• Music

    Syriana – H​ā​rim

    October 21, 2023 - By 

    Syriana are an interesting project released by Real World Records.  Here’s the back story, courtesy of the label’s Bandcamp site: “In 2010 Syriana’s album The Road to Damascus presented a musical reflection by Nick Page & Bernard O’Neill of their take on the geopolitical landscape surrounding Syria at the time. Sadly their assertions that a third cold war was being initiated in that region were proved to be true and the conflict and upheaval that followed destroyed much of the rich cultural heritage of the region and dispersed millions of its people. Now in 2023 the new Syriana album 1325…

  • Music

    Hani from Yunnan China – Hani Polyphonic Singing in Yunnan China

    October 10, 2023 - By 

    From our friends at Sublime Frequencies: “Mystic choral beauty drifting far into the outer cosmos, this other worldly traditional music ensemble creates a contemporary-sounding avant-garde vocal fusion combined with strange instrumental accompaniment. The HANI are linguistically derived from the YI branch of the Tibeto-Burmese and number a million and a half in the southern part of Yunnan province in China above Laos and Vietnam where smaller Hani communities also live. As with many other ethnic groups of the area, an original traditional singing pattern is used with each singer adapting the words to the context. The choir that gathers all…

  • Music

    Girma Yifrashewa – My Strong Will

    September 2, 2023 - By 

    Girma Yifrashewa is a graduate of the Yared School of Music in Addis Ababa, and continued his studies at the Sofia State Conservatory of Music in Bulgaria.  This new work of his combines Ethiopian instrumentation with classical music, and it blends together quite well.

  • Music

    Auļi – Ķekat​ā​s

    August 25, 2023 - By 

    Six pipes, three drummers, a bassist and a massive wall of sound are what Latvian band Auļi offer, and this album shows the band collaborating with a score of modern musicians updating a powerful ethnic sound.  According to the Bandcamp site, “this album is dedicated to the Latvian masquerade traditions in winter. Starting from the Winter Solstice and ending with Meteņi.”

  • Music

    Abatwa (The Pygmy) – Why Did We Stop Growing Tall?

    August 12, 2023 - By 

    Glitterbeat Records is the label which should be thanked for publishing The Abatwa, a collection of Pygmy artists from Rwanda.  Here are some notes by album producer Ian Brennan, courtesy of Forced Exposure: “The Abatwa (“pygmy”) tribe is identified as one of the most marginalized, voiceless and endangered populations in Africa. In fact, their name is frequently taken in vain as a generalized slur towards others unrelated to them. Still, many among their group prefer the term to the official, PC mouthful/post-genocidal replacement moniker that they have been straddled with out of clear overcompensation: ‘The people who were left behind…

  • Music

    Jack Mayesh – You Carry My Hope: Judeo​-​Spanish Songs in Los Angeles, Sept. 1942 – Feb. 1943

    August 2, 2023 - By 

    Canary Records is at it again.  As a Los Angelino, I have to say I didn’t know there was much of a Judeo-Spanish community here, though it does make sense, as many Spanish and Mexican families may very well have Sephardic roots hidden from the Catholic majority.  The recordings are spectacular considering the age of the shellacs (thanks to Ian Nagoski’s incredible mastering work), and it’s nice to hear Jack Mayesh crooning in a Spanish from another angle.

  • Music

    Yunchi Ensemble – Aleksandrovka, Milyanfan: Dungan Music from Kyrgyzstan

    July 22, 2023 - By 

    Yet another amazing collection has been released by Antonovka Records, now based in Moldova.  This collection features a Chinese Muslim ethnic group called the Dungan who live in the passes between Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, and surprisingly, they don’t write in Chinese, but in Cyrillic! From Antonovka’s Bandcamp site: “Most of the members of the ensemble Yunchi (“Happiness”) live in two Dungan villages in the Chuy region of Kyrgyzstan – Aleksandrovka and Milyanfan. Aleksandrovka is located in the Moskva district to the west of Bishkek. The village was named after the Emperor Alexander II of Russia, during whose reign the Dungans…

  • Music

    Baklava – From Skopje With Love

    July 18, 2023 - By 

    Our friends over at the indomitable CPL-Music have released a charming disc of traditional music from my second homeland of Skopje, Macedonia!  Baklava, the subject of today’s listening, work with folk music and does sterling work reinterpreting it for a more modern, updated sound.  Speaking of that sound, the band develop it with a wealth of instruments, including ancient local ones like the tambura, the kaval and the daf, as well as bagpipes, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, accordion and (the very much non-Macedonian) ukulele.  The music is upbeat, fun, and shines a good light on the wonders of (North) Macedonian music.

  • Music

    Charif Megarbane – Marzipan

    July 13, 2023 - By 

    Habibi Funk presents the latest release of Beirut, Lebanon’s most prolific producer, Charif Megarbane.  Though there are only two tracks available to listen to on Bandcamp, you can surely find more tracks to hear on quality sites like Qobuz or Deezer to check out the album in its entirety.  From the Habibi Funk Bandcamp release site: “Following his previous release of EP “Tayara Warak” in 2022, “Marzipan” is a sonic journey that seeks to capture the full scope of Charif Megarbane’s habitus in 17 tracks. As a composer and producer, Megarbane touts hugely versatile, sometimes volatile musicianship—his 100+ catalogue of…