of optimism.

None of this reinvents the genres he works within, and the project doesn’t try to. Its value is in curation and tone—how afrobeats, semba swing, bossa hues, and R&B warmth are layered to feel intimate rather than busy, and how multilingual hooks are used in service of mood. If ‘Believe’ asked who he is, ‘Vibe’ shows where, and with whom, he feels most grounded. In that sense, the EP is less a leap than a settling: a concise, cross-cultural set that favors presence, small truths, and the steady charge of shared energy.

Listen to Agatchu’s ‘Vibe’ EP here.