Inhaltsverzeichnis für October 2024 in Songlines

One frustrating aspect of being a music editor or journalist is the complete inability to listen to music without analysing it. It’s my Achilles heel. Take WOMAD this year, for instance. I barely saw a handful of full sets by any artist, the rest of the time I was jumping between sets trying to see as much music as humanly possible. After all, how often do I get the chance to see so many artists from around the world in one place? Leaving before the end feels disrespectful towards the artists but I always reason it out by imagining someone tapping me on the shoulder and saying “I know you’re enjoying this, but do you fancy seeing a group of Togolese feminist singers backed by a guy making beats that…

WOMAD 2024 It was another fine celebration of global music with emotions turned up to full at Charlton Park in Wiltshire on July 24-27 this year. The ever-present sunshine saw blissful sets from The Zawose Queens, WITCH, Amadou & Mariam and Bala Desejo, with Ars Nova Napoli, Kumbia Boruka, Bixiga 70 and especially Gogol Bordello cranking up the energy levels. While Eugene Hütz (of Gogol Bordello) and co parsed the war in Ukraine with fierce abandon, the war in Gaza offered more sombre moments, with both EMELEL and The Breath paying tribute to those who’ve lost their lives, while Palestine’s DAM understandably provided one of the most emotive sets of the weekend, stopping their set at regular intervals for the crowd to sing ‘free, free Palestine.’ With Leyla McCalla, Soema…

Wordville Press have published Moving Music – The Memoirs of Rikki Stein, an autobiography from renowned music manager Stein who worked with Morocco’s Master Musicians of Joujouka, Glastonbury and Jimi Hendrix, but is perhaps best known as a longstanding manager of Fela Kuti, An interview with Stein will feature in our next issue. A second season of Movement with Meklit Hadero, a podcast from Ethiopian-American singer Meklit Hadero which addresses migration has begun. Daymé Arocena, Buscabulla and Sid Sriram are some of the new guests. Not only has a new album been unearthed from Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan but a documentary, aiming to be the definitive biopic, is nearing completion. Produced by Saiyna Bashir Studios, an Islamabad-based company, Ustad will be released at the end of 2025. A Ballad of…

Zoufris Maracas ‘La Douce Illusion (feat LUIZA)’ The Franco-Algerian nine-piece continue to delight with this short but sweet offering. A cheerful guitar line, displaying their fondness for Gypsy jazz, is offset by a sombre melody, sung in harmony to great effect. Public Service Broadcasting ‘The South Atlantic (feat This is the Kit)’ A song about Amelia Earhart’s third successful transatlantic flight, it’s cascading and contemplative, achieving what J. Willgoose, Esq. set out to create: “something that would sound nice while looking out an aeroplane window.” Goat ‘Ouroboros’ Experimental psych rockers Goat don’t disappoint with this new track. With a bassline that wouldn’t be out of place on a Prodigy album and sounds sampled from all over the world, ‘Ouroboros’ shouldn’t work, but it does. Jake Blount & Mali Obomsawin ‘My…

London-based artist Ben Edge has made it his job to document Britain’s rituals since he first stumbled across a druid-led Spring Equinox ceremony in the incongruous situ of Tower Hill. Since then, he has visited, painted, filmed, researched and photographed countless rituals all over Britain – we interviewed Edge in #194 if you’d like to find out more. He has already put his hand to many much-loved exhibitions, publications and documentaries, and now he is set to release a new book, Folklore Rising, a diary filled with over 200 paintings and photographs that show Edge’s journey and also acts as a fine calendar for anyone wanting to find out about Britain’s very-much-active traditions. Here, we bring you a small selection of images from one specific ritual, the Abbots Bromley Horn…

A brand new event, BUNGAY FOLK FESTIVAL (September 6-8), will be taking place in the small Suffolk town of Bungay with Sam Kelly and Jamie Francis, Solana and The Shackleton Trio headlining alongside dances and workshops. Another new folk festival is FOLK ON THE COAST (September 13-15) taking place on the Wirral with an enviable line-up of Martin Carthy, Martyn Joseph, Martin Simpson, The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican, Jackie Oates, John Spiers and more. Folk trio TARREN have announced a UK tour: Poole (Sept 17), Winchester (Sept 18), London (Sept 19), St Leonard’s On Sea (Sept 20), Newcastle (Sept 26), Rossendale (Sept 27), Nuneaton (Oct 2), Pontypridd (Oct 4), Bristol (Oct 26). LISA KNAPP & GERRY DIVER will be playing their first-ever duo show at Hartlepool Folk Festival (Oct…

The stone of St Magnus Cathedral is a rosy pink, but you’d never know from the projections on the wall in vivid yellow, red, green and purple from medieval manuscripts and from stained glass windows. I’m at a promenade performance in the St Magnus Festival in Orkney in which we are free to wander around the cathedral while projections are beamed at the walls and different ensembles play 14 different pieces, ranging from the anonymous ‘Hymn to St Magnus’ and John Dowland to James Macmillan and Arvo Pärt – plus some Orkney folk music. It really does create a sense of the history of the place, juggled between Britain and Scandinavia over hundreds of years. Magnus was murdered between 1116 and 1118 with an axe to the head in a…

IS THERE A LYRIC OF A SONG THAT YOU PERFORM THAT YOU COULD EXPAND UPON FOR OUR READERS – SO THEY MIGHT BEGIN TO UNDERSTAND THIS CLOSE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SUNG LANGUAGE AND RITUAL? One quite transparent example is [‘Raslo Je Drvo Topolovo’], a song sung during Slava, St Patron’s Day. Each family has its protector of the family; mine is St Archangel Michael and it is an inevitable ritual among the Serbs, with a complex protocol – in some regions, for example, they still keep the order of some 80 toasts… This song is sung when the guests are seated around the festive table. There is one leader of the song, and the others accompany. I adopted it from Olga Krasojević, my closest and most important teacher, from the village…

‘Let No Man Steal Your Thyme’ goes by many titles and melodies: ‘The Seeds of Love’, ‘The Sprig of Thyme’ and ‘Come All You Garners Gay’ are just some examples. It was first popularised by Cecil Sharp who overheard a gardener, John England, singing it in Somerset in 1903. The rumour goes that it was first noted down in 1689 by Mrs Fleetwood Habergam of Lancashire, though folklorist Roy Palmer considers this idea “almost certainly unfounded.” What is known is that early broadsheets of the song can be traced back to the 1700s and the song itself is thought to predate those, possibly into the preceding century. It hasn’t stopped being recorded since Sharp first took note of it and Joseph Taylor recorded it on wax cylinder in 1908. Most…

Compilations are often challenging endeavours, requiring each artist to shine individually while fitting into the overall project’s sonic coherence. Frequently, compilations can sound disjointed, like a forced amalgamation of disparate elements. They sometimes obscure their unified goal behind a mishmash of abrasive noise. However, LEHREIN, the latest compilation out of South Asia deftly avoids these pitfalls. Released by Karachi-based independent label and design studio, GRUV. COAST Records, the compilation is in support of the Palestinian people’s right to freedom and autonomy, with all funds raised heading to the Palestinian Children Relief Fund. By creating ethereal landscapes of sounds and voices, artists from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka seamlessly interlock like pieces of a puzzle. Translated as ‘Currents’ in Urdu and Hindi, LEHREIN symbolises the “reverberations taking place between…

Anne Templer Anne is a conductor, percussionist and writer who has contributed to a variety of music magazines, including BBC Music and Songlines. She speaks to Omid Djalili about his varied musical passions on p70 Torben Holleufer Torben is a Danish music journalist with a strong interest in the Sufi mystics of North and West Africa. He has travelled frequently to Morocco and Mali, and salutes 25 editions of the Gnawa Festival on p42 April Clare Welsh April is a culture writer from London, based in Lisbon. She is interested in global electronic, folk and experimental sounds, especially Portuguese-language artists, and profiles Marta Pereira da Costa on p18 Songlines was launched in 1999 and is the definitive magazine for world music – music that has its roots in all parts…

CANADA: Two Indigenous artists, Jeremy Dutcher and Elisapie, have been nominated for the Polaris Music Prize 2024, for their respective albums, Motewolonuwok and Inuktitut. Allison Russell’s The Returner has also been nominated… COLOMBIA: following popular single ‘Catalina’ with Cimafunk, Bogotá-based ensemble Monsieur Periné have released ‘Jardín del Paraíso’, featuring Afro-Colombian big band Bejuco, in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund. The song aims to raise awareness of deteriorating wetlands due to the climate crisis, and is being released ahead of COP16World Biodiversity Summit, which will take place in Cali, Colombia in October… NIGERIA: Numero Group have announced an extensive reissue campaign for The Lijadu Sisters, identical twin sisters whose mix of Afrobeat, funk, reggae, rock, disco and soul has legendary status, though has often not provided the sisters with the respect…

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 Research Notes Your editorial in issue #200 led me to do an analysis of my copies of Songlines going back to issue #2. I cross-referenced this with my collection of world music albums to produce a rough and ready hit list of artists to seek out on YouTube (or maybe purchase in physical form). By the way, I counted only four issues with Mariza as a cover artist! One area under-represented on your covers is Australasia & Pacific (one for the late Gurrumul). The rise of digital downloads and streaming services in recent years has led to the demise of many record shops and public library music sections, also printed reference works. The…

“Evo meni moga i mojega!” Svetlana Spajić proclaims, gesturing dramatically with hands and eyes. Her voice is filled with grandeur, as each Serbian word resonates with a clarity and depth that only a vocalist of Spajić’s ability can produce. “Evo, doš’o meni sivi soko! You understand?!” I don’t. At least, not the words, but the meaning and intention are clear, and this is her point. Svetlana is demonstrating a traditional, local mode of speech, welcoming an imagined guest into her home, bound in poetic language and ritual. “This world of orality was so developed among our [Serbian] ancestors,” Spajić explains. “The word, and what you communicate, it was so important.” These linguistic explorations underpin Spajić’s work, itself spanning time, bringing ancient traditions into new. Gordan is an excellent example. The…

We review full-length world music, roots and folk albums (not singles or EPs), available on CD, digital or vinyl. Please note we only accept digital submissions. Email details of albums to reviews@songlines.co.uk for consideration Amadou & Mariam La Vie est Belle Because Music It’s been 20 years since Amadou & Mariam rocketed into the African superstar league with Dimanche à Bamako, the album produced by Manu Chao that sold half a million copies worldwide. And it’s now been seven years since their last album of new songs. But here’s an 18-track compilation that sets out to show that the Malian couple love to collaborate. It of course includes their slinky and charming new single ‘Mogolu’ along with reminders of past glories and remixes. The set kicks off with the Damon…

Moreno Veloso is, of course, one of the sons of Caetano Veloso. He shares that soft alluring falsetto of his father and at times on Mundo Paralelo (Benguela) you could close your eyes and it could be Caetano singing. They also share a love of melodic sambas in the style of Dona Ivone Lara, of which this album is chock full. ‘A Donzela Se Casou’ is an exercise in creating a samba from the simplest of elements, I’ve seen Moreno on stage create a samba just using a plate and a knife and here he explores, in the same spontaneous fashion, an infectious rhythm from scraping cutlery with a beautiful melody in the style of a roda de samba accompanied by the voices of his father, his aunt Maria Bethânia,…

Buzz’ Ayaz Buzz’ Ayaz Glitterbeat Records In Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus, there are very real and longstanding physical and political divides between the Greek and Turkish populations. With their debut album, Buzz’ Ayaz seek to transcend barriers and build bridges, incorporating both Greek and Anatolian folk flavours and singing lyrics that mix Greek Cypriot dialect with Turkish words. Their sound is dark and scowling, thanks to idiosyncratic instrumentation. Antonis Antoniou plays an electrified tzouras (a kind of bouzouki), often run through a wah-wah pedal and other gnarled effects. Manos Stratis contributes stabbing 70s-style organ and rumbling bass synthesizer. Ulaş Öğüç’s bottom-heavy drums summon pounding, tribal beats. And the wild card is British expatriate Will Scott, who adds a murky, electrified bass clarinet. While a brooding, post-punk heaviness is the…

Àbáse Awakening Oshu Records & Analogue Foundation x Bridge The Gap This, the critical second full-length album of Àbáse (stage name of Hungarian keyboardist and producer Szabolcs Bognár) follows up Laroyê, his acclaimed Afro-Brazilian inspired debut, a Top of the World in Songlines #173. Newly based in Berlin, Bognár takes fusion to further levels with Awakening, mixing influences, from Hungarian folk to Lagos Afrobeat, techno, hip-hop and more; collaborating with the city’s leading jazz musicians from Australia, Ghana, Germany and Hungary. A clear jazz motif connects each of the 12 tracks, which are neatly balanced between upbeat and reflective. A balance which perhaps expresses Bognár’s spiritual beliefs: ‘… the way we experience life on earth … will shift upon our transition or ‘death’, and it’s only a pathway to something…

Maçalê (Tratore / Fonomatic, 2010) The title of Santana’s ground-breaking debut translates roughly as ‘You are one with your essence.’ The album was well received and the ravishing ‘Reverência’ encapsulates his musical essence, foreshadowing what was to come. The Invention of Colour (ajabu!, 2013) The second release and first for ajabu! received a five-star review in Songlines #94 and prompted comparisons with Nick Drake, whom Santana doesn’t cite as a particular influence. It remains arguably the artist’s masterpiece. Tempo & Magma (ajabu!, 2015) The double album of ‘Interior’ and ‘Anterior’ sides (reviewed in #106) features a re-working of its predecessor’s opener, ‘Encarnacões em Kodya’, a guest appearance by Céu and Santana’s supporting cast of West African musicians. Tiganá Santana, Sebastian Notini & Ldson Galter Milagres (Martin Hossbach, 2020) Something of…

How has your summer been? Ours has been quite late-blooming but is here with a balmy vengeance now. After last month’s worrying about the folk festivals it was nice to dive into a flourishing Sidmouth, and I’m about to head to FolkEast for the full weekend, celebrating their 12th year and their last at the lovely Glemham Hall. So for a bit of fun [editor] Russ has suggested this month that we look at little weirdnesses, little rituals that we all must for some reason adhere to and perform, whether traditional or practised within our lovely familial bubbles of weirdness. I took to the socials, and… wow. I have some truly strange friends! Here we go! First, the obvious ones: Magpies. Two rhymes for our black and white boss birds,…

Bob Marley & The Wailers Exodus (Island Records, 1977) I listened to this album a lot growing up, and it really was my introduction to topics like politics, governance and racism… When you grow up in Ghana, you can’t comprehend what racism is, it’s not something you experience first-hand until you go to Europe. So, Exodus was my door into that world. It was a charged and revolutionary album. As well as that, it also opened my eyes to a new way of storytelling which is at once very simplistic and very powerful. Reggae uses a lot of idioms, and as I’m not English, I found this approach to writing really inspirational. A lot of people say that they can hear the reggae in my voice – and I think…

There was quite a line-up on August 2 in St Marien – the oldest church in the heart of Osnabrück, Germany – for the opening concert of Morgenland Festival, which was celebrating its 20th anniversary. Performers included singers Dima Orsho and Ibrahim Keivo, both from Syria, as well as Syrian clarinettist Kinan Azmeh, singing and playing love songs in Kurdish, Armenian and Arabic. These performers, dubbed the Morgenland All Star Band, are regulars at the festival and the profile of all of them has certainly been raised by the event, which specialises in music from the Middle East and North Africa. The super-reverberant acoustics of the large 15th-century church were a challenge, the solo voice of Orsho, with red hair and dress to match, echoing throughout the building. Her notes…

Dame Evelyn Glennie is a two-time Grammy winner and the world’s premier solo percussionist. Raymond Antrobus is a poet and writer with an MBE, a Ted Hughes Award and a cult following for his debut 2019 collection The Perseverance. That they both happen to be deaf is incidental to Another Noise, an album recorded in a single afternoon at Glennie’s headquarters in Cambridgeshire. “In all my years of playing, collaborating with a poet is something I’ve never done,” says the Aberdeenshire-born Glennie, 59, who has recorded almost 50 albums and worked with everyone from Björk and Béla Fleck to Bobby McFerrin and film-maker Danny Boyle. “It’s an entirely new approach.” Featuring 12 short pieces recorded in real time – Glennie fashioned soundscapes that unfolded as Antrobus spoke – Another Noise…

WIN Mari Boine p34 We have three CD copies of Alva to give away. To enter, answer: What is the title of the song on Alva which Boine wrote for her son? Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan p46 You could receive one of three Chain of Light CDs. To enter, answer: In what year did Khan’s epic first performance at WOMAD take place? Tiganá Santana p72 Three Caçada Noturna CDs are up for grabs. To enter, answer: What is the title of the first album Santana released with Sebastian Notini? 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 and…

MANSOUR SECK (1955-2024): Seck recorded several solo albums, most notably for Sterns Africa in the 90s, but it is for his collaborations and friendship with Baaba Maal that he is best known. The two of recorded Djam Leelii together in Paris in 1984. With Maal singing in Pulaar, a Fulani language of northern Senegal, accompanied by Seck on acoustic guitar and vocals, the album was intended to be sold as a cassette in West Africa, but Lucy Durán heard it while in Gambia and passed it on to radio broadcaster Charlie Gillett. Soon enough John Peel was playing it on BBC Radio 1 and the editor/journalist Ian A Anderson got the rights to release it to English audiences on CD via Rogue Records. The album launched Maal’s career and the…

WHAT DOES THE WORD ‘RITUAL’ MEAN TO YOU? Mari: Ritual for me means a state of mind where you show gratitude to the Universal Mother, Sáráhkká, or some of the other helpers. You are in touch with a humbleness, you remind yourself that you are not alone in the world, that you are part of a unity with nature, the animals and other human beings. And you show gratitude for all the blessings the spirits give you. WHAT PART DO RITUALS PLAY IN YOUR MUSICAL PRACTICE? I often feel my concerts are rituals on top of being normal concerts. WHEN YOU SAY THAT YOUR CONCERTS ARE RITUALS, ARE THEY RITUALS FOR YOU, FOR YOUR AUDIENCE? I don’t think I can explain it more than to say that the concerts are…

WHAT DOES THE WORD ‘RITUAL’ MEAN TO YOU? Well, whatever you do in a certain order, has the potential to become a ritual. In a deeper understanding, it is a procedure that can directly, not symbolically, change and transform the realities of this world into icons of the world coming from the future of the eschatological time and space. Thus, the rituals engage a maximum of responsibility, we shouldn’t forget that in this historic world, the icons of hell also exist. WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY ‘ICONS OF HELL’? The icon of hell is this world itself when it is isolating, fragmenting, killing, not loving. It is connected with the understanding of the icons in Orthodox Christianity. The icons communicate, so to say, God’s unseen realities. They are like an interface…

After performing at the first editions of the Gnawa Festival in 1998 and 1999, Loy Ehrlich became one of its artistic directors, a position he held from 2000 until 2010. He reflects on his history with the festival and how he became involved with the Gnawa. WHEN WERE YOU FIRST INTRODUCED TO GNAWA? Loy: I was 20 when I first went to Morocco in 1972. Essaouira was a hippie spot. So I came there, I met my girlfriend there, and that’s how I met Africa and the Moroccan life… The first time I heard [Gnawa music] I was in Marrakech, there’s a place called Jemaa el-Fnaa, a big square, where everything happens. The Gnawa were hitting their drums all day long. I could hear it from all over the city.…

When Danyèl Waro won the WOMEX Artist Award in 2010, it represented a long overdue recognition for the raw rhythms of maloya and the Creole culture of his island home of La Réunion in the Indian Ocean. A longtime champion of the traditional music inherited from the days of slavery, in Waro’s hands the percussion-heavy call-and-response chants became a dynamic symbol of national identity and a vibrant expression of the ongoing struggle for autonomy from the island’s French rulers. He first brought his earthy take on maloya to the attention of a wider audience in the 1990s/2000s with a series of fine albums for the French-based Buda label. Originally released in 2001, Bwarouz (Babani Records) was the second of them and if you’re new to the delights of maloya, this…

It’s been a joy seeing the rise of Northwest Coast Native American music recently. Recent albums from Saltwater Hank and Khu.éex’ have shone a light on songcraft in the Ts’msyen and Haida languages respectively, and with Nusximta (Nuxalk Radio), the debut from a collective of singers and radio hosts called Nuxalk Radio, we have a new album, and one of the few entirely in the Nuxalk language from around Bella Coola, British Columbia. With just four fluent speakers of the Nuxalk language left, the Nuxalk Radio station was formed to promote learning the language for the Nuxalkmc. The hosts from the radio took it upon themselves to record an album of new songs, and it’s remarkable. You can hear the deep traditions in the singing, and some songs sound like…

TOP OF THE WORLD TRACK 10 Niloy Ahsan Breathing Raga Worlds Within Worlds Breathing Raga is heaven, a full dhrupad performance of raag Bhairav, from alap to bandish (composition). The singer here is Niloy Ahsan, and on the showing of this recording, one of South Asia’s most stunning musical traditions is in very good hands. The slow (vilambit) alap is superb, both musically systematic and showing off his extraordinary range: The low reverberations are thrilling and this deep register is used as an effective punctuation to accelerate into the medium (madhya) and fast (drut) sections. These give a truly passionate rendition of the raga, coupled with a deeply embedded sense of tradition and a musical logic that pins it all together. The alap builds thrillingly to the introduction of the…

TRYP TYCH TRYO’s Wojtek Mazolewski Where are you based? I’ve been living in Warsaw for several years. Is it home? I come from Gdańsk, on the Baltic coast of Poland. How would you describe the atmosphere where you live? Vibrant and creative. Cities like Warsaw and Gdańsk, along with many others… boast numerous clubs and festivals. The music scene has been evolving since the early 1990s, marking the regaining of our independence. Notably, the yass [Polish avant-garde jazz] scene emerged in Gdańsk during this time, where musicians from diverse backgrounds and traditions converged to explore improvised music, blending their previous styles like jazz, improvised music, punk rock and folk. This movement mirrored the contemporary London scene. Today, a new generation of musicians infuses the scene with fresh energy and innovation.…

Omid Djalili is one of those personalities who everyone has probably seen in something. Whether it be in stand-up comedy, film, television or theatre, the British Iranian has had a tremendously versatile career. Regularly appearing in Hollywood blockbusters, on British television or performing in sell-out West End musicals and comedy shows, Djalili has rarely been out of work. A life-long Bahá’í, he continues to raise awareness for human rights, using his high profile to draw attention to women’s inequality and religious inequality in Iran. The road to this tremendous success, however, hasn’t always been smooth and there have been a few false starts, including a brief period as a musician… OK, it only lasted two gigs, but as a young man, this West Londoner played with the emerging jazz musician…

01 Sheila Chandra ABoneCroneDrone (Real World, 1996) Anglo-Indian Sheila Chandra started out as an actress before forming pioneering fusion band Monsoon, which blended Western and Indian pop. A switch to a more vocal-led, ambient approach saw Chandra relocate to Real World for a stunning trilogy of albums, of which this is the third – a potent mix of layered vocals, natural sounds and subtly evolving drones. It’s a record of endlessly spiralling mystique. 02 Arushi Jain Under the Lilac Sky (Leaving Records, 2021) Vocalist and ‘modular synthesist’ Arushi Jain combines classical Hindustani and electronic music on this, her beguiling debut. Jain’s vocals are captivating, sweet and ringing, set free to fly through slowly unfolding washes of synth. Hints of sitar and other instruments flutter around the edges, but it’s the…