Thursday, August 29, 2024
Mari Boine interview: “I was on my way somewhere, but now I’m really, really me”
Fiona Talkington speaks to Sámi activist and singer Mari Boine who, now in her 60s, finally feels confident in her own work
Features
Thursday, August 29, 2024
Rachel Newton and Lauren MacColl shine a light on the Scottish witch trials
Jo Frost speaks to Scottish folk artists Rachel Newton and Lauren MacColl whose Heal & Harrow project aims to raise awareness of the women who were persecuted as a result of the Scottish witch trials
Thursday, August 29, 2024
Svetlana Spajić: “I learned my ancestors’ sung aspect of language as my ‘second language’. But now I feel more like it’s really mine”
Serbian singer, folklorist and cultural activist Svetlana Spajić has dedicated her career to the passing down of oral traditions, and it’s taken her to some surprising places, including collaborations with Marina Abramović and Robert Wilson. Celeste Cantor-Stephens takes a journey through her career
Thursday, August 29, 2024
Celebrating 25 editions of the Gnawa festival in Essaouira
The annual Gnawa festival in Essaouira, Morocco has just celebrated its silver anniversary. Torben Holleufer has been a regular visitor since its first incarnation and returns to assess its impact, reflecting on some of the magical, unique and heartbreaking moments of the past 25 editions
Thursday, August 29, 2024
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: “He remains an enigma, to this day…what was that magic?”
Jameela Siddiqi plots the unprecedented international success of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Pakistan’s ‘King of Kings of Qawwali’ and, for many, one of the greatest singers of all time
Thursday, August 29, 2024
Omid Djalili's My World interview: “In general, there’s something very coquettish about Persian music… flirty moves and dances and pauses”
Anne Templer speaks to the actor and comedian about his love of prog and Persian music and how he once kicked a famous jazz musician out of his band
Thursday, August 29, 2024
Dispatch from Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Charlotte Algar speaks to musicians Nani Medeiros and Gabriel Selvage about the disastrous flooding in Rio Grande do Sul this year
Wednesday, August 28, 2024
20 Years of Morgenland
Simon Broughton visits Morgenland Festival in Germany for an opening concert celebrating 20 years of an event which has provided a vital showcase for many artists from the Middle East and North Africa
Monday, August 12, 2024
The 4 Corners and Centre of Meridian Brothers’ Universe
Eblis Álvarez, the mastermind behind Colombia’s tropical revivalists Meridian Brothers chooses the albums that shaped him
Monday, August 12, 2024
Jake Xerxes Fussell: “It was always traditional music that I took the most seriously”
Paul Slade finds out why the singer, guitarist and song collector was always destined for a life in folk music and how his latest album unexpectedly paid homage to a dearly departed friend
Monday, August 12, 2024
Dispatch from: Naples, Italy
Ciro De Rosa drops by Auditorium Novecento in the heart of the old city, where Neapolitan popular music’s legacy continues to resonate
Friday, August 9, 2024
Folk Round-up (PerKelt, Kevin Fowley and more)
A selection of essential releases from the worlds of British and Irish folk including new albums from PerKelt, Kevin Fowley and Simon Care & Gareth Turner
Thursday, August 8, 2024
Light from the North
Composer and fiddler Aidan O’Rourke is heading to London’s Kings Place to celebrate the musical traditions and communitarian spirit of Scotland. Billy Rough hears all about it
Wednesday, July 31, 2024
Roots Round-up (Khu.éex', Saltwater Hank and more)
A selection of essential releases from the US and Canada including new albums from Khu.éex', Saltwater Hank and Sam Reider & The Human Hands
Friday, July 19, 2024
Leyla McCalla: “This feels like an arrival of sounds”
On her latest album, Leyla McCalla embraces motherhood, expansive collaborations and a renewed personal outlook that sees her taking in the pleasures of life
