Cruelty Bacchanal, the second release from guitarist Matt Hollenberg’s group Shardik, is a ferocious statement of intent. Years in the making and issued on John Zorn’s Tzadik label, the album presents a volatile and politically charged fusion of modern classical structure, metal intensity, and free jazz unpredictability.
Hollenberg’s compositions are marked by intricate rhythmic architecture and an uncompromising sonic vision, alternating between explosive virtuosity and dark, layered atmospheres.
Executed with surgical precision and blistering intensity, Hollenberg’s playing veers between soaring lyricism, dense harmonic structures and searing improvisation. The result is a tightly coiled set of compositions that challenge…
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For more than 40 years, Kaabi Kouyaté’s career has spanned theatre, traditional Guinean music and Mandinka jazz. Now this extraordinary singer, who fuses griot tradition with contemporary music, has released this tribute to his father, the celebrated Sory Kandia Kouyaté (1933–1977). Kandia was known as ‘The Voice’ of independent Guinea and this project was prompted by the director of the award-winning documentary, La Trace de Kandia, in which Kaabi returned to Guinea to retrace his famous father’s footsteps.
Camila Meza offers one of her most sonically creative and personal albums with 2025’s Portal. Her first album since 2019’s Ambar, Portal was recorded following the birth of Meza’s first child, an experience that informs many of her songs. Rather than mix covers alongside originals, here Meza has for the first time written every song, lending the production a deeply intimate, handcrafted quality. These are flowing songs that find the Chilean guitarist and vocalist singing in both Spanish and English. She is equally as fluid stylistically, and much of the album has a cross-pollinated sound, bringing together her adept fusion and post-bop jazz chops with her ear for sun-dappled Brazilian and Latin pop traditions. Joining her is a cadre of equally gifted…
Perhaps the biggest challenge facing 
…Lebanese-born singer and oud player 
Philadephia-based drummer and arranger 
Forgotten and supposedly ‘lost’ albums rarely remain forgotten for long in the digital age, as they eventually find their way back into the present through some wormhole in the World Wide Web. Inzovu Y’imirindi by 
Welcome to life in a rambling house in Oslo where 
Globally acclaimed music phenomenon 
The penultimate track on 
…includes two bonus tracks “Sittin’ Here (Karizma DJs Dub) and “Sittin’ Here (Peacey Remix).
Based in Mumbai, architect turned vocalist/ songwriter Vidhya Gopal has a lifelong adoration for Hindustani music, lending her a variety of vocal influences, including thumri, qawwali and ghazal. The follow-up to her 2023 debut EP Par, Mehfil is a concept release reimagining Indian semi-classical music with a modern sensibility. Recorded in front of a live audience, Gopal is joined by an ensemble consisting of keyboards, harmonium, tabla, electric guitar, bass and percussion.
On Back to Hermetics and Martial Arts Vol. 1, Belgrade-based collective 
Following a four-year studio album silence, famed Cuban singer Raúl Paz returns with a good-natured set that leans into themes of identity and place – ruminating on his 15 years outside his homeland. The album marks his return to the French music scene and comes with his trademark blend of traditional Cuban son, European pop and singer-songwriter music. The project’s name is a playful reference to him being a guajiro, a person from rural areas of Cuba, as well as guajira music, with which he is associated.
Originating from 
One of the challenges for a group like the