Tabla de contenidos para June 2024 en Songlines

Burd Ellen’s Debbie Armour kicked things off in nonchalant fashion. Confessing to having a cold, her voice was having none of it, soaring as she sang songs from across the Burd Ellen catalogue, and a brace of traditionals. Performing without bandmate Gayle Brogan, she had organised the gig, providing support to Cerys Hafana, who would soon be on stage with her triple harp. Not as imposing as a Celtic harp, what’s amazing is what Hafana can do with it, her reimaginings of Welsh ballads and hymns like ‘Tragwyddoldeb’ made the room vibrate with every plucked string. Her recent forays into English and Scottish songs on The Bitter EP added variety and anecdotes, while the few songs she played on electric guitar made it clear she’s no one-trick pony. Why am…

Dangerfield of Dreams Jake Blount, Kaïa Kater, Tray Wellington and Nelson Williams have joined forces to create a new supergroup, New Dangerfield, with the aim of spotlighting Black string band traditions and reckoning with ‘a century of forgetfulness and erasure.’ Their first single ‘Dangerfield Newby’ is named after a Black abolitionist from the 1800s who died during John Brown’s raid. Nature Climbs the Charts NATURE has launched a recording career, with David Bowie & Brian Eno, Blinky Bill, Cosmo Sheldrake and Bomba Estéreo some of her many collaborators, and a Spotify profile to prove it. It’s part of an initiative called Sounds Right with all of NATURE’s streaming royalties distributed to climate crisis projects through Earth/Percent. + https://soundsright.earth From Awards to Wards Fresh from winning Singer of theYear at the Gradam…

BEYOND THE BASSLINE: 500 YEARS OF BLACK BRITISH MUSIC (April 26 – August 26) at the British Library is a major exhibition celebrating Black music in Britain through soundscapes, artworks, films and complementary events… MR WILSON’S PRESENTS OPAL’S COMET (May 22-27) will see Sonya Moorhead and The Greyhounds perform their Opal’s Comet song cycle upon a barge as part of CultureDale 2024. They will be making their way from one end of the Calder Valley to the other… Serial global collaborator and a serious force in New York City’s underground jazz scene ILHAN ERSAHIN (May 24-25) and his Istanbul Sessions band will be playing two nights at Ronnie Scott’s… Founding member of Muzsikás and Hungarian folk music champion MÁRTA SEBESTYÉN (June 22) is making a rare visit to the UK…

In Arabic, Sarāb means ‘mirage’ – a fitting name for a group that has been hard to pin down since coming together in 2018. Born out of a chance meeting between Franco-Syrian singer Climène Zarkan and French guitarist Baptiste Ferrandis, the band has grown into a six-piece collective, their sound branching out in a multitude of directions. Keeping their hearts and ears open to the world around them, Sarāb draw on rock, contemporary jazz and traditional Arabic music to build a feverish, sometimes hallucinogenic, frenzy of rhythms and melodies, propelled by their endless curiosity and deep commitment to social justice. Zarkan was raised between Damascus and France and is the daughter of renowned Syrian composer and oud player Bachar Zarkan. Though she grew up immersed in traditional Arab music, she…

Musicians gathered late last month in Roi Et province for the funeral of master phin player Thongsai Thapthanon, who passed away on March 20, aged 77. Thongsai began playing the two-three stringed Isan (northeast Thai/Lao) lute at the age of four and was a key member of the pioneering Petch Phin Thong band, which, under the leadership of Noppadon Duangporn (1941-2019), developed Isan popular music, especially luk thung Isan (northeastern-style country music). Thongsai and Noppadon added an electric pickup to Thongsai’s two-stringed phin, which used metal bicycle wires for strings, enabling it to accompany singers or take the lead. They brought the phin to the front of one of the ‘trinity’ of molam instruments, along with the iconic khaen (bamboo mouth organ) and the sor (fiddle). Thongsai joined Noppadon’s band in…

Both sun and moon find their centres of gravity in Cornish folk singer and multi-instrumentalist Daisy Rickman’s music. Her home-recorded debut, Donsya A’n Loryow (Dance of the Moons) appeared in 2022, followed this year by Howl (Sun), a second home-recorded solo creation, employing guitars, bass, drums, percussion, sitar, cello, bouzouki, banjo, accordion, clarinet, fiddle and synthesizer. “I learnt by jamming with people and playing with other musicians,” Rickman says. “I moved from Cornwall to Brighton when I was 18 [and later Berlin, then Bridport] and met a lot of musicians there, and we’d have these big jam sessions, which is where music really opened up for me. There was no judgement as to what you played or what your skill was. It was a very open space. Then discovering open…

This summer South Korean folk fusion band, Sangjaru, are bringing their eclectic sound to the UK for the first time. Sangjaru’s name – ‘sanja’ meaning ‘box’ and ‘jaru’ meaning ‘sack’ in Korean – acts as an analogy for the trio’s fusion of traditional folk from their Korean homeland with the sounds of Gypsy jazz, funk and swing from further afield. After winning the prestigious Sori Frontier competition in 2019, Sangjaru released their debut album, Taryeong (2020), showcasing a flair for pushing tradition to other realms and solidifying themselves as one of Korea’s most exciting up-and-coming bands. While their latest track ‘Somu’ is very rooted in traditional music as a reimagining of a folk song that was played to the kings of Joseon, a dynasty that ruled Korea for 500 years, it…

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 The Songlines Top of the World compilation, featuring tracks from our favourite albums each issue, can be downloaded by visiting https://bit.ly/SL198 https://bit.ly/SL198 Mdou Moctar Funeral for Justice Matador Records Forget desert blues. Mdou Moctar insist they are a rock band, influenced by Jimi Hendrix and Van Halen as much as by their Touareg roots. They are led by the lead guitarist and singer who gives the band their name (and is otherwise known as Mahamadou Souleymane). Born in a little Saharan desert village in Niger, he made his first guitar from a piece of wood and…

Wyndham Baird After the Morning Jalopy Records Wyndham Baird’s music lives at the intersection of witting imitation, authentic reinterpretation and inspired creation. He sings like his (mostly) American folk heroes, primarily Bob Dylan, with a dash of Jimmie Rodgers and a pinch of Woody Guthrie. His debut album, After the Morning, offers up a banquet of 13 chestnuts from the classic folk repertoire by the likes of Rodgers (‘Waiting for a Train’), Eric Von Schmidt (‘Joshua Gone Barbados’) and The Carter Family (‘The Girl on the Greenbriar Shore’). Outlier numbers include Merle Haggard’s ‘If We Make It through December’ and Randy Newman’s ‘She Chose Me’, originally composed for, of all things, Cop Rock, a television series from 1990. Wyndham’s dexterous guitar picking and scratchy Dylanesque delivery are particularly effective on…

In 2022, Pakistan-based label honiunhoni released the five-track Jingul by 78-year-old benju maestro, Ustad Noor Bakhsh, from the Makran coast of Balochistan. It was a project that sounded like nothing else in the contemporary landscape. Upon its release, Jingul ballooned, gathering a fervent fanbase on Bandcamp, which led to Noor Bakhsh travelling Europe on a 25-city tour. But, his story is the first of many the founder of honiunhoni, Daniyal Ahmed, aims to spotlight. On the latest release from honiunhoni, Aap Ka Number Hai? (Is this Your Number?) by Talib Trio, Muhammad Talib, a multi-instrumentalist, composer and educator from Karachi, plays two experimental instruments: the fretted damburo (his invention) and the electric bulbul (a variant of the benju). It is a hypnotic and arresting ten-track project. Accompanied by Muhammad Khan…

“Oh god, how do you know about that?” replies Frank Cottrell-Boyce when I mention his time in the Liverpool punk band Dead Trout. “Unfortunately, it’s on your Wikipedia page,” I respond. Born in Bootle, near Liverpool, in 1959, Cottrell-Boyce was at the right age when punk hit, and he became part of the scene in Liverpool and a regular at Eric’s Club. “Bands kind of came and went or morphed into something else,” he recalls, naming Big in Japan, Dalek I Love You and Dead Birds as contemporaries. “Loads of those bands became huge, like Frankie Goes to Hollywood.” Yet, these aren’t his formative musical influences, for those you have to go back further. “You know the earliest banger – to use that word – I can remember would be…

Nora Brown & Stephanie Coleman (May 13 – June 4, On Tour) Be sure to catch this virtuoso banjo-and-fiddle duo for a proper dose of old-timey American sound Vieux Farka Touré (May 15-26, On Tour) Nicknamed ‘Hendrix of the Sahara’, Vieux is continuing his father’s legacy in his creation of stirring, skilled and soulful guitar work from the heart of Mali Mohammad Syfkhan (May 23, London) The Kurdish musician is set to perform his new debut album, I am Kurdish, driven by his own mad and masterful buzuq playing Crown (May 24 & June 15, South & North) A chance to see Maria Tarokh’s female-led production telling stories of identity and displacement through Persian dance and Sufi movement Sarāb (May 25-28, North & London) The six-piece are set to share their kaleidoscopic, politically…

01 Davy Spillane Atlantic Bridge (Tara, 1987) A master of the uilleann pipes (Irish bagpipes), this was the Grammy-winning player’s first solo album, full of effortlessly fluid and engaging material. The spells Spillane weaves will leave you breathless, not least thanks to some superstar backing from banjo wizard Béla Fleck and folk legend Christy Moore. Spillane’s other credits include collaborations with Kate Bush, Elvis Costello, Mike Oldfield and a host of other greats. 02 Ro:Toro Estonian Bagpipe (Tutl, 2006) The tradition of bagpipe, or torupill, playing in Estonia dates back hundreds of years but modern ensemble Ro:Toro, although classically trained, have added a modern twist, incorporating multi-layered percussion, saxophone and elements of jazz improvisation to create something quite special. In this innovative quartet’s hands, water basins, bicycle spokes and even…

Olivia Cheves Based in London, Olivia is a writer and editor keen to explore the seams between traditional, modern and experimental music. She speaks to British composer and improvisor Laura Cannell (p28). Oleno Netto Oleno is a writer interested in interviewing artists from all art forms about their creative processes. This issue, he speaks to Brazil’s Minister of Culture, Margareth Menezes, on p24. Izzy Felton A journalist who has worked on a variety of magazines and podcasts, Izzy is the newest member of our editorial team. She chats to Ibibio Sound Machine (p13) and meets English folk music’s next generation (p37). Songlines was launched in 1999 and is the definitive magazine for world music – music that has its roots in all parts of the globe, from Mali to Mexico,…

AUSTRIA: researchers in Austria and Germany analysed the lyrics of over 350,000 English-language songs across five broad genres of music to discover that ‘lyrics have become simpler over time regarding multiple aspects of lyrics: vocabulary richness, readability, complexity, and the number of repeated lines.’ Their paper was published in the Scientific Reports journal… CHECHNYA: ‘The musical culture of the Chechens was diverse in tempo and methodology. We must bring to the people and to the future of our children the cultural heritage of the Chechen people,’ said the Chechen Ministry of Culture in April. ‘From now on, all musical, vocal and choreographic works must correspond to the tempo of 80 to 116 beats per minute,’ he added, as part of a new, government law to remove Western influences from Chechen…

Time has moved fast for Ana Lua Caiano. Strangely, the COVID-19 pandemic set the grounds for the meteoric rise of the 24-year-old Portuguese singer-songwriter. In 2020, once the lockdown came into effect, she directed all attention and creativity to an exercise she undertook with her sister to keep them both busy: Ana Lua would write a new song each week, while Joana put together a video to go along with it. Locked in her bedroom due to the circumstances, Ana Lua unexpectedly found the identity of her solo project. She would build songs using rhythmic instruments (bass drum, adufe, brinquinho) inspired by Portuguese traditions from the Beira Alta, Madeira and Minho regions. Then she would add keyboards and her clever lyrics over melodies that boldly followed the heritage of Portugal’s…

Get in touch – we’d love to hear from you! RIP Zakaria Ibrahim [In response to last issue’s obituary for Zakaria Ibrahim (1952-2024)] I too was sad when I heard of the death of Zakaria Ibrahim, founder of Egyptian band El Tanbura and of the El Mastaba Centre for Egyptian Folk Lore in Cairo. The arts charity Cultural Co-operation [now Culture&], with whom I worked, were the first to bring the group to the UK in 2002 for the Diaspora Music Village Festival and I have such fond memories of the group then, including a memorable concert at Union Chapel. I next encountered them in Zanzibar at the Sauti za Busara festival as they were staying in the same hotel as the Yemeni group I had brought and we stayed…

Before Lankum, Ian Lynch was on a career into academia: lecturing in Irish folklore and readying to start a PhD on the subject. Then, the band’s popularity soared and he had to put it on hold. “For a couple of years I was like, ‘I’m just touring all the time, I’m really tired, [and there’s] a large part of my brain I’m not using doing this,’” he explains. “Then I started Fire Draw Near and I was like ‘oh, that’s what I’ve been missing,’… I missed research and spending time by myself reading books.” We’re sitting in a cosy pub in Dalkey, Dublin, discussing the creation of Lynch’s podcast, a platform through which he shares his vast knowledge of folklore and music. Each episode of Fire Draw Near has a theme…

From the outside, flying solo seems pretty daunting. Ife Ogunjobi, however, doesn’t seem too phased. Last September he branched out from the comfort of Ezra Collective, South East London’s favourite (and Mercury Prize-winning) quintet, and released his first EP as a bandleader, Stay True. “As it’s my first project, I’m giving people a slice of me,” he says over a voice note, “a piece of me on a plate.” He explains that the overwhelmingly positive response to this almost sacrificial level of exposure has further bolstered him. The trumpeter’s original confidence and success, however, he credits to his beginnings. “I learnt so much from being in the band that when it came to doing my own project I feel I’ve had a head start in lots of ways,” he explains.…

How did you first hear Mdou Moctar? I was sent field recordings of Mdou (which was the Afelen album on Sahel Sounds) from a friend and was hooked! What excited you about his playing? Similar to the other Niger Touareg music I was listening to, there was this rawness and energy that was familiar to me growing up in the DIY/punk world in Washington DC. How did you become a member of the band? It was on the first Mdou Moctar US tour in 2017 that I was asked to drive and do some tour managing on a New York show. Mdou found out I played bass and on the way to the show he said, ‘you’re gonna play with us tonight.’ I borrowed a bass for that show and…

Aynur Rabe Aynur/Dreyer Gaido The title of this album, Rabe, means ‘stand-up’ or ‘rise-up’ in Kurdish and Aynur Doğan has been standing up for her people for 20 years since her Kalan Müzik debut Keçe Kurdan in 2004. This is her eighth album and one of her strongest. It begins with just saxophone and Aynur’s powerful vocals, although the sax phrase has the reedy mystical air of a duduk. A couple of the songs have spiritual lyrics written by Alevi poets, including the excellent ‘Derviş Baba’ (Father Dervish) which includes the plucked pipa of Wu Man. Wu Man also joins on the delicate ‘Bîranîn’ (Remembering). ‘Rabe Edlayê’ (Rise Up Edlayê) is a traditional song of unattainable love. It includes Kurdish tembur and other lutes plus incisive strings making it one…

Nana Benz du Togo – Tite - Kiledjian Remixes Vocal and infectious vodoun rhythms from the Togolese five-piece are made to echo and dance anew in these trance-inducing remixes. Amadou & Mariam ‘Mogolu’ The irrepressible Malian duo move into the electric-funk zone with a playful single teasing an upcoming album. Los Bitchos ‘La Bomba’ Shiny Turkish-psych stomper from the female four-piece who have announced an extensive tour of Europe and the US. Tamesis – Magna Mater A serious 70s acid-folk hangover from these Sussex upstarts who were surely born 50 years too late. RAH & The Ruffcats ‘Agidi’ Driving, deftly detailed and delightfully on the front-foot Afrobeat from this eight-piece Berlin institution who have a new album on the way. Altın Gün ‘Vallahi Yok’/‘Kırık Cam’ Merve Daşdemir leaves the group…

Over 20 years ago, when I first went to Iran, one of the musicians I most enjoyed meeting was Kurdish tanbur player Ali Akbar Moradi. He had recorded a beautiful album with Kayhan Kalhor called In the Mirror of the Sky (see Songlines #26). In Kurdistan, there’s a religious minority called Yarsan or Ahl-e Haqq (People of the Truth), rather like the Alevis in Turkey, and marginalised by the Shias and Sunnis around them. Both the Alevis and Yarsan hold the tanbur – a long-necked lute – sacred and use it in their religious gatherings led by a tanbur-playing darvish. “The tanbur is one of the oldest of string instruments,” says Moradi. “It’s been present here in the region for up to 5,000 years.” The Ahl-e Haqq are like Kurdish…

“I’ve always been majorly aware of my own taste,” says Laura Cannell. “There’s lots of people that can do amazing traditional music really, really well. And even though I can play a lot of traditional music, it doesn’t always speak to me. I really needed to find my own tradition.” The composer, recorder player, violinist and label owner is certainly singular in her artistic approach. Her music eludes easy categorisation, sitting at the confluence of early and medieval styles, Baroque, European folk and modern experimentalism. She records most of her music in one improvised swoop, attuned to and in collaboration with the space around her, whether it be the vaulted interior of an East Anglian church ruin (2017’s HUNTER HUNTRESS HAWKER), the cavernous expanse of theWapping Hydraulic Power Station (2020’s…

“AtFargrounds feels like one possible culmination of my practice so far, marking the place I’ve found myself reaching while getting to know my instrument and its repertoire,” says London-based banjo player Jacken Elswyth of her latest album. “It brings together tunes I’ve been playing for a long time, and some I’ve picked up more recently, plus a set of semi-spontaneous improvisations with accompaniments, building on the shruti drone that I use to take my arrangements in radically new directions.” Such intrepidness plays an integral role in all Elswyth’s artistic projects – from her inspired high-concept solo releases and involvement with the ever-compelling Shovel Dance Collective, to her instrument-building and curation of the Betwixt & Between imprint. With an adventurous approach to music-making mirroring remarkably catholic tastes (during our conversation she…

The audience are on their feet almost as soon as Janusz Prusinowski picks up his violin and is joined by clarinet, trumpet, cello and a frame drum sounding the sophisticated triple-beat mazurka. The Janusz Prusinowski Kompania are on a large open stage, there’s adance area in front, filling up fast with whirling figures, and several hundred seats for listening – although many are now vacated to join the dance. This is a festival where people are very ready to get involved. The Janusz Prusinowski Kompania have led the revival of traditional music in Poland for many years. There’s an irresistible vivacity and drive in their music as different instrumentalists take the lead. Their repertoire is essentially that of central Poland, yet here at the Re:tradycja festival in Lublin, the focus…

Niamh Bury Yellow Roses Claddagh Records Nominated in the Best Emerging Artist category of the RTÉ Folk Awards 2024, Niamh Bury is swiftly rising as one of the finest singer-songwriters of the new Irish tradition. With echoes of Laura Marling and Fiona Apple but with a tone and focus all her own, Bury is an impressive and exciting new voice on the Irish folk scene and one that deserves to be heard beyond it. ‘Who Am I to Tell Him’ is a bouncing caution on judging others’ lives, while ‘Pianos in the Snow’ is a gorgeous guitar-led song with family at its focus. The title-track, a delicate, intimate, yet orchestral track, is a loving tribute to her mother and grandmother. ‘Beehive’ starts as a timeless guitar piece which gently engages…

Arrkula Yinbayarra Waralungku EM Media & Events Back in 2013, Darwin-based Indigenous Australian singer-songwriter Shellie Morris released the album Together We Are Strong – Ngambala Wiji Li-Wunungu: The Song People’s Sessions – a two-disc collaboration with the Borroloola Songwomen. Hailing from their small remote community in the Gulf of Carpentaria region of the Northern Territory, it was an emotional opportunity for the award-winning Morris to return to her grandmother’s country, and finally learn her family’s Yanyuwa language – Shellie was adopted as a baby and raised by a non-Indigenous family in Sydney. A decade on, this new album, Warralangku, consists of ten songs, with the Arrkula Yinbayarra group, and features four endangered languages: Yanyuwa, Garrwa, Gudanji and Marra. All the songs were written by local women, and ‘dedicated to reclaiming…

Aili Nandakke? Eskimo Recordings Following the warm reception that greeted the release of their 2021 debut EP Dansu, Japanese/Belgian duo Aili return with their first full-length album. Formed around the musical partnership between singer Aili Maruyama and producer Orson Wouters, Aili’s music is an exuberant electronic pop, with elements of electro and house music. On the surface, Nandakke? (a Japanese word that loosely translates to ‘Well, What was It?’) is an album full of energy and euphoria – replete with vintage synthesizers, drum machines and samples – that delights in Japanese pop culture, fashion and food. Under this glossy veneer, there lies a deeper emotional complexity that approaches the bittersweet. Having left her native Tokyo aged seven, Maruyama has since dealt with the feeling of disconnection this cultural separation brings,…

Sväng (Aito Records, 2005) The beginning. Sväng unleash their brilliance on the world, from Finnish dance to Balkan beats, ragtime, blues, from pathos to party. Jarruta (Aito Records, 2008) The foursome are now really exploring new sounds and techniques with some astonishing results. Sväng Plays Sibelius (Jumi-Tuotanto Oy, 2015) A tribute to Finland’s great composer in the year marking 150 years since his birth. In this, Sväng find that they are musical soulmates. In Trad We Trust (Galileo, 2020) Musical personalities and outstanding playing shine through in this tribute to Finnish folk music. Svängo Nuevo (Galileo, 2024) Impossible to believe that the group can still break new ground, but they do! IF YOU LIKE SVÄNG, TRY… Kimmo Pohjonen, Samuli Kosminen & Kronos Quartet Uniko (Ondine, 2011) Finland’s maverick accordion star…

LONDON 11 MAY Soumik Datta Queen Elizabeth Hall; 14 MAY Branco Stoysin Bell House; 16 MAY Sarabanda Queen of the South; 16-19 MAY Songlines Encounters Festival Kings Place kingsplace.co.uk; 17 MAY Katherine Priddy Union Chapel; Jesse Cook Queen Elizabeth Hall; Sahra Halgan The Jago; Misagh Moradi Rich Mix; 18 MAY Pongo Hootananny Brixton; Lena Chamamyan Queen Elizabeth Hall; Tarabband Jazz Cafe; 21 MAY Emel Mathlouthi Jazz Cafe; 22 MAY Miranda Rutter & Rob Harbron Cecil Sharp House; Suntou Susso The Fox & Firkin; 23 MAY Mohammad Syfkhan St Pancras Old Church; Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas Kings Place; 24 MAY Bukky Leo Afrobeat Quintet The Portico; Guayacan Orquesta Electric Brixton; 25 MAY Sonu Nigam OVO Arena Wembley; Aley Kings Place; 25-26 MAY Feria de Londres Brick Lane Yard feriadelondres.com; 26…

This May marks the first anniversary of the death of the great Joe Mulheron, folk singer, songwriter, publican, left-wing activist and member of the Belfast folk group The Men of No Property (later The People of No Property). Few could claim to bring such humour, to perform with such panache, and to speak such truth to power in a lifetime of political folk songs. In a repertoire spanning nearly six decades, Joe covered a lot of ground: the chosen attire of the Palestine Liberation Organisation; an Irish brigadista’s journey across the Ebro river in the Spanish Civil War; the vivid horrors of Derry’s Bloody Sunday; and much more. Joe Mulheron was born into a Catholic household in Carrick Hill, Belfast in 1947. By the time he reached adulthood, he would…