Reviews | Songlines

Reviews

Review of Zār Songs for the Spirits

Zār Songs for the Spirits

VARIOUS ARTISTS

JuJuSounds

Rating: ★★★★★

Zār is a rite that arrived in Egypt with migration – partly due to slavery – from sub-Saharan East Africa....

Reviewed in issue March/2022

Review of Elif Sanchez

Elif Sanchez

Elif Sanchez

Pasion Turca

Rating: ★★★

Singer Elif Sanchez grew up in Istanbul, before moving to the US to study jazz oboe and voice at Berklee...

Reviewed in issue March/2022

Review of Chant Amazigh

Chant Amazigh

Majid Soula

Habibi Funk

Rating: ★★★★

Even devoted followers of Algerian music may find the name Majid Soula rings no bells – thankfully, the latest (number...

Reviewed in issue March/2022

Review of Frigya

Frigya

Imed Alibi feat Khalil EPI

Top of the World

Shouka

Rating: ★★★★

Imed Alibi is a Tunisian percussionist with a curious mind. Not content to take the predictable path, his two previous...

Reviewed in issue March/2022

Review of In Tribute to Talip Özkan

In Tribute to Talip Özkan

Emre Gültekin

Top of the World

Seyir Muzik

Rating: ★★★★★

Turkish saz player Emre Gültekin has recorded two duo albums with Armenian duduk player Vardan Hovanissian (their Karin was a...

Reviewed in issue January/February/2022

Review of Giant + Guitar

Giant + Guitar

Omar Khorshid

wewantsounds

Rating: ★★★★

Wewantsounds continues its remarkable work in excavating long deleted Arabic albums of the 1970s and reissuing them on LP (and...

Reviewed in issue January/February/2022

Review of Tropical Anatolia

Tropical Anatolia

Ipek Yolu

Sounds of Subterrania

Rating: ★★★

At the bottom of my street is a restaurant called Tropical Sushi serving Japanese dishes with a South American theme....

Reviewed in issue January/February/2022

Review of Dionysus vs Tamada

Dionysus vs Tamada

Tamada

Souq

Rating: ★★★

Georgian artist Lasha Chapel has already enjoyed some underground success performing smoky, Anglophone ballads backed by minimal electronic beats. After...

Reviewed in issue January/February/2022

Review of Badieh

Badieh

Badieh

Worlds Within Worlds

Rating: ★★★★

Having met during a research trip to Mashhad, Iraq, Badieh are the newly formed instrumental duo of Michel Gasco (oud,...

Reviewed in issue December/2021

Review of Qalaq

Qalaq

Jerusalem in My Heart

Constellation Records

Rating: ★★★

Born in Beirut at the outset of a civil war that devastated his country and set the pattern for decades...

Reviewed in issue December/2021

Subscribe from only £7.50

Start your journey and discover the very best music from around the world.

Subscribe

View the Current
Issue

Take a peek inside the latest issue of Songlines magazine.

Find out more