Indice dei contenuti per October 2022 in Songlines

What an absolute joy it was to be back in the fields of Charlton Park after all these years for WOMAD’s big 40th anniversary. After reading all the wonderful memories we featured last issue, I enjoyed the chance to make new ones this year. Particular highlights included dancing in the rain to The Dhol Foundation; being taught Korean signing techniques by the charismatic members of ADG7 as they cooked kimchi pancakes at the Taste the World stage; and a storming Open Air set from Cimafunk. Read Simon Broughton’s review of the festival on p22 and turn to p16 for a gallery of shots from the weekend. But perhaps my favourite performance was a sublime late-night set in the Siam Tent from this issue’s cover star Abel Selaocoe. On p24 the…

November 2022 (#182) On sale October 7 Jake Blount (pictured) – The American multi-instrumentalist looks contemplates big questions with his new Afro-futurist, dystopian concept album, The New Faith World Music Through the Decades — Investigating the political contexts of some of the world’s genres, from the rebetika of the 1920s to the eco-conscious music of today Souad Massi — The Franco-Algerian singer broadens her horizons to take in Caribbean and Brazilian sounds on her latest release Soweto Gospel Choir — A Beginner’s Guide to the South African gospel group My World: Chris Watson – The sound recordist on the music that has inspired him PLUS! A bonus CD of Balkan Music…

PRE ORDER ON SALE OCTOBER 28 PRE-ORDER NOW • 100 pages of stunning content exploring the region’s history, musical styles and traditions• Profiles on the countries of Latin America, from Mexico to Argentina• Over 120 recommended album reviews• Exclusive opinion piece on the role of music in Latin American politics The Music of Latin America + The Music of West Africa available as a bundle for the special price of £19.99 £9.99 FREE P&P Available from October 28 from all good newsagents Pre-order online at magsubscriptions.com/songlines or call +44 (0)1722 716997 Orders will be dispatched after October 28. *Free P&P for UK orders. P&P postage will be added to international orders.…

‘Nowis no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.’ American writer Ernest Hemingway wrote those lines in 1951 in a burst of creativity. The Old Man and the Sea was inspired by his years living in Cuba and tells the tale of an elderly fisherman as he struggles to recapture the prestige of his past. Meanwhile, 13,000km away, Korea was mired in war. Armistice negotiations had begun, but weren’t to be completed until 1953. The peninsula was divided and South Korea lay in ruins. Like the old man though, the Koreans didn’t focus on what they were without, but what could be done with what was still there. Remaining cultural treasures were identified, protected and supported. Important traditions,…

Ana Alcaide Ritual Ana Alcaide (53 mins) Spanish sounds inspired by Sufi mysticism For her sixth album. Spanish performer, composer and music producer Ana Alcaide offers what she describes as a ‘hymn to the power of connection through daily ritual actions’ – born out of encounters with Iranian musician Reza Shayesteh and Persian poetry. The dozen tracks have an incantatory and searching quality, with ethereal vocal lines. On the best songs, the mystical and ambient aspects are saved from going adrift by solid rhythmic and/or melodic underpinning. ‘An Mah’ is a lilting folk song with a Celtic/Galician edge. ‘Ecstasi’ has an insistent refrain over whip-like percussion. ‘Feragh’ sways spiritedly over a thrummed, ominous nyckelharpa. All the songs are slow and slightly ponderous and some, like the opener ‘Transir’ and ‘Samsara’…

Guo Gan Guo Gan ‘Swordmen’ Trio Felmay Records (48 mins) New folk arrangements from across the Chinese provinces Over the last two decades, Parisbased erhu virtuoso Guo Gan has established himself as one of the leading ambassadors of his instrument in Europe – performing thousands of concerts, appearing on film soundtracks, and cultivating numerous cross-cultural collaborations. On this recording – his tenth for Italian label Felmay Records – Guo Gan introduces a new trio, Swordmen, consisting of fellow expats Liu Yi Qing on pipa (lute) and Chen Jiann on guzheng (zither). Across the ten pieces that comprise their debut album there are charming ensemble arrangements of popular folk melodies – ‘Tea-Picking Dance’ from Zhejiang province and the Cantonese tune ‘Thunder in Drought’ are particular highlights – as well as settings…

Førde Festival Førde, Norway, July 6-10 With a goat horn fanfare from composer Karl Seglem, the Førde Festival was launched in timehonoured Nordic style. Unofficially, that is. The day before the largest event in Scandinavia for global music kicked off with an opening concert titled Music in Times of Crisis, Seglem and his bukkehorn accompanied folk singer Unni Løvid in a wooden hut with reindeer antlers above its entrance and a fathoms-deep fjord in its sightline. Hidden gems were a feature of a festival held for 32 years in Førde, a small, river-straddling town in western Norway. There were biggish names: Congolese rumba guitarist Dizzy Mandjeku. Bosnian sevdah king Damir Imamović. Gambian kora player Sona Jobarteh, welling up as she brought her Norway-based dad onstage to applause. Memorable internationals included…

Write to: Email: letters@songlines.co.uk Songlines, Mark Allen Group, St Jude’s Church, Dulwich Road London, SE24 0PB, UK We reserve the right to edit correspondence WEBSITE www.songlines.co.uk GIG GUIDE www.songlines.co.uk/gigs TWITTER @SonglinesMag FACEBOOK www.facebook.com/songlines INSTAGRAM @SonglinesMag Field of dreams The wonderful piece in July’s issue [#179] by Christopher Conder, 50 Years of Glastonbury, accompanied by Jackson’s colourful illustrations was a great read and stirred up memories of my own having frequented the festival on a number of occasions. I was surprised when he recalled the first Pyramid stage in 1971 and mentioned the unexpected addition of a 13-year-old Guru Maharaji (Prem Rawat). It touched me because fundamentally Prem is encouraging people to consider the ancient notion of discovering/uncovering peace within us. The world is in a constant drama while within there is…

James BKS Wolves of Africa (Part 1/2) Grown Kid/Polydor France (32 mins) Rising hip-hop producer pays homage to his father This debut album from established hip-hop producer and performer James BKS is the culmination of a musical journey starting in France, detouring through the US and then submerging into Douala culture. During his time in the US he produced hip-hop beats for the likes of Snoop Dogg, Akon, Puff Daddy and Ja Rule. Returning to France in the early 2010s to set up his label, Grown Kid, he met his biological father, Cameroonian saxophonist Manu Dibango. They composed ‘Pana Nija’ together, which weaves through a blend of hip-hop, Congolese guitar grooves and South African choral music. The tracks on this album are starstudded with participations from some of hip-hop’s finest,…

Nancy Mounir Nozhet El Nofous Simsara Records (34 mins) Duetting with the ghosts of turn-of-the-century Egypt As a key member of Egypt’s rich independent music scene, multiinstrumentalist, arranger and composer Nancy Mounir is wellattuned to her country’s modern musical impulses. Yet it’s to the music of the early 20th century that she’s turned her attention on this debut. At its heart are a series of archival recordings of once-famed Egyptian singers, to which Mounir has added her own atmospheric arrangements. The originals sound ghostly in multiple ways. The audible hiss of deterioration emphasises their age, while the microtonal scales they are sung in serve to play up their ancient otherness. Rather than modernise, Mounir has wisely chosen to highlight the raw beauty and emotion of the singers on her sympathetic…

Françoise Atlan & l’Orchestre Arabo-Andalou de Fès Andalussyat Buda Musique (52 mins) Rich selection of Jewish and Arabic song French-born of North African Jewish parents, Françoise Atlan was one of the first singers to explore the Andalusian repertoire shared by Arabs and Jews. This is a reissue of an album she first released nearly 20 years ago in 2003 – and one of the selected albums in our Beginner’s Guide on Atlan in July 2017 (#129). What makes it special is, first, the fact that it’s recorded with the excellent Moroccan Arab-Andalus orchestra of Fes with their long-time conductor Mohamed Briouel. It means there’s a rich texture of (mainly) bowed string instruments behind Atlan, bringing a power and depth to the music. And, second, that on most of the tracks…

Hearing a music, and then that music shifting the path of your life, is a personal, unpredictable and almost inexplicable experience, yet it is one many of us will have undergone. For me, it was somehow finding an LP featuring the two star bands of (North) Macedonian Radio Television (MRT), their čalgia (an ensemble of clarinet, violin, oud, qanun and darbuka) led by Tale Ognenovski and the Ensemble of Folk Instruments led by bagpiper and dancer Pece Atanasovski from the village of Dolneni, perhaps the country’s most influential musician of the last century. Fifty years later and I am still in thrall to the sounds and rhythms of North Macedonia’s intense music; like many others I have found that the best way of grasping a music’s essence is to learn…

“Daddy, did you know Taylor Swift’s guitarist has been playing with her from the beginning, from her country days to now as a pop superstar? Isn’t that cool?” “It is, you know Tony Allen only played with Fela Kuti from 1968 to 1979; sadly, they couldn’t keep it together.” “I don’t know who that is, but anyway, isn’t Taylor Swift great?” There are obviously a lot of challenges to being a parent – all the normal things like education, morals, languages, etc – but in my household one of the major issues is introducing, explaining and informing my kids about my musical world, or as it’s sometimes known, ‘daddy’s strange music.’ My kids are 15 and 12, thoroughly used to YouTube, Spotify and TikTok, and only peripherally aware of what…

Angélique Kidjo stands in a bright red dress on WOMAD’s main stage. “I am so happy to be back,” she says. “Here we are again celebrating our humanity!” It did feel like a celebration – the biggest crowd of the weekend, the festival back for the first time since 2019 and also marking its 40th anniversary. With a crowd of 40,000 people, it really felt like an exorcism of those COVID vibes. No masks in sight and a full-on extravaganza of music from around the world. In a discussion about the 40th anniversary, including co-founder Peter Gabriel and current director Chris Smith, they joked that there was a rail strike during the first festival as there was again this year. But it’s clear how much the musical landscape has changed…

With his brow deeply furrowed and eyes scrunched shut in concentration, Abel Selaocoe begins to sing, his voice plaintive and soaring. Initially the focus is on his face, but then it moves to his rapid, sawing bowing then up to a blur of fingers hitting the strings. As the music builds in intensity, the voice changes, no longer soft and soulful, but deep, growling and guttural. There’s a visceral sense that the music is coursing through his entire body; as if the act of singing is a cathartic ritual. As I watch this five-minute video of Selaocoe performing ‘Lamentatio’ by the contemporary Italian cellist and composer Giovanni Sollima, I feel a rush of excitement; I really can’t recall seeing anyone play the cello – am completely captivated. “I believe most…

Alliye Rosa e Azul Arrebol Music (52 mins) Rage and darkness fuel response to Bolsonaro’s Brazil The last time Songlines reviewed Alliye was for her 2006 release Arrebol, when she was living in Paris as Aline de Lima and playing pretty bossa nova. Rosa e Azul is a turnaround: as heartfelt and sophisticated as Arrebol was seductive and simple. While there’s a sprinkling of sultry songs in French to please her Eurofans, the best of this CD sees Alliye free of label constraints and playing the music that really matters to her. Considered, complex and filled with a rage at the state of contemporary Brazil, it is a tour de force; a CD of darkness and depth by an artist at the height of her maturity. Songs like ‘Beira Mar’…

King Stingray King Stingray Cooking Vinyl Australia (35 mins) Youthful Arnhem Land band make a joyful racket The debut album from this hot young Arnhem Land band follows on from the success of both their live show, and their four included singles released since 2020 – ‘Hey Wanhaka’, ‘Get Me Out’, ‘Milkumana’ and ‘Camp Dog’. Hailed as Best New Act by several Aussie publications, King Stingray is based in the Indigenous Northern Territory community of Yirrkala, and the quintet features both Yolngu (Aboriginal) and balanda (non-Indigenous) members who all grew up together. With close family links to the founders of veteran Aboriginal group Yothu Yindi, frontman Yirrnga Yunupingu and guitarist Roy Kellaway are joined by mates Dimathaya Burarrwanga on yidaki (didgeridoo), rhythm guitar and backing vocals, bassist Campbell Messer and…

Classical Brought to you by GRAMAPHONE John-Henry Crawford Corazón: the Music of Latin America Orchid Classics Revisiting Latin classics John-Henry Crawford won first prize in the 2019 Carlos Prieto Competition, held in Morelia, Mexico – an experience that Crawford says sparked an intense love affair with the music, history and culture of Latin America. The centrepiece of this all-Latin American recital is Manuel Ponce’s Cello Sonata (1922), and Crawford and pianist Victor Santiago Asuncion are persuasive advocates for this strangely neglected work. There’s a distinctly Gallic accent in Ponce’s writing here – the slippery harmonies in the opening movement remind me of Fauré, for example, the textures and rhythmic play of the second movement might have taken their cue from the ‘Scherzo’ of Debussy’s String Quartet, and while the finale…

Dana Gillespie may not be wrong when she bills herself as “Britain’s best kept secret.” Aged 73, the London singer-songwriter (and actor, author and broadcaster) has been releasing records since she was a teenager in the mid-1960s – her 73rd album is out soon. Fittingly, it is a live recording of her recent birthday bash at TAM, an Elephant and Castle venue where she has a residency. But Gillespie remains best known in the UK as an actor – she featured in theatre and films across the 1960s-80s – alongside her regular appearances in tabloid newspapers over the decades due to her relationships with famous men: David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Roman Polanski, etc… The list is long and Gillespie is open about it and…

On first appearance the Balochi benju looks like a slide guitar with typewriter keys. It’s unique to the Balochistan region of Pakistan, which borders with Iran and Afghanistan, and yet it has seemingly unconnected cousins in the taishōgoto of Japan, the akkordolia of Germany or Sweden’s nyckelharpa. It’s closest comparison is the bulbul tarang or shahi baaja in neighbouring India. Thanks to a series of recent Instagram posts that went viral, one of the best known exponent of the benju is Noor Bakhsh, a musician steeped in the folklore and culture of the region, but relatively unknown globally until the wonders of social media. “I was a small kid when I got interested in the benju, in musicality and in musical forms. My teachers were Ustad Khuda Bakhsh and Ustad…

01 Yilian Cañizares Invocación (Naïve Records, 2015) Cuban violinist and singer Cañizares received a classical training in Cuba before winning a scholarship to Venezuela. Now she resides in Switzerland, marrying together classical music, Cuban music and jazz, while regularly paying tribute to the Afro-Cuban Santería deities. Reviewed in October 2015 (#111). 02 Ruby Colley Overheard (Ruby Colley, 2022) Violinist Ruby Colley is inspired by nature, folk music and classical masters such as JS Bach. The opening ‘Springs Eternal’ on this album interweaves birdsong and violin like a contemporary version of ‘The Lark Ascending’. These seven string-led meditations end with the distant ocean sounds of ‘The Sea Wrote It’. Reviewed in this issue, see p51. 03 Fran & Flora Unfurl (Fran & Flora Productions, 2019) London-based duo Francesca Ter-Berg (cello) and Flora Curzon…