Axel Kacoutié & Lou Mensah

About

Lou Mensah founded Shade Podcast to create a space for Black artists and creative practitioners to talk about their work in their own way. Shade has featured interviews with artists, critics, writers and visionaries including John Akomfrah, Ming Smith and Amy Sherald.

Lou’s work has expanded into creating audio for organisations including the British Council, Hauser and Wirth, Frieze, Tate, Bloomberg, Freelands Foundation, The Runnymede Trust and South London Gallery. She is a visiting lecturer in audio at Central St Martins, Shade has been named Best Art Podcast in the British Podcast Awards and Most Loved Podcast by Apple Podcasts.

Axel Kacoutié is an Audio Artist and poet who’s been crafting sound, music, and words to challenge the familiar and revive a magic in the mundane.

Previously the Creative Director of Sound at the Guardian, their work has featured on BBC airwaves, Spotify, and in physical spaces such as the Tate Modern (2023) and Sundance Film Festival (2022). Recent collaborations include Falling Tree Productions as Series Curator and Producer and Empire City as the Series Composer, Mixer and Sound Designer.

They have won a number of awards, including Best Documentary at the Third Coast International Audio Festival, Gold for the Sarah Lawrence Audio Fiction Awards, Best Sound Designer at the Audio Production Awards, Prix Marulić Grand Prix award and many, many more.

In 2024 Axel & Lou were named Producer Team of the Year by the UK Audio Network.

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Axel Kacoutié & Lou Mensah

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