Reviews
MEL
Efrén López, Ciro Montanari & Jordi Prats
A welcome return for Spanish/Italian trio, Efrén López, Ciro Montanari and Jordi Prats, who play rabab (Afghan lute), tabla (hand...
Reviewed by Chris Wheatley in issue: August/2025
Tour of Japan
Japan’s min’yō folk tradition is rooted in the work songs of farmers, fishermen and miners who sang unaccompanied about their...
Reviewed by Liam Izod in issue: August/2025
Born in the City of Tanta: Lower Egyptian Urban Folklore and Bedouin Shaabi from Libya’s Bourini Records 1968–75
Seemingly a world removed from the lushly orchestrated, exquisitely tasteful music of state-approved Egyptian icons like Mohamed Abdel-Wahab and Oum...
Reviewed by Paul Bowler in issue: August/2025
Fiery Gizzard
North Carolinian Joseph Decosimo has spent his career studying, teaching and playing traditional music of Appalachia and the American South....
Reviewed by Alexandra Petropoulos in issue: September/2025
Horizon
From Chicago comes a pleasantly languid set from a group of excellent musicians influenced by 60s and 70s Brazilian music...
Reviewed by Robin Denselow in issue: September/2025
Koren
Born out of encounters between field songs, grand opera and Latin music in a New Orleans port (among other things),...
Reviewed by Kim Burton in issue: September/2025
Last Night I Heard the Dog Star Bark
Welsh acoustic finger stylist Gwenifer Raymond's second album, Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain (2020), saw a huge leap forward from...
Reviewed by Glenn Kimpton in issue: September/2025
Spilla
Founded in Nantes by Australian drummer-percussionist Will Guthrie in 2019, Nist-Nah is an ensemble combining Javanese gamelan instruments with other...
Reviewed by Tom Newell in issue: September/2025
Metamusik Festival Berlin ‘74
Previously unreleased, this pristine recording captures the Pakistani master of the kyhal tradition of Hindustani classical vocal music, Salamat Ali...
Reviewed by Daniel Spicer in issue: September/2025
Sametou Sawtan
Lebanese sextet Sanam's second release consolidates the brooding post-rock territory proposed on their 2023 debut, Aykathani Malakon Again, Sandy Chamoun's...
Reviewed by Daniel Spicer in issue: September/2025
