Features

Tuesday, December 13, 2022

Aliaksandr Yasinski interview: “Blind players were going from village to village like prophets”

The Belarusian accordionist tells us how he is seeking to revolutionise the instrument's image with his debut album

Monday, December 12, 2022

Sara Correia interview: “Whatever I sing it will always be fado”

Portuguese singer Sara Correia reveals the toughness and will that saw her journey from the high-rise blocks of working-class Lisbon to the global stage

Sunday, December 11, 2022

Son Rompe Pera: “It is a huge wooden monster!”

Punk-rock brothers Mongo and Kacho Gama explain how they became the unlikely ambassadors of Mexico’s marimba scene

Tuesday, December 6, 2022

Quickfire: Clare Sands

Boosting Dylan and talking world medal martial arts with the Irish singer and fiddle-player channelling the music of her ancestors

Monday, December 5, 2022

Chris Watson interview: “Somewhere in Buckingham Palace is the entire works of Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry”

One of the world’s foremost sound recordists talks about capturing the genius loci and his enduring love of reggae

Friday, December 2, 2022

Meeting Souad Massi: “The world is fragile, and I’m afraid for the future of our children”

Robin Denselow talks to the French-Algerian singer-songwriter Souad Massi, whose latest album is a testament to survival amid the depths of global despondency and personal hardship

Tuesday, November 29, 2022

Elaha Soroor interview: “Modesty is part of the identity of Afghan women and if you don’t have that identity you don’t exist”

Afghan singer Elaha Soroor talks to Simon Broughton about her role in a play that mirrors her own flight as a refugee and the fate of her family back home since the Taliban’s return to power

Thursday, November 24, 2022

Banjo Albums | The Essential 10

Nigel Williamson selects 10 vital albums brimming with bluegrass, clawhammer and old-time reinventions

Thursday, November 24, 2022

Jake Blount interview: “I wanted to find a way to represent our traditions while also looking forward”

American banjo and fiddle player Jake Blount explains to Alexandra Petropoulos how he’s using the sounds and lessons of history and the global climate crisis to envision a new future for Black spiritual music

Tuesday, November 22, 2022

Al-Qasar interview: “We live in a world of very complex identities, with multinational families and lots of migration”

French-American musician and producer Thomas Attar Bellier talks about his sizzling new psych-rock unit who are fusing North African trance and Middle Eastern melodies with elements of alternative rock

Monday, November 21, 2022

Quickfire: Ibrahim Maalouf

Waxing lyrical with the genre-bending French-Lebanese trumpeter and composer whose latest video features the socio-political star flow of actress and activist Sharon Stone

Wednesday, November 16, 2022

Jackie Oates interview: “There are so many confessions within traditional songs… it makes you wonder why they have survived in this medium”

Folk singer and fiddle player Jackie Oates explores the confessional nature of folk song on her new album, Gracious Wings

Monday, November 14, 2022

Zülfü Livaneli: “Art reaches the masses flowing like an underground river”

One of Turkey’s most influential cultural figures speaks about his fight for peace through music

Saturday, November 12, 2022

Spotlight: Vieux Farka Touré & Khruangbin

Daniel Spicer reports on a new collaboration between the son of a Malian guitar legend and the hypnotic trio from Houston, a lilting fusion of desert blues, psychedelia and dub