Table of contents for Decemeber 2023 in Songlines

When I started as editor at the beginning of the year there was one feature I had pencilled in straight away. In December 2023, the Ethiopian pianist, composer and nun Emahoy Tsege-Mariam Gebru would be 100 years old and we should celebrate. Emahoy got her big break late in life, when she was already in her 60s, thanks to being the focus of Éthiopiques 21: Piano Solo (2006). Though the Éthiopiques series has been regularly featured in Songlines, Emahoy has not. This is partly because she didn’t perform live and hasn’t released any new music since Songlines began, but also because she was a singular presence in the Éthiopiques catalogue. Emahoy wrote in the liner notes to her 1963 album Spielt Eigene Kompositionen that she found great meaning in music,…

Marking the release of their new live album, JOHN MCSHERRY, BRENDÁN QUINN & FRANCIS MCILDUFF (November 30 – December 5) are heading out on a UK tour armed with their authentic Irish sound… REG MEUROSS WITH SUNTOU SUSSO & COHEN BRAITHWAITE-KILCOYNE (January 24) will perform songs at Kings Place from Meuross’ Stolen from God, a reflection on the brutalities of the Atlantic Slave Trade… THE OLLAM (January 25 – 30) have announced a UK tour including appearances at Manchester’s Band on the Wall and Glasgow’s Celtic Connections… Karine Polwart, Kings Place’s new artist-in-residence, kicks off SCOTLAND UNWRAPPED (from January 12), the venue’s year-long series in celebration of Scottish music and collaboration… The timeless TRANSATLANTIC SESSIONS (February 2-11) are bringing their joyous and skilful celebration of trad music to these isles… The…

Rhiannon Giddens, Anoushka Shankar and Allison Russell were among those to support an open letter to US President Joe Biden calling for a ceasefire in Israel and Gaza. ‘More than 5,000 people have been killed in the last week and a half… We believe all life is sacred, no matter faith or ethnicity and we condemn the killing of Palestinian and Israeli civilians,’ reads the letter. This follows a wider #CeasefireNow open call, initiated after the United Nations appealed to all warring parties on October 15 for a ceasefire to avert a humanitarian crisis. Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra as a way ‘to promote coexistence and intercultural dialogue,’ with the orchestra including an equal number of Israeli and Arab musicians. Barenboim wrote an opinion letter…

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 X @SonglinesMag FACEBOOK facebook.com/songlines INSTAGRAM @SonglinesMag The Politics of Music The October issue was one of the best yet. You posed the eternal question of an alternative for ‘World’ music. I prefer the term ‘specialist’ music, because that was the section [in which] you would find this music in a record store. There are six main genres and it is anything that is not rock, pop, hiphop, soul and dance. World music encapsulate[s] everything from folk to country, roots to trad and even pop music not in English. I would also…

THE COMPLETE PACKAGE SONGLINES CLUB Our premium subscription option is best way to explore the greatest and latest in world and folk music. Combining all our subscriptions into one, our Full Club package is the most comprehensive and cost-effective way to enjoy Songlines. ▶ 10 new print and digital issues during the year ▶ An exclusive 15-track compilation CD and track downloads with every issue ▶ Unrestricted digital access to every issue of Songlines since issue #1 ▶ Access 7,500 expert album reviews in our NEW Reviews Database, with more added every month From £9.20 / a month BEST VALUE THE DIGITAL PACKAGE SONGLINES DIGITAL CLUB ▶ 10 new digital issues during the year ▶ Unrestricted digital access to every issue of Songlines since issue #1 ▶ Access 7,500 expert album reviews…

How do the nomadic traditions and sounds of your upbringing continue to inform your music? And what is the influence of music outside of this upbringing? My music has always been a mix of traditional Touareg and Western music influences. I think this was has what has allowed me to create my own style within Touareg music. The foundation is always traditional, the rhythm, the way I structure my songs, the melodies, everything is from the Touareg musical language. But, I love to mix in rock music, funk music, reggae music, all the other styles that I grew up with and enjoy. Music gives you this opportunity to blend things together to create something new. Are there specific artists, individuals or movements that inspired this album? There are songs on here…

What can you tell us about Crystal Lexicon? The album was composed and recorded in 2009-2010, at the peak of the social movement in Tehran, and had been archived after that. Based on the situation in 2022 in Iran, I decided to complete the album. Crystal Lexicon in my mind represents a requiem for the situation of my society at that time. It starts with the composer asking ‘clouds of sorrow’ to offer a downpour of crystals to brighten and whiten the misty and gloomy land. You’re now based in Istanbul. What was the main reason you left Iran? My goal is to preserve and spread the sublime music of Iran and to transfer the remaining heritage outside the borders of the country, to introduce Iranian music at the international…

How did you choose the musicians you worked with on this project? When I started, it was important to start with singers I knew, it reassured me. Then, when I was writing the songs, I realised that I was looking for classical voices that sounded like my idol, Fairouz, who rocked my childhood. So, I adapted my songs to female singers who symbolically represent each country in the Middle East and North Africa. Some of the singers adapted my lyrics, others modified them a little to suit their culture, phrasing and their own experience. How did Fairouz ‘rock’ your childhood? My mother used to play me Fairouz tunes, from the time of the Rahbani brothers, in our little apartment on Ordener Street in Paris. Later, I discovered the song ‘Li…

Chris Wheatley Chris is a writer with a lifelong love of global sounds. He has too many records, too many musical instruments and not enough cats. He’s also very tired after giving Folkways Records 75 birthday bumps (p28). Silvia Rothlisberger Silvia is a London-based journalist from Colombia covering Latin American music, film and literature; she works in editorial at The Guardian. Soema Montenegro puts her under her spell on p40. Dave McNally Dave lives in Manchester and has contributed to Songlines since 2018, also writing for The Guardian, Folk Radio and Irish Music Magazine. He listens to The Breath strip back their sound on p24. Songlines was launched in 1999 and is the definitive magazine for world music – music that has its roots in all parts of the globe,…

AUSTRALIA: the referendum to give Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people a voice in the constitution resulted in an overwhelming rejection, with 60% of the national votes being ‘No’. All six states, as well as the Northern Territory, also voted ‘No’… BRAZIL: the festival No Ar Coquetel Molotov, an important champion of independent music from Brazil celebrated 20 years on October 21 with a line-up consisting of 60% female artists, huge efforts to be environmentally sustainable and the option to watch the whole 12 hours live on YouTube; Luedji Luna, Àttoxxá, FBC and Marcelo D2 were among the headliners… COLOMBIA: there was outrage in Bogotá as a show featuring Romperayo and Conjunto Media Luna (pictured right) was cut short because the venue, Radio Estrella, decided it had had enough…

Abel Selaocoe ‘Voices of Bantu’ The opening melody draws from Marin Marais’ ‘Les Voix Humaines’, but then Selaocoe, with just voice and cello, takes this soaring. Astonishing. New Regency Orchestra ‘Mambo Herd’ Squealing trumpets, parping tuba and a sizzling rhythm: this take on Tito Puente & Woody Herman’s mambo hard-hitter is an Afro-Cuban jazz delight. Vieux Farka Touré, Amadou & Mariam and OMG ‘My Sahel’ Greats from across the Sahel have teamed up to raise funds for humanitarian issues in the region, with this groovin’ single being the first fruit. AGADEZ ‘Tanit (feat Angélique Kidjo and Loire Cutler)’ Italian actress/director Giada Colagrande (AGADEZ) gives us a pulsing, gothic slice of early Med with Kidjo’s unique vocals. Oceanvs Orientalis & İlhan Erşahin ‘1980’ The best collab from these two yet. Sax…

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

The Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) is Mumbai’s biggest and newest performing arts venue. The Ambani family are said to be the wealthiest in Asia with Forbes regularly naming Mukesh Ambani on their ‘Top 10 Richest People in the World’ list. He is married to Nita Ambani, a trained dancer who now appears to be focused on philanthropy, including founding the NMACC. She says the aim of the centre is to “showcase the best of India to the world and the best of the world to India.” The centre opened in April with a show called The Great Indian Musical: Civilisation to Nation. It was intended as a one-off performance to open the Grand Theatre, but it packed the 2,000-seat venue for 24 performances and I went to see…

“ My voice is my instrument,” states Argentine folk artist Soema Montenegro. “To me the body is also a territory where I can find sounds,” she continues. “When I find it hard to put into words what I want to say or what I’m feeling, I use sounds in my music: there’s a scream, there’s a gasp, a noise made with my voice. I use these sounds to express what I can’t say with words.” It’s no coincidence that Montenegro is known as the ‘Shaman-Poet’. “My partner is a musician. My daughter sings and plays the ukulele. Music always centres us, frees us, and to me especially, singing is an absolute source, everything starts from the voice, then it transforms into poetry and then the song emerges,” says Montenegro via…

José Alberto ‘El Ruiseñor’ Guajiro Sonero Tumi Music José Alberto, nicknamed ‘The Nightingale’ to distinguish him from the other José Alberto, ‘The Canary’, is from Bayamo in Eastern Cuba, and has forged a career as a singer-songwriter with a powerful voice and a cunning way of shaping a phrase. Here he tackles perhaps the most popular of Cuban styles, the son, with its elegant balance between Spanish poetic and melodic forms, and neatly dovetailed African rhythms and vocal improvisations in call-and-response patterns, which grow increasingly tense and driving as the song progresses. The ensemble is in classic conjunto format, with three bright trumpets rising in harmony above percussion and tres or cuatro intertwining with intricate piano riffs. Although the fundamental sound and approach remain the same throughout the album, the…

A recent article in The Spectator, by historian and folklorist Dr Francis Young, titled ‘We Need an English Folk Revival’ prompted, as Songlines readers can imagine, much social media chatter. Despite the fear that English folk tradition was in the doldrums, as this month’s ‘Folk Roundup’ illustrates, the English (as well as the Irish and Scots) folk scene is as hearty and vital as it ever was. Following their recent album What are We Trying to Say, Teeside duo Megson return with something completely different – a folk gig with a play threaded through the middle. The Herald (EDJ Records ****) cleverly links several Megson songs with a script by Kieran Knowles. The album takes newly recorded songs from the duo’s back catalogue alongside new material, and presents them through…

Pratibha Singh Baghel Lafz Bheege Hain – Words Drenched in Tears Sufiscore Sufiscore is not just a record label but also a YouTube channel which has a huge following in Asia, particularly South Asia. This latest release features Pratibha Singh Baghel, a very able artiste who is well-known for her work in musical theatre as well as playback singing for Bollywood. This album, with new poems by Urdu poet Ajay Sahaab, focuses on the theme of unrequited love said to have been inspired by the true life relationship of two of India’s best known poets, Amrita Pritam (1919-2005) and the literary giant Sahir Ludhianvi, (1921-1980) although specific anecdotes about their encounters work better in the visualisations on YouTube rather than the audio version alone. Original compositions by Rajesh Singh are…

At the heart of all experimental music is a desire to test the limits – the limits of sound, genre, tradition, technology, or even the limits of listener comfort and comprehension. That last one feels particularly true of Matmos’ Return to Archive (Smithsonian Folkways ****). The found-sound fanatics have been let loose on Smithsonian Folkways’ archive of science and nature recordings, creating a set of songs that will thoroughly itch the inside of any ASMR or lowercase-loving brain. Across ten tracks the duo cut and collage a ferocious number of noises – taxis and typewriters, domestic cats and splashing dolphins, the monotone buzz of the mud dauber wasp – zooming in on the tiniest clinks of machinery, or abstracting familiar sounds from the natural world. Also treading the delicate line…

“We are at some sort of turning point in our recent history,” explains Sattin when I ask him why he wanted to write his latest book, Nomads: The Wanderers Who Shaped Our World. “The West-dominated world that was set in motion by the age of enlightenment and industrial revolution is coming to some end. We need to know where we’ve come from before we know where we’re going. And considering half of the human story is missing from the version of human history we get told, it’s necessary to make contact with that. These are people who are dependent on the natural world and most vulnerable to climate change with the most to lose because of the mess we have made of things.” Sattin is talking about the nomads who…

I’m sitting at my desk, with Storm Babet shaking the windows and the first fire of the season crackling in the hearth. It’s not yet Halloween, but naturally the shops are stuffed with Christmas tat already and I am about to embark on my first-ever dedicated Christmas tour. 20-year-old me is giving me some serious side-eye. I swore I’d never make a Christmas album, even went as far as declaring such a thing “artistic death.” Whatever, 20-year-old me! You don’t have kids! Now, one of the less commercial, and lesser known, lovelinesses of the UK’s dark season is the tradition of wassailing. A bit ‘Jingle Bells’, but soaked in cider. There is no one way to wassail. On one hand, it’s a form of begging for communities that might be…

01. Nancy Guguich & Martin Buscaglía Cantacuentos (Ediciones Tacuabé SRL, 1999) Record label Ayuí/Tacuabé is the equivalent of Smithsonian Folkways in Uruguay, releasing music to educate rather than make money, and one of their ventures was Cantacuentos, a children’s music project launched in 1999. It’s released countless albums since, and celebrated a 25th anniversary this year, made the more poignant after the death of the project’s leading light Guguich, with her son Buscaglía maintaining the project. 02. Hasmik Harutyunyan with The Shoghaken Ensemble Armenian Lullabies (Traditional Crossroads, 2004) The Armenian genocide, deer-suckling babies, failed romances, mythical creatures. These songs, all originally sung by women in Armenian villages, were primarily to get children to sleep, but all manner of Armenian daily life snuck in. The Armenian word for lullaby is ‘oror’…

THE CENTRE Matt Molloy Matt Molloy (Mulligan Records, 1976) I grew up playing the flute. I didn’t really like Irish music when I was young, then when I heard this album, it clicked. I was probably ten or 12. But still to this day, I think Matt Molloy is probably the best trad flute player there has been, or is. He took influence from maybe fiddle playing and piping. Flute players had a simpler style and he brought it to a new place – really technical while maintaining that essence of traditional music. Playing with him is Dónal Lunny [on bouzouki], another big influence in pushing Irish music. They created this new sound rooted in tradition and also really progressive and exciting. It still holds a freedom for me. There’s…

In the United States right now, Billy Strings is a certified sensation, a powerfully talented bluegrass guitar picker in major cities and guest spots with Tool and Post Malone. who’s transitioned from roots festival sets to huge arenas It’s an unlikely story, not least because Strings achieved these dizzying heights without selling out or compromising his vision. He once told Rolling Stone: ‘We’re never going to be a band that sells a million records. We’re just a band that’s going to sell a million tickets — one show at a time. We’re going to have real fans, that really buy tickets, that really come to the show, that really are part of this family, which is what it feels like right now.’ I worked as a publicist for his first…

Jan/Feb 2024 (#194) On sale December 15 We celebrate Bob Marley (pictured) in style, with a plethora of photos and conversations with old friends, Wailers and I-Threes. We chat to Mon Laferte, the Chilean diva behind an album of the year; Emilie & Yann Tiersen tell us why they prefer touring by boat and we hear about Lagos’ Felabration featuring Ezra Collective. We profile tirelessly inventive Polish guitarist Raphael Rogiński and find surprising tales behind sea shanties. Our Best Albums of 2023 will be revealed, we lose it to Bounaly’s energised Malian wedding music, restless American fiddler Mark O’Connor gets a Beginner’s Guide, and we speak to Karine Polwart about Scotland Unwrapped, a year of Scottish music in London.…

Songlines digital subscribers can download the Top of the World & Bonus tracks every issue. For more details visit songlines.co.uk/subs Free album download CLICK HERE Assiko Golden Band de Grand Yoff Magg Tekki Mississippi Records Assiko Golden Band have been a fixture on the Dakar music scene for the past 20 years, representing the Senegalese capital’s most populous – and crowded – neighbourhood of Grand Yoff. In its current form, the group is a 17-strong collective of drums, percussion and voices spanning three generations, led by poet, singer and flute player Djiby Ly. Amid the dense rhythmic tapestry of the band’s sound, lyrics in Wolof and French give listeners positive messages of power, hope and encouragement to stand up for those who have less, with spiritual references to Sufi Islam…

Ævestaden Solen Var Bättre Där Supertraditional When I reviewed Ævestaden’s 2021 debut album Ingen Mere Gråter in Songlines #176 (April 2022), I described their music as ‘dream folk.’ I was captivated by the Swedish/Norwegian trio’s fusion of traditional instruments with electronica and vocals. Over the past year, the band have toured several European countries and were nominated for a Songlines Music Award, so I was excited to hear of the release of their second album, the enigmatic title of which could be translated as ‘The Sun Was Better There’. There are three elements to Ævestaden’s sound. First, the raindrop-like ostinato motifs plucked on traditional Scandinavian instruments such as the kravik-lyre and kantele – even Levina Storåkern’s violin is often plucked rather than bowed. Second, Ævestaden’s acoustic instruments are underpinned by…

Aga Khan Master Musicians Nowruz Smithsonian Folkways The six musicians comprising this group have all been involved in the Aga Khan Music Programme as performers, teachers and workshop leaders. They come from China (Wu Man on plucked pipa), Tajikistan (Sirojiddin Juraev on plucked dutar and tanbur), Uzbekistan (Abbos Kosimov on frame drums), Syria (Feras Charestan on qanun zither and Basel Rajoub playing sax and duclar – a duduk with a clarinet reed) and Tunisia (Jasser HajYoussef on viola d’amore). Most of them are now living outside their countries of origin. This album features 12 original pieces composed by members of the AKMM, although only four involve the whole ensemble. Other ones highlight particular instruments or groups of instruments. Wu Man’s ‘Teahouse’ is very much from the world of Chinese ‘silk…

Classical Brought to you by GRAMOPHONE Miloš Karadaglić Baroque Sony Classical Baroque is Montenegrin classical guitarist Miloš Karadaglić’s most virtuosic album to date. That is, he asks the famous question, ‘Sonata, what do you want of me?’ and listens for an answer before communicating it to us in the clearest, most elegant and most moving fashion. There are virtually no fireworks here. But there is work. And there is fire. Listen especially to Michael Lewin’s arrangement of Jean-Phillipe Rameau’s ‘The Arts and the Hours’ from his final opera, Les Boréades, which sits very well indeed alongside pianist Víkingur Ólafsson’s. Or Karadaglić’s’ transcription of Bach’s ‘Chaconne’ from the D minor Partita for solo violin. Or the Adagio from Alessandro Marcello’s D minor Concerto for Oboe. The first, for Karadaglić’s lingering caresses of…

In this limited edition special collaboration with Classic FM, we draw together nearly 100 of our most fascinating My Music interviews. Find out which composers, works and artists have enriched the lives of some of today’s most famous celebrities including Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Christopher Lee, Joanna Lumley, Armando Iannucci, Sting, Paul Simon, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and many more. Order your copy today for just £9.99 Go to magsubscriptions.com/my-classical-music Call: 0800 137201 (UK) or +44 (0)1722 716997 (Overseas) P&P is free for UK addresses. An additional charge will be added for shipping overseas…