Features

Friday, June 13, 2025

Live Review: Polygon Live LDN

The sonically enhanced environs of Polygon Live LDN at Crystal Palace Park, London, created the perfect atmosphere for a bevy of musical icons to conjure and connect

Thursday, June 12, 2025

Lido Pimienta rewrites the score, turning orchestral tradition on its head

For her latest project, Colombian singer Lido Pimienta wanted to shake off the shackles of categorisation and do what nobody expected her to do

Thursday, June 12, 2025

Introducing... Kasiva Mutua

It took time for the Kenyan musician to earn respect as a female percussionist, but now she’s ready to kickstart her solo career

Thursday, June 12, 2025

Votia on stewarding the legacy and importance of La Réunion’s Afro-Malagasy traditions

“I also give ear to social injustice and violence, specifically to women. But of course, I do celebrate the beauty of the island and its strong identity.”

Thursday, June 12, 2025

A Conversation with Martin Carthy

Kevin Bourke sits down with the English folk legend to chat about a new album marking 60 years since his debut, why it sometimes takes him so long to sing a song and to share anecdotes from his storied career

Thursday, June 12, 2025

Folk Calendar 2025-26

Spencer Grady plots out the next twelve months of folk happenings, bringing you essential festivals from across the British Isles as well as a selection of some of our most unusual cultural traditions

Thursday, June 12, 2025

Taj Mahal: A Beginner's Guide

Nigel Williamson surveys the US musician whose career has long shown that the blues is a global musical movement

Thursday, June 12, 2025

Hajda Banda: “In the past years, the trend has been to accept our Slavic connections”

Poland’s prize-winning Hajda Banda are seeking out the sounds of their country’s eastern border regions. Simon Broughton reports…

Thursday, June 12, 2025

Music in Malawi

After receiving an invite to attend the annual Lake of Stars festival, Christopher Conder heads to Malawi, finding local musicians en route to international stardom and others proudly fulfilling roles as social historians and bearers of their nation’s richest traditions

Thursday, June 12, 2025

Rokia Traoré: “You cannot know how jail is if you have not been there. These people are human too”

Robin Denselow speaks to Malian singer and musician Rokia Traoré, who is finally able to return to performing after a custody battle that led to her imprisonment in several countries

Thursday, June 12, 2025

Essential 10 Global Obscurities (Selected by Tokyo’s Record Shops)

Erin Cobby heads to Japan in search of records that are well overdue some extra attention

Thursday, June 12, 2025

Maxine Peake's My World: "You can see why people look for other things, and music gives us answers"

The English actor chats about her musical side projects, her love of folk horror and the mysteries that only music can answer

Thursday, June 12, 2025

‘Dimming of the Day’: the story behind one of Richard Thompson's most popular songs

Russ Slater Johnson speaks to Richard Thompson about one of his most covered songs, a spiritual composition which arose from a period of surrender

Thursday, June 12, 2025

Tracy Chapman on the show that changed her life

Tracy Chapman recalls how Stevie Wonder’s lost hard drive inadvertently gave her debut album the extra exposure it needed to kickstart her career and become a still-loved classic