Radio Citizen is the brainchild of Berlin composer, producer, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist Niko Schabel, who has collaborated with many artists ranging from the Last Poets to the No-Neck Blues Band, Karl Hector & the Malcouns, Mari Boine, the Whitefield Brothers, and Nick McCarthy, to name a scant few. He is also a member of the Poets of Rhythm, and leads the jazz group the Niko Schabel Quartet. The first Radio Citizen album, Berlin Serengeti, was released on Ubiquity in 2006. His chief collaborator was the Indian-born, Portugal- and South Africa-raised vocalist Bajka, but the album's selections include a large group of instrumentalists and poet Ursula Rucker. Radio Citizen's second offering, Hope and Despair, was released by Ubiquity in 2010. ~ Thom Jurek