Tabla de contenidos para April 2025 en Songlines

Sufiyan Rouf, reportedly the first beatboxer of Kashmir, was in the region during a lockdown in 2016 following the killing of the militant leader Burhan Wani. He had much time to spend during that 132-day-long lockdown, and it was then that his interest in beatboxing took hold after discovering a YouTube video of beatboxing, ‘Alem vs NaPom’, on reduced internet speed. “Beatboxing, as I could gather, was mimicking drum sounds and other musical instruments with one’s vocal tract”, says Rouf, who goes by the stage name Abaddox. The 2016 lockdown was a miserable time, but Rouf used it to learn the artform, despite the task being made more complicated by the internet blackouts, lack of equipment and the response of those around him: “Everyone criticised me for pursuing something that…

Lightning splits the dark sky over Guimarães as we search for the venue, frantically trying to avoid yet another downpour. The mood among the group is, I’d say, slightly bewildered. Perhaps it’s the fact that the day has started with an electrical fire in the Braga hotel where many of the artists and delegates are staying, leaving some to roam the streets in flip-flops. Or perhaps it’s that we are still figuring out the festival’s unconventional multi-city setup. SQUARE’s debut is nothing if not ambitious. Organised by local collective Lovers & Lollypops as part of Braga25, a programme celebrating Braga as the Portuguese Capital of Culture, the festival sprawls across four cities (Braga, Guimarães, Barcelos and Famalicão), dozens of venues and a diverse line-up of music, talks and cinema, spotlighting…

A decade or so ago a tall, softly spoken artist and aesthete relocated from Manchester to London with a tenor saxophone and a bag of words. “My name is Alabaster DePlume”, he told any stranger who listened, most of all those impressed by his eccentric smarts and olde-worlde charm, and by the tiny row of stick figures – his jettisoned past selves – he has tattooed across his left hand. DePlume got a residency at Dalston art space Total Refreshment Centre, famously Ground Zero for the so-called young London jazz renaissance, then set about his reinvention. There were monthly improv sessions; poetry books and readings filled with outrage and poignant, fragile imagery. There were album releases including 2020’s acclaimed To Cy & Lee: Instrumentals, Vol.1 and 2022’s Gold: Go Forward…

It’s hard to overstate Andy Irvine’s lasting impact on music – whether you look at Planxty, his work with Paul Brady or his solo records, Irvine was a leading figure in transforming Irish trad music in the 70s and continues to explore and surprise well into the fifth decade of his career. Growing up in the UK, Irvine first found fame as a child actor, performing with Peter Sellers and Laurence Harvey, among others. On moving to Ireland in his early 20s, however, he left acting behind. In Dublin’s pubs, Irvine, who had learnt classical guitar while in the UK – and also plays bouzouki, mandola and harmonica – met a range of talented musicians. In 1965, he formed Sweeney’s Men, with Johnny Moynihan (credited for bringing the bouzouki into…

I chiko Aoba’s music is both calming and transportive. Initially played solo with just guitar and voice, and latterly with an orchestral backing, the Japanese singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist’s recordings offer hushed and magical spaces a world away from the information overload of modern life. Since emerging onto the folk music scene as an 18-year-old with her debut album Kamisori Otome (Razorblade Maiden) in 2010, she has amassed a dedicated following, first in her native country and then further afield with the international success of 2020’s Windswept Adan. Her growing renown has seen her collaborate with Japanese luminaries such as Ryuichi Sakamoto, Haruomi Hosono and Cornelius – who has proclaimed her a genius – as well as American sound artist Taylor Deupree and Canadian singer-songwriter Mac DeMarco. Her latest album, Luminescent…

Indumiso YabeNguni Next Ntuthuko Ndebele – aka Mthuthu – began setting his lyrics to house music in collaboration with various South African DJs some two decades ago but has come a long way since then to make profoundly spiritual music steeped in ancestral Nguni folk traditions but given a thoroughly modern makeover. There are uplifting echoes of Ladysmith Black Mambazo here but the vocals are more soulful while tasteful synths and tinkling keyboards provide a cinematic soundbed that sits at the best end of Afro-pop. Zulu chants are woven seamlessly into the mix and an impressive roster of guests lend a hand, including the veteran Pops Mohamed with his panoply of traditional acoustic instruments, Zulu guitar legend Madala Kunene on ‘uMagwaza’ and ‘Bambanani’, and Zimbini, who emerges as a cross…

Las Últimas Composiciones de Violeta Parra Vampisoul There’s a moment on this album, during the song ‘Cantores que Reflexionan’ (Singers Who Reflect), where the listener is held suspended in a delicate, shimmering web of mountain-stream clear vocals and melodious finger-picked strings – a sonic world which feels at once as comforting and dangerous as childhood innocence and wonder. It’s a spirit which haunts every track of this extraordinary reissue of songs recorded in 1966 by famed Chilean multi-disciplinary artist, musician, social activist and ethnomusicologist Violeta Parra. This was her final album, and one which would come to define her life. Born in 1917, one of nine children in a poor, musical family, Parra grew up steeped in traditional folk songs. Following her father’s death in 1929, out of necessity four…

Ida Hedin & Johan Meidell are a duo crafting rich historical Swedish soundscapes with their blend of nyckelharpa and baroque violin. Prowinciale (Hedin & MeidellHHH) recasts old tunes for new ears and brings a sense of the contemporary to the social dance tunes of 200 years ago. With roots in the early music world and the Swedish folk scene, these 12 pieces find the duo in beautiful sync. Step out of the present courtesy of their musical time machine. Cosmetics retailer Lush has a wry approach to drawing the folk out of pop, rock and disco classics. Its latest vinyl set In the Bath (Cosmetic Warriors & Proper MusicHHH) goes all 90s, courtesy of folk’s bigger hitters – the likes of Jon Boden, Jackie Oates, Lisa Knapp and Eliza Carthy.…

Hinterland EarToTheGround Music Hinterland – a region beyond what is visible or known – comes with freights of psychological scree, and this striking set from Lisa Knapp & Gerry Diver dives deep through the worlds of the hinterland, in sound, lyric and poetry. It opens with visions of anthropomorphic birds on ‘Hawk and Crow’ before the spoken-word tapestry of ‘Train Song’ and the liminal sound and spirit evoked in ‘Star Carr’, named after a Mesolithic site in North Yorkshire, and its hoard of antler headdresses, preserved in waterlogged peat for 11,000 years. With its spectral fiddle, layered vocals and breakdown into skitterish club beats it’s a highlight of the set, as are the traditional songs here, the utterly haunting ‘I Must Away Love’, the inexorable horrors of ‘Long Lankin’ (see…

ANDY: Como No had been promoting music from Latin America for 15 years before we set up La Linea in 2001. The plan was to create a critical mass where we could introduce new artists and new music and encourage audiences to join us in taking a chance. The Royal Festival Hall gave us four dates in April to programme and take the financial risk. In the end all four shows sold out and 10,000 people came. The opening night of was a double bill of Ozomatli and Orishas who had two complementary takes on making hip-hop from tradition; that was a great statement of intent for the festival. ELENA: A standout for me was the collaboration between the London-based Bonita House Band and the legendary Colombian Fruko, which happened…

“It was January 29, 2002”, recalls Erik Hillestad, founder of Norwegian label Kirkelig Kulturverksted (KKV). “I was in bed waking up to the news and a presentation of the State of the Union address by President George W Bush to the American people and he mentioned that there is an ‘axis of evil’ in the world: Iraq, Iran, North Korea and their allies. To hear a prominent leader of the Western world talk like this was very provoking and something started to burn inside me. Over the next couple of months, the idea of going to these countries to record was born.” Hillestad’s venture culminated in an album of lullabies sung by 25 women from around the world – only female because he thought male voices were “far too dominant…

“As algorithms try to flatten our culture and take the ‘human’ out of curation, to show the world the richness of traditional and folk music at this time, I’m of the opinion that we need Songlines magazine more than ever.” Canadian musician and broadcaster Tom Power delivered these words as he presented the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award in Business to Songlines at this year’s Folk Alliance International Folk Music Awards (IFMAs). After Songlines’ publisher James Anderson-Hanney received the award, traditional Québécois quintet and winners of the 2023 Songlines Music Awards, Le Vent Du Nord took the stage for an a capella rendition of ‘Turlute du Mai’ in tribute to the origins and continued legacy of the magazine. Hosted by the annual Folk Alliance International (FAI) conference, the 2025 award ceremony…

Silence. A lively kora ostinato with a samba feel. After four snare hits and a tom-tom fill, the band joins in: syncopated drums, bass guitar and pitched percussion adding depth to the kora melody. The rhythms and melody are classic Afropop, but something sounds different about the tone of the instruments… Watch Kin’gongolo Kiniata live, and you’ll see what sets them apart; the band’s five members play: a kora fashioned from a plastic fuel container; a corrugated iron drum kit; a xylophone made from plastic bottles of various sizes; another from empty spray cans; a twirled plastic pipe that sounds like a synthesizer; and any number of other percussive instruments made from materials found in the group’s hometown of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. “It’s my universe, you know?”…

Readers may well remember the breathless enthusiasm that infused a series of articles written last year by Scottish fiddler Catriona Price. At the time, Price was in Latin America working on her global music-making project, Routes to Roots. Since then, the project has undergone significant developments, so I caught up with her to find out more via video call – me in my Northern English cellar, wrapped up, heater on, and Catriona glowing in the gentle heat of Oaxaca City, Mexico. Routes to Roots was initiated over a decade ago when Catriona and her regular collaborator, harpist Esther Swift, travelled to Québec, Malawi, Brazil and Mongolia in search of musicians with “one foot planted in their tradition” and a willingness to collaborate. Following further research and development, and a roster…

Listening to the opening notes of Korean instrumentalist Park Jiha’s life-affirming new album, All Living Things, one could be forgiven for thinking they are hearing the quietly persistent first sounds of early spring. Having begun her musical journey in school choirs, Park Jiha was drawn to traditional Korean music before embarking on her own practice, characterised by observation and patience. All Living Things is Park Jiha’s meditation on life itself. The album unfolds as a visualisation of a life cycle, reflected in the changing seasons and the endless possibilities that wait before life’s inevitable conclusion. It captures in music, feelings that are impossible to describe in words, comfortably embracing nuance, subtlety and uncertainty to create a work that deals in the indescribable wonder of being alive. Park Jiha has watched…

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 https://linktr.ee/SL206 Florence Adooni A.O.E.I.U (An Ordinary Exercise in Unity) Philophon Florence Adooni is a singer born to the Frafra people of northeast Ghana. She grew up performing in church choirs and forging a career in the thriving Frafra gospel scene but grew up in the Ashanti capital of Kumasi, where highlife music pulses from bars, cars and open doorways. Having collaborated with name artists such as Jimi Tenor and the north Ghanaian kologo (two-string proto-banjo) master Guy One, and after touring Europe, Adooni went into the studio with her eight-piece, synth-sexy band and delivered this fine…

Wasteland Basin Rock There’s no contemporary singer quite like Jim Ghedi. In his otherworldly voice, with its underlay of drone mechanics, I hear trace elements of John Jacob Niles, a Banshee’s spectral cry and a sharp wind through the crannies of an old house in the middle of nowhere. A touch of the Irish Traveller way of singing too, as with the sean nós ornamentation you hear in Thomas McCarthy’s music. Then there is his six- and 12-string guitar work, the reverberating synth and fiddle drones, all sympathetic parts moving in tandem with the weight and shape of his voice. On the title-track that guitar is set out raw and unadorned, before strings and electronica weigh in with their own spheres of influence, expanding to a saturated sense of epic…

Hymns of Bantu Warner Classics Anything Abel Selaocoe touches is bound to be extraordinary. Having followed his career from its early days, it’s been a joy to witness his rise as one of the most exciting figures in contemporary classical and global music. But Hymns of Bantu, his second album, feels particularly special. Collaborating with the Manchester Collective, Selaocoe’s unmistakable cello and voice are woven into larger string arrangements, creating a rich, cinematic soundscape that celebrates his South African heritage while connecting it to the Western classical canon in exciting ways. The album opens dreamily with the lullaby-like ‘Tsohle Tsohle’ (Everything Everything) in which Selaocoe sings a traditional South African hymn. Of course, Selaocoe’s cello playing is worth note, but it’s his voice that absolutely captures the attention; in places…

Could you tell us a little about the influence of your uncle, Hariprasad Chaurasia? My uncle Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia is definitely responsible for who I am today. I was exposed to his music since my childhood. Initially I would try to replicate every note, every phrase he played. Over the years, I have [added] my own understanding, making it my style. But at the core of my music, lies everything that I have learnt from him. What can you tell us about Talvin Singh’s OK and the Greeks & Indians albums that you played on? Working on the Greeks & Indians albums was a unique experience. We landed in Greece and immediately got down to creating music. And all this while not understanding even a word of our respective languages.…

If you put ‘Long Lankin’ in a sack with a bunch of other songs, they’d all be dead in 20 minutes. ‘The Cruel Sister’, ‘The Cruel Ship’s Carpenter’, ‘The Elfin Knight’ – hell, even Motorhead’s ‘Ace of Spades’, they wouldn’t stand a chance. For ‘Long Lankin’, AKA Child Ballad #93, first put in writing in the 1750s, is an explosive tale of forced entry, motiveless slaughter and pitiless execution without redemption, without meaning, without escape. It’s a gruesome highlight of Lisa Knapp & Gerry Diver’s new album Hinterland, and a song previously recorded by Martin Carthy, Steeleye Span, Shirley Collins, Jim Moray and Alasdair Roberts. The bare, disarticulated bones of the story are this: the husband goes away and warns his household (wife and child, maid, nurse) to fasten all…

TOP OF THE WORLD TRACKS 01 Jim Ghedi ‘Wasteland’ From Wasteland on Basin Rockr Ghedi’s impassioned vocals and melodic axe work soar across shattering waves of drums and yearning strings on this existential track reflecting upon nature’s gifts we’ve loved and lost. See p56 02 Mthuthu ‘uMagwaza (feat Madala Kunene)’ From Indumiso YabeNguni on Next Music Kunene’s acoustic guitar supplies suspenseful backdrop to Mthuthu’s epic refrain and ululations chastising the challenging of a traditional healer. See p49 03 Jupiter & Okwess ‘Solobombe’ From Ekoya on Airfono The Congolese troupe return with a typically delightful dose of their peppy street funk, replete with gruff, exuberant vocals, soaring chorus and groove-filled riffage. See p48 04 Café Türk ‘Ayla’ From Doğu Ekspresi on Sound Concept Inspired by the 1,001-mile, 26-hour journey from Turkey’s…

It was an exuberant evening of Egyptian folk music at Paris’ Cité de la Musique, where the packed concert hall seats around 1,000 people. And why? To mark 50 years since the death of Oum Kalthoum, the most iconic singer of Egypt and the Arab world, whose funeral in Cairo in 1975 was attended by an estimated four million fans. The anniversary was celebrated at Paris’ Philharmonie with several concerts, including a visit from the Music Ensemble of the Cairo Opera. But I went for an evening given by the Musicians of the Nile on February 1. Oum Kalthoum was born into a rural community in the Nile Delta and always appreciated her village past. Les Musiciens du Nil are from Luxor, Upper Egypt, not Kalthoum’s territory, but Alain Weber,…

James Brown Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud (King Records, 1969) I was at a particularly impressionable age when James Brown brought out this album in 1969. Just becoming a teenager, I remember sneaking out of the house when he came to play at Lagos’ national stadium. It was the first time I saw someone’s performance have a political impact. ‘Say it loud, I’m Black and I’m proud’, I felt that. Fast-forward to 2003, and Antibalas opened for James Brown in Battery Park in New York. I didn’t get to meet him, but when he came out of his trailer, I walked his footsteps. Every step he took, I made sure my foot did it too. Bob Marley & The Wailers Rastaman Vibration (Island Records, 1976) I…

A capella Teeside folk trio The Young’Uns celebrate their 20th anniversary this year. The music of Sean Cooney, Michael Hughes and David Eagle, who started singing together as teens, is marked by its strong social conscience and gorgeous harmonies. They will celebrate with a UK tour in spring. (see our Live Guide on p68). We asked Sean to tell us about three highlights from the last 20 years. 1. A Church in Orkney (St Ninian’s Kirk), May 2017. It was part of Orkney Folk Festival. We always prefer when we don’t need to use mics. The acoustics were the best we’ve ever had. Although there were less than 20 people in the audience you could feel the warmth in the room and see the impact the songs were having. 2.…

A huge thanks to all our readers who voted in the Songlines Music Awards for the Best Album of 2024, and congratulations to Hajda Banda, who have stolen public hearts with their debut album. Focusing on traditional music from Polesia (a region of eastern Poland, western Belarus, and Ukraine), the group is equally at home on stage and performing on the street. Our reviewer described it as “a special album of unusual repertoire… you feel like you are almost part of the band.” WINNER Hajda Banda Hajda! (Karrot Kommando) SHORTLISTED Leyla McCalla Sun Without the Heat (ANTI-) ØXN CYRM (Claddagh Records) Justin Adams & Mauro Durante Sweet Release (Ponderosa Records) Sam Lee songdreaming (Cooking Vinyl) + Previous winners and nominated albums from the Songlines Music Awards were announced in Songlines #204. You can find…

RHIANNON GIDDENS & JUSTIN ROBINSON TITLE: What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow LABEL: Nonesuch Records RELEASE DATE: April 18 Giddens has a busy summer ahead of her, with Carolina Chocolate Drops reuniting for the first-ever Biscuits & Banjos (April 25-27) festival in North Carolina, which Giddens is organising. In line with that CCD reunion, she has recorded an album with one of the band’s original members, Justin Robinson. What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow is a glorious collection of 18 of the duo’s favourite North Carolina tunes, all recorded outdoors with Robinson on fiddle and Giddens on banjo. Giddens explains: “With the assaults on reality going on in the world today, we wanted to offer another kind of record, like walking back onto a gravel or dirt…

In a distant Central Asian monastery, a dozen turban-adorned men in brown dervish-like costumes perform an unusual ritualistic dance. In a ring they jerk rhythmically up and down, turning their gaze this way and that in synchronised movements. They also do identical hand gestures, sometimes both hands together, sometimes one arm raised and the palm upright looking curiously like traffic police caught in a trance. There’s one static figure in the centre – perhaps the leader – and another doing much freer movements as if the trance has made him lose control. This captivating scene is of one of George Ivanovich Gurdjieff’s Sacred Dances or Movements, portrayed at the end of Meetings with Remarkable Men, Peter Brook’s film about the early life of Gurdjieff – made with the assistance of…

Ekoya Airfono After three albums of uncompromising Congolese street funk, Jupiter Bokondji and his band have essayed something a little different on Ekoya by leaving Kinshasa and travelling to Mexico to record with various Latin American musicians. It’s a marriage that makes perfect musical logic but was born of circumstance. Stuck in a locked-down Mexico during the 2020 pandemic after a South American tour, the band discovered at first hand the shared history of African people across both sides of the Atlantic and the heavy debt that Congolese rumba and soukous owes to Latin music. When it came to recording their fourth album, Mexico was an obvious choice. On tracks such as the party rave-up of ‘Congo Blinders’ and the simmering ‘Solobombe’ the African groove is as deep as ever,…

A one-man encyclopaedia of Québécois folk music, fiddler and harmonica player David Brunelle seems to know the history behind every tune and fiddler from La Belle Province. Interestingly, with his debut album, Vieux Airs Neufs (David Brunelle★★★★), he’s leaning into his own compositions on the fiddle. Propelled by the driving rhythm of Québécois podorythmie (foot percussion), the album sounds great with Brunelle buoyed by top-notch friends like the mustachioed Dâvi Simard, fiddle legend Lisa Ornstein, Colin Savoie-Levac of Rosier, the women from Galant, tu perds ton temp, and founding member of La Bottine Souriante, André Marchand. I’m not usually a fan of newly composed tunes, but Brunelle’s huge knowledge of the tradition means his tunes are carefully crafted and would fit as easily in a backroom session as a dusty…

Värav/Vārti/Vartai CPL-Music On this fabulous debut album from The Baltic Sisters, the four voices of Marion Selgall (Estonia), Laurita Peleniūtė (Lithuania), Vineta Romāne and Liene Skrebinska (both Latvia) combine to create music of a powerful, otherworldly beauty. Initially brought together by a shared passion for traditional Lithuanian polyphonic songs known as sutartinės, the group’s album opener ‘Sesė Sodų’ sets up an exquisitely hypnotic wave of interlocking melodic lines, with the voices bouncing off each other to produce an almost bell-like quality. From the repertoire of the Latvian traditional singer Domicella Līpeņa, the captivatingly sung orphan’s song ‘Soka Saule Rītiedama’ vibrates between solo voice and the most incredibly rich polyphony. With its narrow melodic range, seemingly endless canonic entries and atmospheric bird calls hovering in the background, ‘Ėjau Rytelia Čiūta’ appears…

Doğu Ekspresi Sound Concept Records The border town of Kars in the far north-east of Turkey holds a special allure in the Turkish imagination. The title of this album is taken from the legendary Orient Express that takes a reputed 26 hours to travel 1,001 miles from the capital Ankara to Kars, like a mythic machine of fairytale. Orhan Pamuk set his unnerving novel Kar (Snow) in the town, an end-of-the-line, remote and slightly unknowable place, hovering between cultures. The kind of place that creates people like musician Metin Demiral, who founded the band Café Türk in the early 80s after moving to Switzerland. Their 2020 self-titled double album on Zel Zele Records became a cult hit, mixing disco, rock, new wave and reggae with Turkish sounds. After a long…

Orchestrations Guy Buttery Buttery has pursued a more eclectic approach to incorporating global styles into his guitar playing than his fellow South African virtuoso Derek Gripper and more than two decades of adventurous music-making reaches its zenith on an album that stands as his magnum opus. The project began in 2012 when he performed some of his earlier compositions with a 52-piece symphony orchestra. The experience set him on a mission to create an immersive orchestrated suite that just kept on growing in scope, hence its long gestation. The orchestrations frame the 14 tracks as a contemporary classical work but on top of this he layers his own thrilling guitar playing plus contributions from Gripper, American guitarist Kaki King and ‘king of the Zulu guitar’ Madala Kunene, as well as…

Songlines’ pick of the bunch… Los Pirañas (13 MAR The Jam Jar, Bristol; 14 MAR Cafe OTO, London) Eblis Álvarez, Mario Galeano and Pedro Ojeda are old school friends who have been playing music together since the 90s. Though they are best known as the masterminds behind Meridian Brothers, Frente Cumberio, Romperayo and Ondatropica, there is only one project featuring just the three of them and which possesses the joy of three old friends riffing on a love of cumbia, 70s Argentine rock and deep Cuban grooves. Los Pirañas is that project and live is where you get to really enjoy their kinetic kinship and endless musical curiosity at play. SHOWS & TOURS UK & IRELAND Bab L’ Bluz Moroccan-French Gnawa rockers have a handful of UK dates lined up before…

What’s the music/performance scene like in Stroud? We are very lucky, for Stroud’s size there is a formidable music scene… Everyone here has creativity in their blood it seems, there is always something brewing. What music/performances are exciting you in Stroud right now? The Stroud Valleys Artspace (SVA) has some great initiatives for young musicians, such as Joicey DJ Collective and the Jazz Stroud Young Creatives program, both of which provide training, rehearsal and performance opportunities for artists, which is fantastic. The SVA also gave birth to the wonderful band Mermaid Chunky, who we’ve performed with many times over the years, and have just released their first full-length album slif slaf slof on DFA Records, which is really exciting. What’s your favourite venue? All the venues that we have performed…