Table of contents for October 2023 in Songlines

Having a young family, it has been hard of late to see live music regularly, so it was a joy to get along to WOMAD and seize my fix. There were many highlights that I’ve tried to capture on p14, though on a shameless level, hearing Emicida break into Pink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick in the Wall’ for just a couple of bars is a memory that will live on, especially for the 15-year-old music fanboy inside me! For a variety of reasons I’ve been thinking about the tag ‘world music’ a lot lately. After all, it’s disappeared from WOMAD’s marketing, the event now refers to itself as ‘The World’s Festival’. Though he doesn’t use the particular phrase, Balimaya Project’s Yahael Camara Onono rages against the use of ‘African music’ on…

Folk duo FILKIN’S DRIFT (September 3 – October 31) are embarking on an ambitious 870-mile walking tour of the Wales coastal path, with performances each night; they are raising money for Live Music Now in the process… K-MUSIC FESTIVAL (October 1 – November 12) will bring Parasite and Squid Game composer Jung Jae-il, as well as CelloGayageum, groove&, Leenalchi and other Korean treats, to London this autumn… Olivier Award-winning production MÁM (October 5-7) is returning to Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London. The show brings together the music of Irish concertina player Cormac Begley and orchestral collective s t a r g a z e with dancers from the Teaċ Damsa dance company… MARTIN HAYES & THE COMMON GROUND ENSEMBLE (October 6-22) are taking their latest album, Peggy’s Dream, around the UK… THE…

Portavoz ‘El Otro Chile’ (2012) Legendary Chilean rapper’s ode to those marginalised and exploited by Chile’s neoliberal system. This system was forced on the country following the military coup in 1973 and its economic legacy continues to this day. Portavoz raps about coming from ‘the poor, anonymous Chile’ that ‘doesn’t appear in the TV adverts.’ Isabel Parra & Patricio Castillo ‘Vientos del Pueblo’ (1974) Inspired by a poem by Spanish Republican poet Miguel Hernández about the Spanish civil war, ‘Vientos del Pueblo’ (Winds of the People) is a song about struggle and how reactionary forces destroy movements for change. It was part of the Nueva Canción Chilena movement, associated with support for Allende’s government. The song’s lyrics, written by Victor Jara, warn of the violence that Allende’s enemies want to…

Get in touch – we’d love to hear from you! 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 songlines.co.uk GIG GUIDE songlines.co.uk/gig-guide TWITTER @SonglinesMag FACEBOOK facebook.com/songlines INSTAGRAM @SonglinesMag La Marvellous Mar de Músicas! It would be great if Songlines could give some attention to the 12-day [La] Mar de Músicas festival in Cartagena, southeast Spain, which takes place every July. It is totally Songlines readership territory, but I’ve never seen it discussed in your pages. Last year, in rather special elegant venues, Youssou N’Dour and Lido Pimienta played fantastic concerts. This year I saw Fatoumata Diawara and Susana Baca, while Bab L ’ Bluz gave a stonking performance in the main city plaza which…

Oumou Sangaré Oumou (World Circuit, 2003) An album full of contemporary wassolou innovation led by the stunning voice of Oumou Sangaré; rooted in tradition but speaking to the future. Pedrito Martínez Rumba de la Isla (Calle 54 Records, 2013) Pedrito Martínez really has done a lot to shape and change the perception of percussionists/folklore/African-rooted music and his virtuosity as a musician is really at the fore in this piece of work! Weedie Braimah The Hands of Time  (Stretch Music / Ropadeope, 2021) Weedie is another djembé player doing extraordinary things in using the djembé as a conduit for other genres and bridging the gap between the diaspora and the continent in a unique and exciting way. Kendrick Lamar To Pimp a Butterfly (Top Dawg Entertainment / Aftermath / Interscope, 2015)…

Bijelo Dugme The Best of (Music Star, 2020) Unless you live in Serbia or Croatia it can be hard to get your hands on anything by Bregović’s early group, the so-called kings of Yugoslav rock, or ‘Shepherd rock’ to use another description. With that in mind, this digital compilation, released to coincide with one of the band’s reunion tours, is a fine starting point with iconic paeans to Yugoslav identity. Goran Bregović Underground OST (Music Star, 1995) If his soundtrack for Kurustica’s 1988 film Time of the Gypsies, introducing ‘Ederlezi’ to the world, set the scene, then this follow-up soundtrack cemented the rise of Balkan brass fever. The presence of the Boban Marković Orchestra cannot be underestimated, nor the inclusion of classic songs like ‘Mesečina’ and ‘Kalašnjikov’, with Cesaria Evora…

Songlines digital subscribers can download the Top of the World & Bonus tracks every issue. For more details visit songlines.co.uk/subs https://bit.ly/SLTOW191Free Free album download CLICK HERE Aselefech Ashine & Getenesh Kebret Beauties Mississippi Records The first full reissue since its initial release in 1976, Beauties features the two enigmatic female singers Aselefech Ashine and Getenesh Kebret backed by The Army Band – one of the most formidable groups of jazz and funk musicians of the Ethiopian scene. One of the last records of its era, it took Ethiopia by storm when it debuted shortly after the deposition of Emperor Haile Selassie, but was largely lost in the turmoil of the revolution and the duo never made another album. Highly trained in the modal scales of their culture, Aselefech Ashine &…

Balamuc Tarkabarka Balamuc Balamuc are a London-based band with a global membership and a clear interest in the music of the Roma, especially its central European traditions, with a heavy emphasis on Hungarian and Romanian styles. The line-up is fairly standard, with violin and clarinet to the fore, and most of the band capably taking on vocal duties at some point. The readings of Tarkabarka are workmanlike, somewhat staid and occasionally rather hesitant, giving the impression that the usually familiar material was learnt from books rather than listening. Performances cling to the ‘if you play a tune once you can play it again, possibly a bit faster’ principle, while the choice to play a Bulgarian kopanitsa, usually a speedy and light-footed dance at a glacial tempo is interesting, but it…

What drew you to the songs of the Manganiyars? I have a deep connection to the Manganiyar people as my background is also from travelling communities. The songs [explore] love, longing, separation and nature. I love the way that both everyday situations and metaphysical concepts are expressed with so much passion and raw energy. Being exposed to Sikh devotional music at a young age, did you ever feel like pursuing a career in Indian classical music? I perform with Indian classical musicians but I have never felt the desire to pursue a career in pure Indian classical music. My love and passion for the music of India [has] been dominated by my obsession for rhythm and my strongest memory of those days in the gurdwara [Sikh temple] is of being…

Nowadays, the line separating jazz and instrumental hip-hop can be very fine, given the amount of influence that has passed back and forth over the past 50 years. Budapest-based trio Jazzbois embrace this permeability with their third album, Higher Dimension Waiting Room (Blunt Shelter Records ****). Hip-hop and jazz are completely entwined, from the dreamy, lo-fi synths and fluttery piano to the broken beats and funky bass. It’s light and fun with a sci-fi edge, chilled out but with enough groove to keep you dancing. Special props to Tamás Czirják, whose drumming consistently brings the fireworks. Production duo Abderraouf B Grissa & Dan Drohan also sail the jazz-hip-hop continuum with their first collaboration RBGxDD (Uno Loop ****). Together they make a dance-oriented jazz that isn’t afraid of venturing ‘out there’.…

Classical Brought to you by Chineke! Orchestra feat Jeneba Kanneh-Mason Florence Price Decca Classics It’s strange, but after decades of neglect the music of Florence Price seems uncannily familiar. The soulful themes, with their American Deep South tinta, the trumpet-led brass chorales, the jazzy jubas: this is Price’s musical milieu and somehow or other I feel like I’ve known it – or perhaps more accurately the language of it – all my life. I’ve been waiting for Chineke! to join the party and they do so with vigour and a deep affection. Better yet, they bring us Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, whose championing of the Price Piano Concerto has already travelled it far and wide. The work is pointedly announced as one movement but that’s wishful or wilful thinking for a piece…

Kyoto, Japan’s former imperial capital, has a deep-rooted cultural heritage from 14th-century Noh dramas to the country’s oldest kabuki theatre, the Minamiza. Today, with a world-class symphony orchestra, dozens of concert halls and live music clubs, Kyoto has earned its status as the cultural capital of Japan. Its many arts events include Kyotographie, an international photography festival launched in 2013 by photographers Lucille Reyboz and Yusuke Nakanishi. This spring, a musical offshoot was launched. Described as a ‘natural progression of its successful sister event,’ Kyotophonie offers an eclectic mix, from jazz to classical, folk to world music, soul to electronica. The two-week-long festival featured an impressive international line-up in its debut season, including Salif Keita, Ballaké Sissoko, Piers Faccini, Vincent Segal, Lucas Santtana and Sandra Nkaké, as well as Japanese…

I hope you’ve had the summer someone who loves you thinks you deserve! Feeling cheery today as I sit down to write. I think I may finally be getting into podcasts. When I was training for tours with The Wayward Band I discovered Audible and delighted in Peggy Seeger reading her autobiography to me while I worked. Then when I couldn’t sleep I dipped a toe here and there into soothing voices… but it’s not yet replaced radio, a constant in my kitchen when Buffy the Vampire Slayer isn’t on in the corner. Folk and traditional music podcasts, it seems, are thriving. You can find them running the gamut from shiny contemporary trad to textural, time-soaked rustlings in the distance with voices pulled out of time. There are comedians, scholars,…

Erin Cobby Erin is a music and culture journalist who has written for Boiler Room, Alternative Press Magazine and Clash. She is also the Senior Editor of shado magazine. This issue she speaks to Balimaya Project (p26). Wif Stenger Wif grew up in Asia, Scandinavia and the US and now lives on the Finnish coast. He contributes to Jazz Journal, The Guardian and Monocle and this issue picks out ten of his favourite Finnish albums on p82. Karolina Jeppson With a background in anthropology, Karolina focuses her journalism on music, literature and poetry in West and Southeast Africa. She unravels Thomas Sankara’s legacy and passion for music on p40. Songlines was launched in 1999 and is the definitive magazine for world music – music that has its roots in all…

Just north of Ireland’s Arran Islands lies Achill, the largest Irish isle, surrounded by sheer cliffs and clear, stretching views of the sea. Idealised as the heart of Celtic culture during the rise of nationalism in the early 20th century, the island has for many years provided inspiration for artists ranging from authors Graham Greene and JM Synge, to painter Paul Henry and director Martin McDonagh, who filmed some of The Banshees of Inisherin there. And the island’s sublime inspiration continues. A new album, Isle of the Eagle, was written and recorded on Achill, and is attributed to The Achill Sound. Graham Sweeney, an Achill native, and his producer John Michael Berry spearheaded the work. They talk effusively about the island’s captivating nature: “Achill is raw, wild and mainly untouched,”…

K’NAAN ‘Refugee’ It’s been over ten years since we heard from the Canadian-Somali rapper who’s threatening a new album. Lead single is a paean to refugees that draws on his own experiences. Imarhan ‘Ihad Saman’ We know what’s coming: a trepid guitar tries to find a groove, suddenly it hits on a masterly desert blues riff, the bass enters, as do vocals, and you’re transported away to the Sahel. It never gets old! Bixiga 70 ‘Malungu’ After a lengthy hiatus the Brazilian big band are back with a new line-up and sound heavier than ever, the brass section finding its way out of a hailstorm of vibes and throbbing bass. Saîdê Goyî & Ali Doğan Gönültaş ‘Bejna Yarê’ Stunning folk music from the Bohtan region of Kurdistan with dengbêj (troubadour)…

It’s hard to quantify the importance of João Donato. He was a professional musician in the late 1940s at the tender age of 15. Before long, he was in the middle of the bossa nova boom that was taking over Brazil, with the rest of the world soon to follow. João Gilberto claimed that Donato invented the bossa nova beat; Antonio Carlos Jobim called him a genius; and he recorded a number of bossa nova albums, though he was never one to be pigeonholed and it is within Brazilian and Latin jazz that he had the biggest impact. After moving to the US, he played as a sideman or collaborator with Mongo Santamaria, Cal Tjader, Eddie Palmieri and Tito Puente, where he was playing trombone as often as the piano…

From Førde, which hosts Norway’s biggest and brightest traditional and world music festival, it’s about 40 minutes drive to the home of one of the country’s most distinctive painters, Nikolai Astrup (1880-1928). It’s a striking place to visit because the house and the landscape around it feature so much in his art. It’s like stepping into his paintings. Astruptunet, as it is now called, is situated at Sandalstrand on the south side of Jølstravatnet, a beautiful lake in the Jølster region. It’s actually a collection of turf-roofed cottages where Astrup lived from 1914 until 1928 when he died from pneumonia aged only 47. Many of the paintings displayed in the cottages show the interiors they are in; there’s also his studio – which he only completed around 1926 – with…

Yungchen Lhamo has been away. Having blazed a trail with early career albums including her award-winning 1995 debut Tibetan Prayer and the Real World classics Tibet Tibet and Coming Home, having toured over 70 countries, worked with the starry likes of Peter Gabriel, Bono and Annie Lennox and released two further albums distinguished by a willingness to experiment and a voice that feels heaven sent, in 2013 she stopped recording. For the longest time it was as if she’d disappeared. “Peter Gabriel’s contributions, his bringing together of different cultures with peace and love, made me feel lucky to be signed by him,” she tells me from Kingston, an arty town in upstate New York, where she’s spent a decade working with addicts, people with mental illnesses, the sick and the…

‘Aquele Abraço’ (Gilberto Gil, Philips Records, 1969) ROGÊ: “Gil is mother, Gil is more, Gil is music… All and every style, every flavour, every colour. Choosing one song is the hardest task of all, but I have to choose ‘Aquele Abraço’. Because this is not only a song. This is an anthem. The anthem of the city I love the most, where I was born and raised: Rio de Janeiro. It was also conceived in a very particular and meaningful moment of his life and career, so it has a really special place and influence in me.” ‘Expresso 2222’ (Expresso 2222, Philips Records, 1972) DOMENICO LANCELLOTTI: “It’s almost impossible to choose a song by Gil. I spent a week trying and thought of one song, then another and then another.…

Reading about Bali over the years, as I’d frequently done, it sounded extraordinary. Festivals happening every other day, spectacular temples with many-tiered pagodas dotted around the island and, of course, gamelan orchestras popping up at every occasion – along with the occasional kecak monkey chant: men yelling ‘chaka-chaka-chaka’ and waving their arms around an oil lamp. Can it really be as amazing as that? Particularly when, as the Bali-philes say, we should have seen it 30 or 40 years ago. The answer is yes. In fact, it’s even better. What I am not prepared for is the dramatic landscape. There are looming volcanoes, thundering waterfalls and clear rivers cutting deep gorges everywhere. As you drive into Ubud, the cultural capital, the road drops into an incredible ravine and then winds…

Can you tell us about your experience on Mini Star, the TV talent show, when you were young? I was on Mini Star when I was nine. I was channeling Naïny Diabaté back then, the music was so intense, the [Mande] style. It was a really good experience for me and it’s thanks to Mini Star that I got to making music. You were mentored by Naïny and her husband, Cheick Omar Diabaté, is that right? After Mini Star Naïny Diabaté took me under her wing, so I went to their home… [where] I learned how to sing. They are basically like my parents, in a way. They were the ones who taught me how to sing the malenka and the pipenta as well. It was a very positive, unique experience…

You’ve said this album came out of “living in, leaving, and revisiting Wales.” Could you elaborate on this? Just after lockdown, I went back to my mother’s house in Llanilltyd Fawr. I was always under the impression that we weren’t a family of picture-takers, but I was told to go grab a few boxes from the attic and I found a whole box of me at various years in primary school [doing] dawnsio gwerin, Welsh folk dancing. Something I completely forgot about. I started to remember some of the tunes we used to dance to, ‘Jac a Do’, ‘Cylch y Cymry’. I had always been interested in folk tradition and music from all over the world, but strangely never thought about drawing on the country I was from. So I…

Eje Eje Five Seasons Batov Records Best known for his work with the Turkish psych-influenced Şatellites, Itamar Klüger is a multi-instrumentalist with a key role in the Tel Aviv music scene. Eje Eje is his new solo project, in which he expands his range to take in styles from across the Middle East and beyond – anything from Persian wedding music to Egyptian rhythms, funk and dub. As with many bands on Batov Records, bass and drums play a key role, providing a solid, rhythmic platform over which he can add keys or electric bağlama. The album is a largely instrumental concept work, based around the Chinese idea of five seasons (the end of summer is apparently a season of its own) and the best tracks are both atmospheric and…

How did you get into tango? I was a professional musician in Sri Lanka, where I am originally from, but when I migrated to Canada I couldn’t find a way to support myself. I had no family or community that could support an artistic career for a woman of colour. I took up tango dancing as a way to be in my body, and I fell in love with the music. This led to hours of transcription and study of form and history, and then eventually, to my own voice which is a bit Sri Lankan and Canadian, and all tango. To me, tango is about place; it is located. That’s why my music tries to capture [current] issues rather than trying to be a refraction of tango’s Golden Age.…

01 Piirpauke Piirpauke (Love Records, 1975) This classic debut, blending instrumental folk, jazz and prog rock, features the hit ‘Konevitsan Kirkonkellot’, based on a Karelian folk song about a monastery on a once-Finnish island in Lake Ladoga. It features a French-horn solo by Esa-Pekka Salonen, then just 17, and exquisite guitar by Hasse Walli. 02 Värttinä Oi Dai (Spirit, 1991) Värttinä started life 40 years ago as a youth choir in Karelia, before recording this stunner. Its trad tunes, featuring rapid-fire bawdy lyrics, inspired a new generation to explore roots music. Värttinä later added Bulgarian, Celtic, electronic and pop elements and teamed up with a Bollywood composer for a Lord of the Rings musical. Their attitude and sound has influenced acts such as Tuuletar, Okra Playground and Vilma Jää. 03 Hilja Grönfors…

AFGHANISTAN: the Taliban have circulated a photo of their members burning a heap of musical instruments outside of Herat (pictured), with a spokesperson for Afghanistan’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice elaborating: ‘Promoting music causes moral corruption and playing it will cause the youth to go astray’… GERMANY: research undertaken in The Gambia by the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence has found that male nightingales actively mimic the sounds of their rivals during mating season, with further research showing an ability to shift the pitch of their call to mimic a variety of frequencies… IRELAND: Lankum have been nominated for a Mercury Music Prize for False Lankum. Arctic Monkeys, Ezra Collective, Loyle Carner, RAYE and Young Fathers are among the other nominees. The winner will be…

LENY ANDRADE (1943-2023) + DÓRIS MONTEIRO (1934-2023): two Rio-born singers who were associated with samba, especially the big band forms of the 50s and 60s. Both reached peak popularity in their 20s but continued to perform, with Andrade sharing a Latin Grammy in 2007 for the album Ao Vivo. They both died on July 24 and a joint wake was held for them at Rio de Janeiro’s Theatro Municipal… JANE BIRKIN (1946-2023): British-French singer and actress who shot to fame with the single ‘Je T’aime… Moi Non Plus’ in 1969, a duet with Serge Gainsbourg, her then-partner. It was the first single in French and the first single banned from radio to reach #1 in the UK charts. She continued acting and releasing music throughout her life, normally singing in…

Togolese five-piece, Nana Benz du Togo, make joyously infectious dance music that fuses traditional rhythms with the deep trance and pulsating basslines of acid house. But, for all its club-friendly vibes, it’s a sound that draws heavily on a much older West African cultural and spiritual tradition, as singer Izealedu explains: “Our inspirations are from the vodoun convents, the temples where we are doing vodoun ceremonies. We have a way to sing in the convents here in Togo, a way to dance, and we took the artistic part of those ceremonies and mixed it with the sound of the 90s. So, we call our music ‘digital vodoun.’” Even while firing up the dancefloor, the ceremonies Nana Benz du Togo invoke are intimately connected to age-old methods of divination. “The word…

November 2023 (#192) On sale October 6 Ahead of a world tour we speak to ‘Africa’s premier diva’ Angélique Kidjo (pictured); we celebrate 50 years since Cuba’s Irakere first formed; Anoushka Shankar chats about a new release made with Arooj Aftab and Nils Frahm; Bebel Gilberto guides us through a Beginner’s Guide to her father, João Gilberto; and we take a trip into Azerbaijan to discover mugham in its rich complexity. Our attention turns to South Korea as we interview Squid Game/Parasite composer Jung Jae-il and pansori pranksters Leenalchi; we also track down Ladaniva, a French-Armenian group producing Balkan pop; and uncover Corinne Bailey-Rae’s radical new album informed by a Chicagoan artist’s work; with much more TBA.…

“If you don’t go crazy, you’re not normal,” Goran Bregović tells the crowd – and they go nuts. From Reykjavik to Novosibirsk to Macao – not to mention Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera House and the Barbican – Bregović knows how to disrupt an audience. It’s a sultry evening in June, at Huxley’s in Berlin, where, with minimal advertising, 2,000 people have gathered in a sold-out venue to watch Goran Bregović provoke bedlam at the flick of a wrist. As usual the concert starts off with a twopiece Serbian brass section, in their folklore uniform – blasting a path through the crowd to centre stage, where they are joined by a female Bulgarian choir and, finally, the maestro himself, clad in trademark crisp white suit with electric guitar slung over a…

Afrosound Carruseles Vampisoul Waaahaaahaaaa! From deep within Colombia’s Discos Fuentes vaults comes another Vampisoul resurrection… But Afrosound’s 1974 release stands out from the crowd like an alien from Planet Zog. Produced by the ubiquitous, ever-dependable Fruko – perhaps with an ear for the popularity of Andean chicha music – Afrosound’s third LP is brimming with interstellar organ, fuzzed-out electric guitar and the kind of chattering nonsensical exhortations associated with inane TV game shows. A track like ‘Banana de Queso’ captures the album’s crazy spirit: as loco as a cheese banana. ‘Me Voy de la Vida’ and the fabulous ‘Negua’ confirm that the group can equally serve their cumbia straight and with none of the quirks that make the madcap ‘Zaire Pop’ sound vaguely like Isaac Hayes’ Shaft remixed by Bronski…

Dhaivat Jani Sum // Parts Self-released Toronto-based composer and percussionist Jani’s debut album is aptly named, as sum is the Hindi-Urdu word for that vital beat in Indian classical music on which a cyclical rhythm culminates to signal the start of a new rhythmic cycle. But, for Jani, the title also refers to the sum of all the different parts of his life, having initially trained as an Indian classical musician and later become drawn to other influences, especially jazz. Jani grew up in Ahmedabad, India, from whence he migrated to Canada and, inspired by a diverse range of musicians including Trilok Gurtu and Led Zeppelin, his music is described as all that happened in between. The first track, ‘Day 21’, and ‘Peshkaar’, on which he plays the tabla, are…

3’Ain Sea of Stories Choux de Bruxelles For fans of Jaune Toujours, this may come as something of a shock. Their singer and accordion player Piet Maris is actually a very serious muso. He may be best known for mixing ska, chanson and political themes in Belgium’s ‘kick-ass roots band’ (as they describe themselves), but now comes a change of musical direction. In 3’Ain Maris continues to play accordion (but doesn’t sing) and is joined by the excellent Belgian bass player Otto Kint, and an equally classy trumpet player Yamen Martini, who has moved to Belgium from Syria. Now based in the port of Ostend (which explains the seagull noises between several of the tracks), the trio have recorded a set of impressive instrumentals that match jazz with echoes of…

Making Our Future: Visionary Folklore and Everyday Culture in Appalachia Emily Hilliard The University of North Carolina Press (277 pages) On the one hand, Appalachia is sometimes portrayed as a world of cosy old-time music, quilting and blacksmithing; on the other, as inhabited by unclean, under-educated people living in dire poverty. Either way, Appalachian culture has frequently been stereotyped; the victim of rural poverty porn. It’s something former West Virginia state folklorist (and current Program Director for Folk and Traditional Arts at the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation) Emily Hilliard ably dismantles in her book, Making Our Future. Not to suggest that the aforementioned traditions aren’t meaningful nor that poverty in the region isn’t acute, just that the reality of Appalachian culture is much more complex, and much less static, than…

“As a deaf person, when it comes to music there are elements of higher pitch stuff – like hi-hats or whistles – that get stripped. I don’t experience any of that. I get the kind of lower frequencies, what you can feel in your chest. I think that has informed how I listen and, in particular, [made me] focus on lyricists, since I’m drawn to the vocals and particularly to people who have deep voices – like Nina Simone. Or Bob Dylan, even. With them, there’s such a weight, a presence to the voice over the music and the way that the words themselves are as important as anything else that’s happening sound wise.” Only 36-years-old, London poet Raymond Antrobus won the Ted Hughes Award in 2019, has been elected…