News
Andy Kershaw (1959–2026)
The broadcaster Andy Kershaw, renowned for his interest in music from around the world, has died aged 66 from cancer.
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Features
Toumani Diabaté and Ballaké Sissoko: 21 Strings
With Toumani and Ballaké’s epochal New Ancient Strings to be reissued for its 25th anniversary, we speak to Lucy Durán, the album’s producer, about the unique recording and her documentary tracing the history of the kora
Features
Songlines Music Awards 2025: Reissue
The best global reissues of the year, from Toumani Diabaté, The Lijadu Sisters, Joan Baez, Frazey Ford and Paul Brady
Features
Guitari Baro: the shape of African jazz to come
Robin Denselow speaks with Guitari Baro’s balafon virtuoso Lassana Diabaté and the the trio’s co-producer Lucy Durán about their innovative all-instrumental debut
News
April 2024 issue of Songlines is out now!
Baloji, Ana Tijoux, Asmâa Hamzaoui, a look back at Toumani Diabaté & Ballaké Sissoko’s epochal New Ancient Strings album, Los Tigres del Norte, Fruko, unrest in Buenos Aires and our preview of albums to get excited about in 2024
News
Cannes, You Dig It?
World music documentaries on Malian folk traditions and Congolese rumba do the business at this month's Cannes’ Festival International du Film Panafricain
Features
Folk Round-Up (Seamus Fogarty, Maz O’Connor & Lucy Mellenfield)
Billy Rough listens to new folk releases from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales
Features
Buena Vista Social Club at 30: Chan Chan Changed Everything
Jane Cornwell unpicks the sepia mythology of Buena Vista Social Club to reveal a story of chance, politics and marketing, turning a Havana recording session into a cultural phenomenon
Features
Eliza Carthy's News of the Whirl: Rituals
From smashing eggs to spitting at horses to shouting ‘Yellow car!’, Eliza unpacks the strange daily rituals and superstitions that we indulge in
Features
Ballaké Sissoko and Derek Gripper: “We’re happy to disrupt”
Kora music gets a radical reworking with Ballaké Sissoko welcoming South African guitarist Derek Gripper into the tradition
Essential 10
Essential 10: Songlines Hidden Classics
Ten of our longest-standing contributors pick albums released during Songlines’ lifetime that are well overdue another listen
Features
Chromesthesia: the Colour of Sound
Acclaimed British-Egyptian academic Dr Hannah Elsisi discusses an ambitious new project surveying the sonic and sensory rituals surrounding African migration
Features
Get acquainted with Dusking, a new ritual to welcome the winter
Sophie Parkes dances down the sun with Lucy Wright, choreographer of a new ritual for solo morris performers ushering in the oncoming winter
A Beginner's Guide
Toumani Diabaté: A Beginner’s Guide
The kora has become almost synonymous with the music of Mali. Nigel Williamson examines the career of its chief exponent Toumani Diabaté
Features
Timba rising: 'Cuban Sundays – Live Music Series' brings a new wave of Latin heat to London
Jane Cornwell finds out about a residency bringing the popular Cuban sounds of timba to London. “February was a masterclass in Cuban genres… The crowd were going crazy”, she hears
