• Music

    Yoruba Singers – Fighting for Survival

    July 9, 2024 - By 

    It’s not often that we get to present to you a band from Guyana!  From the Yoruba Singers’ Bandcamp site: “Having remained continuously active since 1971, the Yoruba Singers are the longest-running musical group in Guyana. Emerging from a music scene mostly dominated by slick, commercial entertainment, the Yoruba Singers brought a new dimension to Guyana popular music, cooking up a potent stew of afrocentric vibes, steeped in a committed invocation of the country’s African heritage. The group’s magnum opus is the 1981 album Fighting for Survival. The album sums up the group’s first decade of operation, serving up a…

  • Music

    The River Voices – Çorovodë, Albania | May 2017

    July 6, 2024 - By 

    From Remix-Culture‘s Bandcamp site: “Recorded live in May of 2017 by Hatim Belyamani and Bajram “Kafu” Kinolli in Çorovodë, Albania. We are a non-profit organization celebrating musical traditions in harmony with digital remix art. Our mission is to inspire people to reconfigure their relationships with other cultures, communities, and individuals, through film and musical experiences, both live and virtual. Otherwise we are lost.“ It seems like a noble effort by Remix-Culture.  I look forward to hearing more from them.

  • Music

    Etran de L’Aïr – 100% Sahara Guitar

    June 25, 2024 - By 

    From Sahel Sounds’ promo sheet, and this is an album worth waiting for!: “Etran de L’Aïr the STARS OF THE AÏR, the longest running wedding band in AGADEZ, capital of Tuareg guitar, return with a new album of sun-schlazed desert sound! Their first album, No.1, brought their music to critics and fans. Their second album, Agadez, sent them into the international touring circuit. And now they’re back with 100% SAHARA GUITAR, ready to take on the world, with those swinging melodies, like a sandstorm blowing in from across the sea. Etran de L’Aïr are 100% SAHARA, and that goes same…

  • Music

    Ambient Folklore – Bestiary

    June 15, 2024 - By 

    The Bulgarian band Ambient Folklore have a new album out, and it surpasses any neofolk/dark-folk album I’ve heard over the past two years.  The sounds on this record are heavy and foreboding, made more so by very prominent hurdy-gurdy expertly played by Petar Delchev.  It sounds as if mid-period Death In June discovered Balkan music and incorporated local instruments into their sound, but with better recording production.  A gorgeous album.

  • Music

    Chiyomi Yamada – Gilyak Songs

    May 27, 2024 - By 

    From Chiyomi Yamada’s Bandcamp site: “Piano songs by the Japanese composer Akira Ifukube (1914–2006), interpreted by , voice, and Reiko Yamada, piano. Ifukube, who also composed the theme song of “Godzilla”, wrote these magical pieces based on traditional songs from native tribes of northern Japan. The sound and style of this music are somewhere between western contemporary and eastern traditional music, creating a unique fusion of musical and aesthetic elements. The piano songs are complemented with an epic piece for classical guitar solo by Ifukube, played by the Dutch guitarist David van Ooijen.”

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    Bahareh Fayazi & Asareh Shek – Nasim-e Sahar

    March 23, 2024 - By 

    From the Little Axe Bandcamp site: “Nasim-e Sahar (The Breath of the Dawn) by Asareh Shekarchi (on tombak and āvāz), and Bahareh Fayazi (on tar) is a reinterpretation of works by master Iranian singer Reza-Qoli Mirza Zelli (1906 – 1946). This recording features a variety of modal divisions of Iranian music with poetry that speaks of both earthly and mystical love stories. Sparse and powerful, Nasim-e Sahar showcases the technical virtuosity and improvisational mastery of these two artists. By reinterpreting the masterpieces of a male singer, Bahareh and Asareh, two young women, promise the dawn of a new age in…

  • Music

    Various Artists – Antonovka Records: Made in Davlekanovo: Russian and Chuvash Songs from Bashkortostan

    March 12, 2024 - By 

    The brilliant folks at Antonovka Records continue to amaze and delight with their travelogues across Russia, Moldova and the Balkans.  This particular recording covers an area I have ready plenty about, but have not yet passed through.  From the label’s Bandcamp site for this release: “The album features Russian folk songs in stage arrangements, as well as a couple of Chuvash ones (tracks 5-7). These are performed by musicians from the Davlekanovsky district of Bashkortostan, a republic in the southern Urals within Russian Federation. Some of the songs (for example, 3) are traditional of local origin, some are Cossack ones…

  • Music

    Úzgin Űver – Patak

    March 11, 2024 - By 

    Our dear friends at the Lollipoppe Shoppe released a stunning slice of psychedelic folk prog that came out in 2018 and holds up beautifully six years later.  From the label’s Bandcamp site: “In the music of Úzgin Űver traditional folk is stretched far beyond the average world music. Of course, this calm, psychedelic, rich and scale-based instrumental process music draws from a mix of genres and methods, and has an ancient layer as well as some unique velvety emotional and electric charge. The disregard for any current trends gives the music a timeless attraction, and yet takes you on a…