Features
Korean singer Jaram Lee on reinterpreting Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea
Jaram Lee dives deep into the story of The Old Man and the Sea for a unique pansori retelling. Christopher Conder reports
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Best New Albums
The Best New Albums from Around the World (August 2024)
Introducing outstanding new releases from the Meridian Brothers, Thandiswa Mazwai, The Deep Dark Woods and more
Features
Tinariwen: Royal Sahara Blues at the BBC Proms
Relentless riffs at the ready as original Touareg rock’n’rollers Tinariwen head to London’s Royal Albert Hall. Tim Cumming sizes up their BBC Proms debut…
News
Obituary: Toots Hibbert (1942-2020)
The Jamaican reggae legend dies at the age of 77. Garth Carthwright reports
Features
Gallery: Dennis Morris
Iconic portraits of cultural icons by British-Jamaican photographer Dennis Morris are the focus of a new exhibition
Features
Ten Album Covers That Changed World Music
Chris Moss selects ten album covers that changed the world music scene, featuring Buena Vista Social Club, Fela Kuti and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
Features
Folk Archives: Tabla Tarang
The tabla tarang is a set of between 10 and 16 tablas with each tabla tuned to a different note
Features
A Conversation with Sam Lee: “I want every album to be filled with forests, and I want every forest to be filled with music”
Russ Slater Johnson speaks to the English singer and climate activist about campfire singalongs, collecting folk songs in unexpected places and how nature is at the heart of everything he does
Features
The great musical genres of the 20th and 21st centuries
The music of the world has been constantly shaped by its wider contexts – from politics to economics and social movements. Here Chris Moss selects the most important genres to have been born across the last 100-plus years
Features
Estonia’s Song and Dance Celebration
Every five years, Estonia asserts its culture, identity and independence in an enormous, joyful festival of song. Tim Bird follows a regional choir as they prepare for the main event. Photos by Tim Bird
Features
At home with Ali Farka Touré
To record Ali Farka Touré’s album 'Niafunké', World Circuit took a mobile studio all the way to Mali. Nigel Williamson went to meet Touré for Songlines in the summer of 1999 and found out why his commitments at home meant that the mountain had to go to Mohammed
Features
“How am I going to be a legend?”: Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino at 50
Rossella Pinto, one of the original members of Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino, and her son Mauro Durante, their current bandleader, reflect on the group’s 50-year history of preserving and promoting the popular pizzica music of southern Italy
Live reviews
Songlines Encounters Festival 2019 – review
Simon Broughton gives the low-down of all nine concerts from the recent Songlines Encounters Festival at Kings Place in London, May 30-June 2
Features
Harp of Darkness: “If I expose the bin-baja harp, something will have to die”
Patrick Jered ventures into Madhya Pradesh in India to unearth the legendary bin-baja harp, widely considered as a pariah instrument
Features
Balinese gamelan: a complete guide to a unique world of sound
The Indonesian island of Bali resounds with the vibrant, often thunderous music of its gamelans – the ubiquitous percussion orchestras of bronze and bamboo. Andy Channing conjures up the magic of its many incarnations
