Reviews
Desturi
Kasiva Mutua has been making a name for herself as a standout percussionist in Kenyan and African music, fusing the...
Reviewed by GonÇalo Frota in issue: June/2025
When They All Looked Up
For her first album of new material in six years Kate Rusby has recorded, mostly, songs of her own. These...
Reviewed by Julian May in issue: June/2025
Adventures in the Now
This is the fourth instalment of genre crossing ethno-jazz fusion from Finnish multi-instrumentalist Ilkka Arola and his band Sound Tagine....
Reviewed by Andrew Taylor-Dawson in issue: June/2025
Douce Errance
Now resident in France, where he is best known as a film and TV actor, the Japanese-born Kengo Saito is...
Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: June/2025
Stereo Instrumental Music
The Ibex Band were at the heart of Ethiopia’s fabled ‘golden age’ of music, backing the likes of Mulatu Astatke,...
Reviewed by Paul Bowler in issue: June/2025
The Pearl Album (Live in Celebration)
Alternating songs with jigs, reels, slides, marches, hornpipes and airs, The Pearl Album celebrates 30 years of music making by...
Reviewed by Tim Cumming in issue: June/2025
Lagon Nwar
Together with Valentin Ceccaldi (bass, cello) and Quentin Biardeau (saxophone), both musical improvisers, composers and producers, and Marcel Balboné (Burkinabé...
Reviewed by Pierre Cuny in issue: June/2025
Salsa de la Bahia: A Collection of SF Bay Area Salsa and Latin Jazz
In this double-disc third volume of the Salsa de la Bahia series, documentary-maker and timbales-player Rita Hargreaves highlights the contributions...
Reviewed by Mark Sampson in issue: June/2025
Roots Rocking Zimbabwe: The Modern Sound of Harare’ Townships 1975-1980
Music scenes are strange things, ephemeral and unpredictable. The right confluence of history, politics, culture, migrations, community, geography, trends, hard...
Reviewed by Jim Hickson in issue: June/2025
El Errante
On their latest album, Montréal’s El Balcón have delivered a dynamite collection of self-written songs seamlessly blending lead singer Valeria’s...
Reviewed by Justin Turford in issue: June/2025
