African knowledge, folklore, inherited cultural memory, and the ever evolving languages of contemporary South African Jazz converge in “There are Mirrors Everywhere”, the highly anticipated debut album by Johannesburg based flautist, composer, vocalist, and alternative Jazz artist Vuyo Viwe. The project is an immerse, genre colliding body of work that traverses phases, the cyclical rhythms of life, and the many faces of reflection.

Rooted in the cyclical nature of life, the album harmonises grief, inheritance, transformation, and renewal, tracing the invisible threads that bind past, present, and future. Across its songs, memory becomes a living force: grief becomes a passage, and reflection becomes a form of return. The body of work is not simply an album but a meditation on the ways we carry what came before us, and how, in becoming ourselves, we continually return to it.

Vuyo Viwe. Artwork by Kimberley Mdluli

The album moves fluidly between Jazz, orchestral folk, alternative vocal melodies, electronic textures, and classical instrumentation, creating a sonic world that is at once expansive and intimate. At its centre is a raw, resonant voice, grounding Vuyo’s contemporary musical language in an enduring African tradition while allowing it to reach into new and unexpected territories.

Following the release of her well received single “Geza” earlier this year, Vuyo continues to reveal the conceptual world at the heart of the album. As its lead track, “Geza” confronts grief and anger through the language of possession, moving from an encounter with an intrusive presence towards an act of washing, release, and reclamation. The title itself carries multiple meanings, including ‘crazy person’, ‘mischievous’, and ‘to wash’, allowing the song to inhabit the tension between disturbance and purification, between what haunts us and what we must ultimately cleanse ourselves of.

“It has been quite an interesting journey of growth and rebirth making this album. In a way, the thematic context of the music in the album runs parallel with the cycle of creating this project, and that is what it means for music to imitate life. I am grateful to finally let the music exist beyond me, and hope it does the work for the world as much as hit has done for me”, Viwe said.

Rooted in the philosophy of Afro-esotericism. Picture by Takalani Mafumo

This duality runs throughout “There are Mirrors Everywhere”: the familiar becomes strange, the past folds into the present, and endings reveal themselves as beginnings. Vuyo’s music exists in these thresholds, where inherited memory meets contemporary expression and where tradition is not preserved in stillness, but transformed through movement. Like her work, she is rooted in the philosophy of ‘Afro-esotericism’, and critically explores the sonics of Blackness, Womanness, resilience, and of an (un)becoming.

Vuyo has steadily established herself across South Africa’s live music landscape, appearing on stages including Kids Love Jazz and Umanyano Lwe Jazz, while also having performed at Hugh’s Jazz Club, Untitled Basement, Hidden Spaces, and Jazz in the City’s Bree Street Jazz Hop. Her growing performance history has seen her share stages with some of the country’s most significant musical voices and institutions. More recently, she performed as an opening act at legendary multi award winning singer, songwriter, and vocalist Thandiswa Mazwai’s inaugural Sankofa Jazz Festival, as well as Luju Festival, Spotify’s Loud & Clear Artist Showcase, and Basha Uhuru’s Sounds of Freedom Festival. She also headlined Standard Bank Joy of Jazz’s Jazz for Young People.

Vuyo has featured in mixed creative outputs, including recording flute and vocals for Internet Athi’s “Wena” and “Nguwe”; featuring in BET Africa’s ‘Echoes of Tomorrow’ documentary and Archive’s ‘Spaces That Feel Like Home’ campaign. She also composed, performed and recorded the film score for Nomandla Vilakazi’s award winning documentary, ‘Ode to Sara’, that has screened at the Labia Theatre, Iziko Museum of South Africa, The Commons and the Raw Film Festival. The album was officially released on 25 September 2026.