Reviews
Istanbul Sessions: Mahalle
Here’s the sixth studio LP by Istanbul Sessions, the collective assembled by Turkish tenor saxophonist and Nublu empire-founder Ilhan Ersahin....
Reviewed by Martin Longley in issue: April/2026
Ethiopiques 32
Nalbandian the Ethiopian & Either/Orchestra
Boston’s Either/Orchestra featured on Ethiopiques 20 in a live recording made in Addis in 2004 and resurface here with a...
Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: April/2026
We Can Be Anyone
A road-trip through Appalachia in 2012 cemented the musical relationship between three Norwegian students just out of the Trondheim Jazz...
Reviewed by Fiona Talkington in issue: April/2026
Canes of Karabakh
The best reeds for the duduk, an Armenian woodwind instrument and a symbol of Armenian culture, are made from cane...
Reviewed by Michał Wieczorek in issue: April/2026
Music From Somewhere Else: The Enclosure
Currently based in Estonia, British guitarist and ethnomusicologist Stuart Ironside is a graduate of SOAS who blends his classical technique...
Reviewed by Charlie Cawood in issue: April/2026
Nineteen Seventy Seven
A second lost album of jazz fusion recorded during the military dictatorship by the ever-influential Grupo Um. Expanding from a...
Reviewed by Andy Cumming in issue: April/2026
Zagate
Souad Massi is moving on, yet again. Originally famed for her exquisite, folk-country influenced sad ballads in Arabic and French,...
Reviewed by Robin Denselow in issue: April/2026
Vitamina Y
Described by Chucho Valdés no less as “a virtuoso”, the Switzerland-based, Cuban-born singer and violinist’s album, Erzulie, received five stars...
Reviewed by Mark Sampson in issue: April/2026
Balafon Evolution
Hailing from Côte d’Ivoire but now based in Berlin, we first came across the balafon player Aly Keïta as part...
Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: April/2026
