Over the course of a week, the two worked together from morning to night. More musicians and singers gradually joined them, and what began with a few fragments became “Luayeka ana (Ma Niya)”. By the end of the week, they were performing the song together on stage.
“Most of our communication happened through music,” Ashdot recalls. “They didn’t speak English and I didn’t speak Portuguese, but very quickly something common emerged. To me, that is a kind of a miracle. Musicians can share a language that does not depend on nationality or on the language they speak.”
Wyza passed away in 2017. The song’s release now gives that encounter another life, allowing music created in one room in Luanda more than a decade ago to reach listeners around the world.
A Bridge Between Musicians
The single is the first official release from Ponte Cultural, a volunteer music project of Fundação Arte e Cultura that brings together Angolan musicians with artists from Israel and other countries.
The project was initiated and is produced and managed by Israeli musician and producer Avner Hodorov, a member of Mashina. During its early years, it was developed together with Giora Arbiser, manager of Casa da Música in Luanda.
The idea was simple: bring musicians from different places into the same creative space and allow the encounter itself to shape the music.
Over the years, those meetings created a growing archive of recordings. Ponte Cultural is now beginning to release them publicly, with a full album expected to follow in the coming weeks.
“Luayeka ana (Ma Niya)” was recorded in Luanda and later completed by Ashdot in Tel Aviv, making its journey between Angola and Israel part of the recording itself.
The accompanying video also documents the original week in Luanda, including the sessions and the live performance that closed it.
From Luanda to the World
Ponte Cultural operates as part of Fundação Arte e Cultura, an Angolan foundation established in 2006 that uses culture, education and the arts as tools for social development.
Led by foundation manager Naama Margalit, its cultural center on Luanda Island provides music, art, dance, educational and community programs, with more than 1,000 children, young people and adults taking part in its activities every day.
Ponte Cultural connects that local work to a wider international musical conversation, giving artists and musicians from Angola an opportunity to collaborate, create and reach audiences far beyond their immediate surroundings.
More than ten years after Wyza and Izhar Ashdot first picked up their guitars together, the first part of that story is finally out in the world.
“Luayeka ana (Ma Niya)” is available now on streaming platforms and digital stores.
