Table of contents for March 2022 in Songlines

Often the musics we feature have complicated histories. Even though much of it is being released commercially as entertainment, these genres and sty les frequently trace their roots back to music of resistance and defiance and/or the music of marginalised communities. Topics of identity and belonging are at the heart of a lot of the music, and we tread a fine line between appreciation and appropriation as music consumers. Music made or collected during colonial rule is inevitably tricky business, so it’s encouraging to see a new project and exhibition, [Re:]Entanglements, address these complexities head on. Using the archives of British colonial anthropologist Northcote Thomas (containing around 700 sound recordings from Nigeria and Sierra Leone) as its basis, the project asks important questions about the role of colonial archives and…

Koady Chaisson (1984-2022) Banjo and guitar player with Canadian contemporary folk group The East Pointers dies at the age of 37 Koady Chaisson, banjo and guitar player with The East Pointers, has died at the age of 37. The critically-acclaimed trio, featuring Koady’s cousin Tim and Ontario native Jake Charron, formed in 2014 and have released three albums – the Juno Award-winning Secret Victory, 2017’s What We Leave Behind and 2019’s Yours to Break. Their music draws on their own ancestry and that of Prince Edward Island on Canada’s east coast. Six generations of music-making Chaissons preceded them, and their shows are a compelling blend of Scottish, Irish, French and Celtic fiddle tunes infused with Acadian flavours and contemporary folk-pop, played with brilliance and verve. The trio take their name…

The magnificent tiled entrance hall of the Sao Bento station in Porto is one of the architectural highlights of the Portuguese city and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The tiles took 11 years to complete and were finished in 1916, the year the station opened. An upper frieze of coloured tiles shows the history of transportation in Portugal from donkeys and carts to the arrival of the ‘modern’ railway just over a century ago. The vast main panels, designed by Jorge Colaco, are made of blue and white azulejo tiles for which Portugal is famous. They depict great moments in Portuguese history: kings, queens, a royal wedding and a conquest. But the panels facing the tracks show ordinary Portuguese life and are rather more interesting. They show vineyards and wine…

HOW DID YOU FIRST DISCOVER SONGLINES? While studying a MA in World Music Studies at Sheffield University in 2004. I’ve been buying it ever since and am now a subscriber thanks to a lovely Christmas gift from my daughter. WHAT’S ON YOUR STEREO? Lumba, the new album by Belgian/Senegalese trio Tamala. I have also been enjoying the sounds of Monsieur Doumani on their album Pissourin. FAVOURITE ALBUMS? A really old sampler album from World Music Network called African Blues featuring artists such as Ismael Lo, Rokia Traore and Oumou Sangare. FAVOURITE NEW ARTISTS? I am really impressed with the playing of the qanun by Maya Youssef. There is also a new singer from Devon called Gozer Goodspeed (best stage name I’ve heard in a while) who plays some lovely raw…

Azuei Artybonito Azueï (56 mins) A diverse record that aims for unity in divided Hispaniola The Azueï Movement is a collective of artists spanning the shared island of Hispaniola, home to Haïti and the Dominican Republic. Their first album, Artybonito, takes its name from the river Artibonite, which flows through both countries – a fitting metaphor for a group trying to promote a collective identity between the two divided nations. Musically, this album is a real mixed bag; genre-hopping from one track to the next, you could be forgiven for thinking that you were listening to a compilation record. Composed in Spanish, Creole and English, Artybonito is underpinned by a fusion of Afro-Caribbean styles. ‘Cacibajagua’ pairs driving percussion and saturated guitar with heady vocals not dissimilar in style to Haiti’s…

Jens Pollheide & Imran Khan Ji Fuego Records (49 mins) Compelling Indo-jazz infusions This pairing between German ex-Embryo bassist Pollheide and Indian sitar player Imran Khan marks the culmination of seven years of collaborative friendship. You can sense a familiarity borne of long hours spent jamming in their natural melding of jazz and Indian classical styles. Opener ‘Syncopated Charukeshi’ is a suitable case in point as Pollheide’s jazz-inflected bass lines curl sinuously around Khan’s courtly sitar or engage with it in compelling calland-response exchanges. On ‘Stay at Home Blues’ the bassist’s fretless chord changes provide a pliable base for some dreamily beautiful improvisations by Imran. Indian percussionist Ishteyak Khan and Turkish darbuka player Fethi Ak add similarly sympathetic musicianship, their virtuosic rhythms providing fluid backing throughout. The addition of Catrin…

Becoming an Irish Traditional Musician: Learning and Embodying Musical Culture Jessica Cawley Routledge (262 pages) Concepts and confessions from the Irish trad scene Self-confessedly ‘intoxicated’ by Irish music when she visited Ireland to pursue research into how musicians typically learn their craft – the central query of this, her first book – American ethnomusicologist Jessica Cawley went native. Immersing herself in the musical life of her adopted Cork, she learned to play the flute, inspired especially by Matt Molloy of The Chieftains; his son, Peter, became her mentor and guide to an ancient form that ‘has become entwined in my personal identity and life story.’ Becoming an Irish Traditional Musician: Learning and Embodying Musical Culture is the first, and so far only, book to focus on Irish traditional music in…

Raised in the Chöön-Khemchik region of western Tyva (also spelt Tuva), Choduraa Tumat experienced the traditional Tyvan soundscape in the throat-singing (khoomei, sygyt) of her brothers and the jaw harp (khomus) playing and pastoral animal mimesis of her mother. Since then she’s developed that soundscape by challenging traditional biases against female throat-singing and igil (two-stringed fiddle) playing. In 1998, she formed the all-female throatsinging group Tyva Kyzy (Daughters of Tyva) and, in 2008, recorded the album Igil Unu, Iyem Unu (The Igil’s Voice, My Mother’s Voice) for Tuva Trader. On her latest release, Tumat focuses on the byzaanchy (four-stringed spike fiddle). Why, I asked, was she attracted to the byzaanchy? “I first encountered it when I was about ten years old – it was played during a festival by a…

Chris Moss’ rant about English folk music [Soapbox, December 2021, #173] was bound to elicit a response – I suppose that’s what these things are for! I’m glad to be given the opportunity to refute some of his claims, speaking both in my capacity as new president of the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS), an institution oft en criticised in a similar and (in recent years) equally unjustified way, and also as a performer of English folk and traditional music. He starts by accurately defining folk music and then criticises English devotees by betting none would ‘hum ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ while you’re in your rainwater-harvesting showers.’ For a start, there’s a misunderstanding of the difference between traditional music and the ‘folk’ process. Th at Paul Simon remains…

Simon Cross Simon is an journalist and academic with eclectic interests and a particular passion for genre defying music. This month he speaks to Tom Coll of Fontaines DC about the music that has influenced him (p64). Ashanti Omkar Ashanti is an award-winning broadcaster and culture critic. Th is issue she talks to prolific Indian film composer AR Rahman about his latest projects including the allfemale Firdaus Orchestra (p30). Philip Sweeney Journalist Philip has been writing for decades on international culture and society. Th is issue he traces the music of the Algerian War ahead of the 60th anniversary of independence (p26). 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…

April 2022 (#176) On sale March 4 Ibibio Sound Machine (pictured) – We catch up with the funky Afrobeat group about their upcoming new album, Electricity Viking music – A deep dive into the new-old pagan wave recapturing Norse hearts Knight & Spiers – How a ‘one-off ’ pairing of fiddler Peter Knight and melodeon player John Spiers has gone on to light up the folk scene The Rumba Kings – A new documentary celebrating the history of Congolese rumba Spotlight on KOG – The prolific Ghanian creative force releases his solo debut My World: Elvis Costello – The English singer-songwriter shares the music that has inspired him over the years PLUS! A bonus CD of Balkan music…

“Sometimes, when I’m singing, the music takes me over,” says Rokia Koné, sitting straight-backed at home in Bamako, Mali. “I dive in so deep that I go into a trance. It’s all to do with my love for music.” A smile. “Music is who I am.” Blessed with a voice that uplifts and mesmerises, a voice that, overheard, prompts gasps and double takes, Rokia, 37, came early to song. Her maternal grandmother, Fatoumata Diarra, is a wedding singer, and her aunts and uncles on both sides sing. But it was Rokia’s talent that stopped the people of Dioro – a town on the banks of the Niger River in Segou region of south-central Mali – in their tracks. She sang for the community. Aged nine, she headlined a concert for…

Ivar Bjørnson & Einar Selvik Skuggsjá By Norse Music (60 mins) Dramatic Viking folk collaboration Fans of Einar Selvik’s project Wardruna will welcome this opportunity to get their hands on Skuggsjá, an album originally released in 2016 but now reissued, in various formats, featuring new artwork with full lyrics and translations. The album has its origins in a 2014 collaboration between Selvik and Ivar Bjornson. Selvik (formerly of Norwegian black metal band Gorgoroth, and now the driving force of Wardruna) and Bjornson (the guitarist with Viking metal band Enslaved) were commissioned to produce a concert piece, arranged to be performed by Enslaved and Wardruna, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Norwegian constitution. In some ways, the result musically foreshadows Wardruna’s 2021 Kvitravn – tracks often build slowly from quiet,…

Ruşan Filiztek Sans Souci Accords Croisés (54 mins) Amalgam of Anatolian styles As a Kurdish musician, born in the south of Turkey, now resident in France, Ruşan Filiztek is celebrating the music of the many peoples of Anatolia, from the Greeks and Armenians, to the Kurds and Ottoman Turks – to list them in order of their settlement in the region. The songs are juxtaposed and the influences mixed up, which is the point, as the music of this region isn’t pure. The album’s title Sans Souci (Without Cares), comes from a Breton song, one of the minority groups within France. The song, in French, is very beautiful, sung by Filiztek in a falsetto voice accompanied by a delicate three-string saz (long-necked lute). There are two Armenian tracks, featuring the…

Classical Brought to you by Patricia Kopatchinskaja & Sol Gabetta Sol & Pat Alpha Marvellous duo manifestations William Blake’s aphorism ‘no bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings’ can be interpreted as artists with minds of their own, who circle above us questioning, questing and making it new (even when it isn’t). The beauty of this programme – aside from the players’ crazed spontaneity – is that it revolves around two duo masterpieces for violin and cello: Ravel’s ‘Sonata in A Minor’, and Zoltan Kodaly’s ‘Duo, Op 7’. Kopatchinskaja likens Jorg Widmann’s two ‘Duos’ to witty anecdotes, the first incorporating a cameo by the Dr No theme. Francisco Coll’s original if mostly mournful ‘Rizoma’ drew an interesting response from the composer in the form of some…

Tom Coll, the drummer from Irish post-punk five-piece Fontaines DC is homesick. “I find myself walking round the streets of London listening to old Irish trad tunes, and it’s like… fuck. I miss Ireland so much, the craic is just way better.” During lockdown, with touring cancelled, he went back to Ireland and his family home, a place full of musical memories. Moving back to London when the lockdown was over was a shock to the system. “I’m from Castlebar in the west of Ireland, it’s quite a small town with a rich traditional history. There’s a town nearby called Westport, which is a big trad town too, so there were loads of pubs that would have music on every night of the week. It was great to grow up…

Aft er 18 months of strict lockdown, the world of Gnawa gather in the port town of Essaouira once more for a historic event in November. Staged by the national television channel SNRT, the performance features the most celebrated Gnawa masters (maalems), who have brought with them dancers, background singers and the famous leading female healers, known for their ability to summon the spirits of the beyond. The port city has recently gone through a revival thanks to the annual Gnawa World Music Festival and the scenic old medina, featured in Game of Th rones. I have visited almost every edition of the festival since it began in 1998. In 2019, Gnawa was inscribed onto the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list, but the festival in 2020 was cancelled due to…

01 Jouhiorkesteri Nikodemus (Ääniä, 2008) The jouhikko is a Finnish bowed lyre, which after nearly becoming extinct has seen a dramatic revival in recent years. This album from Jouhiorkesteri (Horse Hair Orchestra) features jouhikko players Pekko Kappi and Ilkka Heinonen who now have serious solo careers. Reviewed in the November/December 2008 issue (#56). 02 Kayhan Kalhor & Ali Akbar Moradi In the Mirror of the Sky (World Village, 2004) Kurdish-Iranian musician Kayhan Kalhor is the master of the kamancheh, the classical Persian spike fiddle. He’s an accomplished improvisor, sustaining extraordinary musical narratives via his playing. He’s joined here by Ali Akbar Moradi, Kurdistan’s best-known singer and player of the plucked tanbur. A Top of the World in the September/October 2004 issue (#26). 03 Sakar Khan At Home (Amarrass Records, 2013)…

One of the most inspiring sets at the last WOMEX in Porto was by Azuei, a group from Haiti and the Dominican Republic, two countries that hardly connect even though they share the island known as Hispaniola (which they prefer to refer to it by its indigenous name, Kiskeya). Azuei aim to bring the two cultures together – one speaking Spanish, the other Haitian Creole. There are strong vocals, fizzing guitars, a horn section and vibrant percussion. “Music, video, graffiti, sculpture, literature, circus and a strong dose of activism – these are our weapons to stand in this fight together with the legacy of our common ancestors,” they say. Their music may be danceable and fun, but there’s no denying its political edge. The cover of Azueï’s debut album, Artybonito,…

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 The folk war wages on Clearly, this was a seriously opinionated article by Chris Moss about English folk music [Soapbox, December 2021, #173] and I appreciated reading about his introspective journey back to his roots, revisiting Lancashire folk song and realising it was no longer his ‘cup of tea.’ However, have all lyrics got to carry a political message? Do lyrics based in historical context not carry political weight in today’s world? Looking at folk and its musical sty le beyond England, (Chris mentions Ireland, so I feel I can do this) it includes Scotland, Norway,…

Sixty years on, the Algerian War, one of the last great conflicts of European decolonisation, is still in the news. Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the youthful member of the FLN (National Liberation Front) in the 1950s who ruled as president for most of the last quarter century, is only recently dead. His successor Abdelmadjid Tebboune is busy arranging the anniversary and quarrelling with Emmanuel Macron of France as they attempt to agree on a new bilateral historians’ commission to deal with the unresolved rancour. As always, music is present. During the last decade, the rap scene has taken up the subject. In France, the Le Havre-based rapper Medine has recycled as subject matter the infamous police attack on Algerian protesters in Paris of October 17 1961, while the Algerian Rabah Donquishoot has…

Lekan Babalola #Mr Lakaaye Oyeku Meji Records (57 mins) A unique return from the Nigerian jazz musician Lekan Babalola has an impressive track record as a musician (percussionist and composer/arranger) and filmmaker. One of Nigeria’s outstanding jazz musicians, he’s worked on two Grammy-winning albums: Ali Farka Touré & Toumani Diabate’s In the Heart of the Moon and Cassandra Wilson’s Loverly. He’s played with a host of luminaries including Art Blakey, Prince, Tony Allen and David Byrne. He’s also the founder and creative director of Ifá-Yoruba Contemporary Arts Trust – in his youth, his grandmother who was an ardent follower of the Yoruba Ifa faith, took him to her priest for regular divinations. So it’s not surprising that he describes his new album as an Afro-futurist re-imagination of Ogun, a primordial…

FT. SAULJALJUI—TAIWAN, EMLYN—MAURITIUS, PUTAD—TAIWAN, VAITEANI & LUC—TAHITI, SELINA LEEM—MARSHALL ISLANDS, SAMMY—MADAGASCAR YOYO TUKI—RAPA NUI, AIRILEKE—PAPUA NEW GUINEA & AUSTRALIA JAN 29 SEATTLE TOWN HALL, WA • JAN 31 VASHON CENTER FOR THE ARTS, WA FEB 3 MOUNT BAKER THEATRE, WA • FEB 4 RIALTO THEATRE, WA • FEB 8—10 STANFORD UNIVERSITY, CA FEB 9 BING CONCERT HALL, CA • FEB 14—15 UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA, AZ FEB 17—18 SCOTTSDALE CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, AZ • FEB 19 CENTENNIAL HALL, AZ FEB 21—25 MIAMI DADE COLLEGE, FL• FEB 25 THE NORTH BEACH BANDSHELL, FLFEB 27—28 FOX CITIES PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, WI • MAR 8—10 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS, IL MAR 10 FOELLINGER GREAT HALL, IL • MAR 14—16 UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, VA MAR 16 MODLIN CENTER FOR THE ARTS, VA • MAR…

Alai K Kila Mara On the Corner (39 mins) Kenyan percussion taking over the dance floors of Berlin Alai K’s debut album is a potent mix of percussive practice from his native Kenya melded with the driving dance floor spirit of Berlin’s infamous club districts. Alai K moved to the German capital three years ago and began working on a project that reflected his heritage, without losing sight of the functional and liberatory capacity of dance music in a live space. Flanked by fellow compatriot Izo Anyanga – who lives in Hamburg – Alai K has created a project that is incessant, brooding and eminently danceable. Opener ‘Kinyago’ captures this dialogue. Layers of percussion build, alongside a looped reed line. Alai K’s voice begins to shine, before irascible square waves…