Table of contents for December 2024 in Songlines

We must all have a favourite guitarist. Mine is the Uruguayan Eduardo Mateo. I will always remember the first time I heard his music, when I stumbled across his debut Mateo Solo Bien Se Lame album. The sound of that guitar, the rhythms he plays; 20 years later and I still don’t understand how those sounds come from his hands. And for me, it’s all about the rhythm. Guitar virtuosos cramming as many notes as they can into a song holds no sway for me, I like rhythms – no surprise that Jorge Ben Jor is another personal favourite – with a healthy dose of knowing just which melody will add something to a song and that characteristic that makes all music stand out: invention. In this issue, we wanted…

AFGHANISTAN: Elaha Soroor has released a new single, ‘Naan, Kar, Azadi!’ (Bread, Work, Freedom!), which she has called ‘a tribute to our sisters in Afghanistan as they continue to fight for their rights, standing tall, strong and proud in the face of adversity.’ The single’s release follows the imposing of further restrictions on women’s rights by the country’s Taliban government… ARGENTINA: Lali Espósito has stirred controversy with new single ‘Fanático’, which has been cited as a satirical criticism of the country’s president Javier Milei by many media sources. The single became an international YouTube trend on release and one of the most streamed songs in Argentina. Meanwhile, Milei caused controversy himself after a speech he gave to the UN was revealed to be very similar to a monologue from TV…

Tlalli It’s a bit of a trek to reach Plan B Organic Farms – about an hour from Toronto – but Tlalli Festival (September 21) is worth the journey. Founded by Quique Escamilla, a Juno award-winning Mayan Zapotec singer-songwriter from Mexico, the festival is a wonderful lesson in the art of slow living. Tlalli, which means ‘earth’ in the Nahuatl language of the ancient Mexicas, is a one-day celebration now in its third iteration. The festival presents music, dance and culinary traditions celebrating ancestral connections between Indigenous Peoples from across the Americas. The line-up includes XOCÔ, a descendant of the Xukurú, Pataxó and Pankararún nations of northeastern Brazil, who shares raucously joyful Afro-Indigenous Brazilian percussion, chants and dance. Anahi Mariluan, from Argentina, sings in Mapudungun, the language of the Mapuche…

The Breath - Keep It Safe The Manchester duo have released a four-track EP recorded during the Land of My Other album sessions. The title-track is a delicate pining for home, while ‘Too Many Have Gone’ is a powerful lament for lives lost around the world. Roger Damawuzan & Les As Du Benin-Tropicana Souvenir Vol 2 (Alternate Version) Hot Casa Records have just reissued this 1981 gem. Known as the ‘James Brown of Lomé’, Damawuzan moves away from funk on this frenetic release to embrace something entirely different. Sophie Castillo ‘Fuegolento (feat Desta French)’ Two of the hottest women in London’s Latin scene meet on ‘Fuegolento’, switching between rapping and singing in English and Spanish. Heady, hypnotic beats and the occasional strum of a harp help create a fiery, female-forward track.…

Born in Austin, Texas to parents who migrated from Mexico to the US, for the past 20 years Alex E Chávez has led two careers, one as an in-demand musician, singer and producer, most notably as a member of the gloriously groovy Dos Santos. On the other hand, he’s an academic and researcher, currently a professor of anthropology at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. These two paths have frequently crossed, but have now combined perfectly on his debut solo album Sonorous Present. The idea for this record came about in 2019 when Chávez staged an improvised performance based on the music and ideas he’d presented in Sounds of Crossing, an academic book that had been published two years earlier. The book brought together his research into Mexico’s huapango…

Get in touch – we’d love to hear from you! WEBSITE songlines.co.uk EMAIL letters@songlines.co.uk X @SonglinesMag FACEBOOK facebook.com/songlines INSTAGRAM @SonglinesMag Connecting through Nusrat I took a taxi ride this morning. The driver was Pakistani. Making conversation, I said that I had been listening to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan on the Songlines CD last night. The driver lit up and told me that he had met Nusrat a few times, including when he booked him to sing at a cousin’s wedding. I said that I had seen him perform at St George’s Hall, Bradford not long before he died. We both agreed that Nusrat had been a genius. It’s surprising what can happen on a rainy Saturday morning in Cleckheaton! Best wishes, Eric Fairchild, Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire Gone with the Gig Guide? I have…

BaBa ZuLa İstanbul Sokakları Glitterbeat Records Hailed as ‘legendary’ this Istanbul-based four piece has been creating music best described as psychedelic for almost 30 years and it is no surprise to find them on Glitterbeat Records – a label well known for related artists such as Altın Gün. BaBa ZuLa fully embody a kind of global esoteric mystique, formerly performing with a live drawing artist and still dressing kaleidoscopically: picture a surfeit of multicoloured paisley and animal masks. Led by Murat Ertel on vocals and electric saz, the group create a hazy ether of drone and improvised melody, with hypnotic riffs and intoning vocals. Traditional Anatolian motifs, percussion and ululations sit alongside programmed beats, field recordings and soaking wet delay. Ertel is subverting the improvisational tradition of taksim somewhat by…

CACHA MUNDINHO’s Joana Almeida Where are you based, and how long have you been there? I’ve been based in Amsterdam since 2020. It’s been a fascinating journey so far, filled with opportunities to grow. Is it home? And if not, where is? Amsterdam now feels like home. The city has embraced me, and I’ve built a life here, but my roots are in a small village in northern Portugal, near Porto, right on the Atlantic coast. It’s where I grew up, surrounded by nature. All my family lives there and I visit them very often. How would you describe the current atmosphere in Amsterdam? [It’s] incredibly multicultural. Growing up, all my friends were Portuguese, but now my circle includes people from all over the world – Germany, Argentina, Japan, Syria,…

Born in Rio de Janeiro, award-winning Brazilian author and poet Adriana Lisboa has, from childhood, been infused with a love of music – reflecting a nationwide spirit. “In Brazil,” she explains, “it’s ingrained in the soul – a way of manifesting feeling.” The country’s geographical location has long welcomed a wide mix of influences, leading to a vibrant cultural outpouring. “One of the bands that I really like,” says Lisboa, by way of example, “that was active in the 1970s is called Os Novos Baianos. They would mix folkloric instruments with electric guitar and drums. Nobody had done that before. So Brazilian music has an ability, I think, to put together things that wouldn’t normally fit in a very creative and unique way.” Lisboa’s parents were musical. “My mother played…

Marc Ribot y Los Cubanos Postizos Marc Ribot y Los Cubanos Postizos (The Prosthetic Cubans) (Atlantic, 1998) The debut by Marc Ribot y Los Cubanos Postizos calls on downtown colleagues, including keyboardists John Medeski and Anthony Coleman plus percussionist Robert J Rodriguez, to inject Arsenio Rodríguez’ compositions with irresistible verve and a spiky avant-garde twist. Marc Ribot Plays Solo Guitar Works of Frantz Casseus (Les Disques du Crépuscule, 1993) Ribot interprets compositions by his early mentor, the father of Haitian classical guitar, fusing European classical tradition with elements of Haitian folk. Recorded in New York in 1989 and 1993, the album was overseen and approved by Casseus himself, who died the year it was released. Soundtracks Volume 2 (Tzadik, 2003) Short pieces written for films released between 1999 and 2004…

“Have you ever worn a backpack?” North Korean refugees tell me that this is code for asking if a friend within North Korea has any BTS songs. K-pop is banned in the isolated country, and young people found with recordings have in recent years faced imprisonment and even death by firing squad. North Korea is a violent state. A professional violinist, a North Korean refugee now living in Britain, was thrown out of a national arts troupe and forced to work in a mine for three decades. “I slept on rice straw, just like a pig.” The reason: his father had once been a Christian church elder. Britain, perhaps surprisingly, is home to a large North Korean refugee community. Its members keep low profiles, wary lest North Korean agents find…

Now in its sixth edition, Making Tracks is one of those not-to-be-missed occasions once autumn rolls around. Eight young artists, each from a different musical world, get together for two weeks of concerted collaboration, which continues to evolve across a two-week tour. This year featured participants from the UK, Syria/Germany, Denmark, Kenya, Xinjiang and Finland (see makingtracksmusic.org/fellows for the full list; they deserve more recognition than can be included here). For this tour’s penultimate concert at London’s Grand Junction, we were treated to two-and-a-half hours of unique team-ups interspersed with solo showcases from each musician. All eight remained on stage throughout, and it was always exciting to see who would stir to join in the next piece – will it be a medley of Newfoundland, Uyghur and Swedish songs? A…

MOMO. p15 Three vinyl copies of MOMO.’s Gira are up for grabs: To enter, tell us Which London venue kick-started the development of MOMO.’s new album? Seckou Keita p28 Answer the following question to win one of three CD copies of Seckou’s Homeland (Chapter 1):  Name the friend, producer and keyboard player who was key to Seckou in making this album. Mostar Sevdah Reunion p32 Win one of three CDs of MSR’s 25th anniversary album, Bosa Mara, by telling us:  What is the English translation of ‘most’ from Mostar’s name? COMPETITIONS Submit your entry for each competition via the website: songlines.co.uk/competitions. Winners will be chosen at random. Only one entry per competition per household. No cash alternatives. If you would prefer not to be sent details of other Songlines products…

Bob Dylan hailed from the northern Minnesota town of Duluth. Decades later, another mighty folk artist, Gaelynn Lea Tressler, 40, has risen from the same remote enclave of less than 87,000 residents. “Musically, people here are proud of Bob Dylan. I don’t know if Bob Dylan cares much about Duluth,” Gaelynn laughs, “But Duluth is very enthusiastic about his being from here.” Jeff Tweedy from Wilco is a fan of Gaelynn’s and states, “Gaelynn makes music that is timeless and singular. It’s serious music that makes you feel lighter, like a weight has been removed.” Bob Boilen, who co-created NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts, formally discovered Gaelynn. He recalls, “What I heard from Gaelynn Lea was stunning. Her performance impressed our contest judges, including Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys. The…

Jake Blount & Mali Obomsawin Where or how does symbiont fit within the Indigenous/Afrofuturist mythology or folklore which you are creating in an expanding catalogue of recorded music? JB: The album’s dire tone, alien soundscapes and embrace of the mystical will lead audiences to consider it a work of speculative fiction, and likely futurism. I’m more ambivalent about that. Most of the events depicted on symbiont are happening now. MO: We found that futurisms serve different purposes… under capitalism and colonialism. I have trouble envisioning utopia or an alternate Native timeline because it would fail to acknowledge that we’re still fighting for our lands under colonialism. I don’t want to envision Indians in space or Indians colonising the moon because we envision us here, where my ancestors envisioned me. You…

Our esteemed Ed this month has asked me to write about guitars. Me. Guitars… Those who know me know that I grew up with a guitar hero for a father, surrounded by people asking me about guitars. I have learned the things I need to know: CGCDGA, zero frets, brass string pins but only on half the strings, D’Addario Heavy Gauge… but I don’t play, and no, there are no tabs for what he does, you just have to work it out for yourself. If you discern a note of weariness in my tone, it’s because I don’t get it! I love music, I love instruments, I love the dedication and love that goes into being a virtuoso of your own vision… I just don’t get why guitars are revered…

The rhythms of contemporary Afro-diasporic electronic music – from the hypnotic thump of dembow and batida to the propulsive grit of gqom – are the focus of an expansive new project from award-winning British-Egyptian historian Dr Hannah Elsisi. Chromesthesia is both a compilation series traversing baile funk, Arabic trap-bow and multiple other styles, and a 13-hour durational performance intended to survey “over a millennium of Afro-diasporic musicking on the move,” Elsisi tells Songlines. At its core, Chromesthesia (denoting the ability to see specific colours when you hear certain sounds) explores the “sonic and sensory rites of African migration” within what Elsisi terms ‘The Global Mangrove Archipelago’, borrowing the term ‘mangrove’ from Caribbean theorist Edouard Glissant to denote former colonial territories held in a liminal space, in the mangrove’s case between…

Migrant musicians have a way of quickly finding their feet within a new community. Not long after moving from Lisbon to London with his partner, a Brazilian friend took Marcelo Frota – or MOMO., as he is known professionally – to Total Refreshment Centre (TRC), the brainchild of Lex Blondin, co-founder of Latin jazz behemoth New Regency Orchestra, in Stoke Newington. There, MOMO. met Alabaster DePlume and other young tyros of London’sn’s new wave jazz scene. The experience would change him – and his music. Born in Minas Gerais in southeast Brazil, MOMO. is the son of a civil engineer and wherever his father went for work, the family would follow. Rio de Janeiro, then Luanda in Angola, then back to Rio, and on to Michigan, Chicago, Spain and Portugal.…

Husband-and-wife folk duo MEGSON (November 2-23) are continuing their 20 Years on the Side UK tour with shows in Diss, Hertford, Norfolk and Bristol. PITCHFORK MUSIC FESTIVAL LONDON (November 5-10) has Arooj Aftab, Mabe Fratti, Sheherazaad and The Los Angeles League of Musicians (LA LOM), bringing their blend of 60s soul ballads and Peruvian chicha to EartH in Hackney on November 9, as part of a fine line-up. GITKIN (November 11-24) is touring the UK and France with a new record, a homage to the eclectic guitar with influences from Peru and Mali, that was inspired by his resettling in New Orleans. KALAA UTSAVAM (November 15-24) have announced a broad programme of Indian arts and culture for their annual festival in Singapore. US singer-songwriter WILLIE WATSON (January 25 – February 1, 2025)…

SRIRANGAM KANNAN (1952-2024) was a revered Carnatic musician, making a name for himself by playing the morsing, a lamellophone mainly used in Rajasthan. A disciple of Sri Pudukkotai S Mahadevan, Kannan toured the world as a musician and received multiple accolades, including the prestigious Kalaimamani Award from the Government of Tamil Nadu and the Lifetime Achievement Award in Carnatic Music from the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam… MICHEL BOYIBANDA (1940-2024): member of the much-lauded Congolese rumba band TPOK. Known for his flamboyant body movements and stunning vocals, Boyibanda cultivated masses of fans, including then President of Kinshasa, Mobutu Sese Seko, who had weekly performances from TPOK in his official residence in Kinshasa. Boyibanda also performed in other groups, including Les Trois Frères and Les Rumbaya International, leaving an indelible mark on the…

Many years ago I was in Iran and Kayhan Kalhor was introducing me to various folk musicians for BBC Radio 3. I recorded an improvised duet of him, the leading classical kamancheh (spike fiddle) player, with Mohammed Bajlavand, a superb folk kamancheh player from Lorestan. It was wonderful hearing the same instrument played in two very different styles. I have just had a similar experience at Jodhpur RIFF festival in Rajasthan with two musicians playing sarangi. One of the highlights this year was the Marwar Malang performance featuring folk sarangi player Asin Khan and classical sarangi player Dilshad Khan – the Little and Large of the sarangi world. Asin is slim while Dilshad is plumper and his instrument has a bigger soundbox and chunky tuning pegs. I heard them in…

When Christy Moore recently announced a series of 12 gigs at Dublin’s Vicar Street, tickets sold out instantly. Described by the Irish Independent as ‘Ireland’s Johnny Cash on a one-way trip to purgatory and salvation,’ Moore’s career is nearing 60 years, yet his popularity may even be growing as new generations discover his music. Moore was born in Naas, Co Kildare, Ireland in 1945. According to his website, while growing up, he ‘could be a right little obnoxious bollix or the nicest lad in Ireland.’ His mother, Nancy, often sang to him from a young age – “I got into songs when I was five,” he told one reporter, “I remember my mother singing ‘20 Tiny Fingers, 20 Tiny Toes’.” He established himself as a folk singer in England in…

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the first release by Mostar Sevdah Reunion (known to its members as MSR), a Bosnian band with a complex history. Their name alone gives an inkling of that history, though there is much more to delve into. To start with: Mostar, the historic capital of Herzegovina, is a Janus-like city, a gatekeeper facing in two directions. Set on the green river Neretva, it marks a transition from the limestone peaks and scrub of the Dinaric highlands to a fertile plain leading to the Mediterranean, planted with orchards and vineyards. Ottoman mosques and fountains, and the soaring arch of the Old Bridge from which the city takes its name (‘most’ means bridge) face stolid Austro-Hungarian hotels and municipal buildings, blocks of flats from socialist…

Bridget & Kitty WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO? Right now we’re listening to the new Shovel Dance collective tracks [reviewed on p61], we’re really enjoying them. We also saw the Kneecap film recently so we’ve been listening to them a lot. Then I [Kitty] have been listening to the new album by Israel Fernández. YOUR ALL-TIME FAVOURITE ALBUMS? Our all time favourites in no particular order are Oberlin 1968 by The Young Tradition, Round Again by Swan Arcade, Early Days by The Watersons and The Glass Trunk by Richard Dawson. MUSICIANS YOU MOST ADMIRE? I think the artists we most admire are people who inspire us in the way they sing, or the way they use politics in their music and often both. We look up to Shirley and Dolly…

TOP OF THE WORLD TRACK 9 Dal:um Coexistence Glitterbeat / tak:til Korean duo Dal:um return for a second album of duelling gayageum and geomungo (plucked zithers from the Korean classical tradition). The opening tracks see Ha Suyean unspooling sinister sequences on her dulcimer-like gayageum while Hwang Hyeyoung makes much of the aggressive potential of the deeper geomungo. It’s all very stirring and cinematic, but the soul of the record reveals itself once the storm subsides. ‘Dodry’ draws from Korean imperial court music. This ritualistic heritage inspires a stately sense of calm, but what might be merely meditative is elevated by an achingly beautiful melody. The soaring bowed strings of ‘Alive’ are similarly affecting, while the impish folk of ‘Poison and Antidote’ and the fugue-like interplay of ‘In the Deep’ also…

On his latest album, Whispering Sky, Tenzin Choegyal, who has been living in exile from Tibet for over 40 years, has recorded a pointedly instrumental version of ‘Gyallu’, the Tibetan national anthem. The origin of the anthem is not definitively known. Some sources state that it ‘was presented to the Dalai Lama in [the 1960s] after he went into exile.’ More commonly, however, it is reported that the anthem was rendered around 1949/50 when China’s annexation of Tibet was underway. This is the history Choegyal recounts, too, telling us, “Lyrics to this song were written around 1950 by Trijang Rinpoche, tutor of the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet.” Rinpoche is unanimously credited as the writer of the anthem’s lyrics, while the melody is supposedly based on an ancient piece of sacred…

01 Dizzy Gillespie Cubana Be, Cubana Bop (Dreyfus Jazz, 2000) In the beginning… This compilation focuses on 1946-1949 when the bebop pioneer hitched the fast-living but short-lived Cuban conguero Chano Pozo to his experimental big band and effectively invented Cubop. Afro-Cuban jazz numbers like the title-track and ‘Manteca’ remain indelible classics. The trumpeter’s love of Cuban and other Latin rhythms would culminate in his mighty United Nation Orchestra. 02 The George Shearing Quintet Latin Affair (Capitol Records, 1959) Who would have predicted that a blind, classically-trained jazz pianist from London would move to the US and create a popular ‘jazz Latin’ cocktail? After leading a more conventional quintet in the 50s, Shearing added Armando Pereza’s congas to a piano, vibes, bass and drums format. This one typifies his sound –…