Lewis Robinson

Lewis Robinson is the founder and manager of Mais Um, an independent, global music company named as one of the UK’s ‘best boutique labels’ by The Guardian.

Launched in 2010 as an international platform for new sounds from Brazil, Lewis soon established Mais Um as the go-to label for discovering the real sounds of exciting, contemporary South America, introducing artists such as Rodrigo Amarante, Elza Soares, Dona Onete and Meta Meta to international audiences via releases that secured coverage in The Guardian, The Times, Pitchfork, NPR, Radio France, BBC Radio and Les Inrocks and securing them sets in festivals such as NY SummerStage, Roskilde, Womad, Worldwide and Le Guess Who.

The compilation albums he has curated have been described as “miraculous” (LA Times), “astonishingly diverse” (The Independent on Sunday) and “album of the year” (Gilles Peterson, BBC 6music), and he’s been a guest of Gilles Peterson on BBC Radio 1, Late Junction on Radio 3, Cerys Matthews and Gilles Peterson on 6music and Alt Latino on NPR, and also written for The Guardian.

In 2018 Lewis opened Mais Um's doors to artists from all corners of the globe, immediately finding success with Japan’s Minyo Crusaders, who completed a 6-week tour of leading European festivals in summer 2022. Recent releases from Beijing’s Howie Lee (“traditional Chinese references with wild electronic experimentation” Pitchfork), Ghana’s Linda Ayupuka (“electrifying syncretism” Bandcamp) and most recently Tonkori in the Moonlight (The Guardian’s Folk album of the month, February 2022) from Japanese-Ainu musician OKI have helped established Mais Um as a platform for forward-thinking international music. Lewis is chief a&r and manages the visual aesthetic and international marketing as well as the relationship with Mais Um’s label services provider Kudos.

Lewis’s insatiable desire to hear the most exciting new music from around the world has put his curatorial skills in high demand – he’s curated events at the Barbican, Somerset House, Trafalgar Square, the London Olympic Park and National Refugee Week. He’s also an A&R consultant for Universal Music and has project managed releases by Massive Attack, Tricky and The Cranberries.

He previously managed BBC Worldwide’s ‘world music’ imprint Nascente where he curated & produced over 80 albums of all styles of world music selling over 250,000 units worldwide, managed Brazilian-focused label Far Out Recordings, was senior press office at Emms Publicity, and for one glorious year post-university held court in the vinyl department in Fopp Records, Sheffield, where he extolled the virtues of the Gotan Project, Naked Records and ate a lot of toast.

Lewis teaches on our innovative BA (Hons) Music Business and Entrepreneurship programme. You can follow on social media at @MAISUMDISCOS.