The Nakibembe Embaire Group’s self-titled debut album was one of the highlights of 2023. Nyege Nyege Tapes captured the disappearing East African tradition of the embaire, a giant wooden xylophone designed to be played by as many as eight musicians at a time. The instrument can be the social center of a village, placed in a deep pit to amplify what is already a powerful sound.
On its own, the embaire ensemble generates a huge amount of energy. Repeating, overlapping figures are a kind of proto-minimalism, Steve Reich without the precise, bookish glaze.
…The result is their live collaboration with Japanese live-sound engineer Naoyuki Uchida, Phantom Keys. Six men do their thing on the embaire, while Uchida applies his live-dub…
Category: world
A blurry Facebook clip posted by salsa enthusiast Jesús Rojas in December of 2023 captures Venezuelan orchestra El Gran Grupo celebrating their 44th anniversary. Three years later the band is still doing what they love most: Playing salsa.
Born in the neighborhood of Petare — one of the largest shanty towns in Latin America — El Gran Grupo began as a sextet called Los Tigres del Ritmo. Dressed in vests and Oxford pants, rocking afros and thick mustaches, they looked a bit like a rock band. But instead of electric guitars, they wielded congas, güiro, and claves. Though they played mostly local gigs, the group caught the attention of well respected composer Orlando Briceño, who already had at least one record out as a salsa bandleader. Briceño saw…
Vila is L.A.-based virtuoso guitarist and composer Fabiano do Nascimento‘s 15th album in a decade, and second in three months. In November 2025 he released the mysterious Cavejaz in collaboration with vocalist Jennifer Souza and Uakti’s Paulo Santos. Here he delivers a dreamy, deliriously beautiful collection of originals with musical partner, arranger, and trombonist Vittor Santos and his orchestra. Recorded between L.A. and Rio de Janeiro, the music comes out of time itself. According to the guitarist, it evokes the spirit of his childhood home in Bairro Saavedra in Rio’s Catete neighborhood. Here, lithe classical and folk music meet samba and orchestral jazz in lush compositions. Nascimento plays six- and-seven string and soprano guitars amid…
The genocide in Gaza continues despite the ceasefire. In January 2024, braving the heart of the horrifying conflict, Mai Mai Mai sojourned to Bethlehem and Ramallah to record with Palestinian musicians and capture the raw emotions of the region. Karakoz is the heart-rending result.
One need not speak the language to hear the sorrow in “Grief.” Maya Al Khaldi begins in a whisper as Mai Mai Mai builds a warm ambient glow around her voice. As she begins to sing, the ambience turns to drone and the sun seems to recede. The percussion imitates a heartbeat, soon joined by dark electronic tones. The gobbling monster is already here, has already passed through, has turned around for another strike.
While glimpses of brightness will appear in…
There are so many instrumental combinations that artists use to create ambient soundscapes. Some work, some don’t. Some create credible music that works, some turn into vapid, new-age-like aural wallpapers. And that does not necessarily depend on the combination of instruments but on the inventiveness of the artists involved and their ability to transform that into music that actually resonates with the listeners, instead of just creating an aural background.
Being Grammy-nominated doesn’t necessarily have to be a good sign, but both Manu Delago (handpan) and Max ZT (hammered dulcimer) not only have Grammy nominations but are recognised as innovators, able to use their instruments to create intriguing music, as they do…
Staffed by Turkish, Indonesian and Dutch members, Altın Gün have always favored tunings and tonalities exotic to Anglo-American ears. Utilizing a saz (a long-necked lute played in Eastern Europe, the Levant and Asia) as lead instrument adds distinctive flavor to their respectful yet non-rote modernizations of Turkish folk classics and to their own serpentine compositions. It would be easy for Altın Gün’s recordings to come off as arid museum pieces, but through sheer virtuosity and zeal for the source material, they instead create vibrant renovations of these chestnuts.
Garip focuses on reimagining the work of Turkish troubadour/bağlama player Neşet Ertaş (1938-2012). Here, Altın Gün put supple muscle on the bones of Ertaş’ stripped-down songs,…
…digital release with 7 bonus songs.
Congolese guitarist, composer and singer Dr. Nicolas Kasanda wa Mikalayi, aka Docteur Nico, reigned supreme during the ’60s and ’70s as a key innovator of African rumba.
This three-LP package includes 30 of his songs, from the African Fiesta Sukisa catalogue, featuring hits, never-before-reissued recordings and bonus tracks available digitally via Bandcamp, alongside a 28-page booklet containing expert commentary and previously unpublished photos from the Kasanda family archive.
The music testifies to Dr. Nico’s technical virtuosity and adventurous creative control of the African Fiesta band. A heavy Cuban sway drives songs like ‘A la Savana’, ‘Alto Songo’,…
Ghanaian singer Lamisi’s Let Us Clap combines a fierce activist message on women’s rights with thumping production that features traditional Ghanaian folk rhythm and electronics.
Two of Ghana’s biggest music names, Lamisi and Wanlov worked on the project once a week for several months, while the buzz surrounding their collaboration grew louder. No wonder: here was an icon of jazz and pop, and an icon of roots and hip‑hop, coming together to create raw, unapologetic music for a young, engaged audience — music that bridges the gap between West African music fans and music fans everywhere.
Lyrics, for the most part, were written in Kusaal, the mother tongue of Lamisi’s Kusasi ethnic group (Wanlov speaks Twi, the language of…
The Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi embraces the imperfections and transience of creation. A potter might express wabi-sabi through the art of kintsugi, the mending of broken ceramics with lacquer mixed with dust from precious metals. Raúl Sotomayor expresses his version of wabi-sabi on the latest album from Sotomayor, his duo with sister Paulina, which represents a shift from seeking perfection to pushing sonic boundaries. “When I started making music, I tried to make everything sound clean and proper,” he said in a recent documentary on his creative process. “Now it’s how much can we clip it or distort it, or how much can we stretch it and it’s still gonna sound good?” The result is a record both calculated and chaotic, crafted by artists who have…
There’s a sincerely grounded quality to A Djinn and a Hunter Went Walking. The new album from balafonist Neba Solo and donsongoni (hunter’s harp) player Benego Diakité – their first as a duo – shines a light on two Malian musicians who are masters of their repertoires. Each performer hails from a different cultural background, with Solo trained in Senufo traditions and Diakité rooted in the Wassoulou region, and they come together here with an understated ease. It makes for a soothing work from start to finish, but with enough moving parts to reasonably grab and hold the attention of a range of audiences.
This is no ordinary celebration of genius. There is no bombast in this combination, at least not in the fully produced pieces. Solo’s and Diakité’s…
It’s safe to say that back in 2009 when punk rockers The Bronx released their self-titled debut by their mariachi alter-egos, no-one would have thought this enterprise would still be going 17 years later. What started as a playful experiment in paying tribute to the thriving mariachi tradition that has suffused their native Los Angeles, has become an identity all its own – vibrant and intoxicating.
And while this fourth Mariachi El Bronx record isn’t a huge leap from its predecessors, musically speaking, that’s not the point of this. Even if you’re unfamiliar with the music being celebrated here, it’s impossible not to be swept up in the sheer exuberance of ‘Forgive Or Forget’ and ‘El Borracho’, songs that take you somewhere else entirely, emotionally and geographically.
The cover of Toni Geitani’s Wahj is, at first glance, an intimidating presence: all blacks and browns, the painting looks like a cave or a crater, the scene of some great but unknowable violence. But the closer you look, the more light you see, until the whole scene is luminous with bright whites and verdant greens. Wahj, which is Arabic for “radiance,” creates a similar effect, with glimmers of hope shining out in its dense, apocalyptic soundworld.
As an artist, Geitani is drawn to the aftermath of disaster, to what lies beyond the event itself. He was originally trained as a filmmaker, and his first mid-length film, The Disappearance of Goya (2018), is a reckoning with the Lebanese Civil War. He was born after the war ended, but lived with its effects; his hometown of Beirut still…
Do you need a sensitivity to divine forces to be drawn into Nilza Costa’s new album? Not necessarily. But it does require a willingness to listen to music that resists explanation. Nilza Costa is a Brazilian singer and songwriter from Salvador de Bahia, now based in Italy. Her new album revolves around cantigas – sacred songs from the African diaspora – sung in Yoruba, Kimbundu and Brazilian Portuguese. These songs function as direct invocations of the orishas: spiritual entities that, in traditions such as Candomblé and Santería, connect human life with nature, history, and the divine. Rather than presenting this tradition from the outside, the album positions itself within it, as a continuation in sound.
Costa’s voice anchors the album. It carries…
Sonico is the only ensemble in the world dedicated to the music of Eduardo Rovira. The bandoneonist was one of the most revolutionary figures in the history of tango. However, the experimental nature of his compositions, his taciturn personality and his early death have largely consigned him to history’s margins.
To commemorate the centenary of his birth and to celebrate a decade of their own existence, the Sonico quintet have recorded a work that recreates two of Rovira’s albums: Sónico and Que lo paren. During six of the eight tracks on the first volume, Lysandre Donoso uses a distortion pedal on his bandoneon, a technique pioneered by the honoree himself. On the second, the delicate ‘Majó majú’ and the impetuous title-track…
Dinamarca has a soft spot for vocalists. In 2019, he invited a host of artists to perform vocals on his LP Sol De Mi Vida, then went on to record a reggaeton EP with Bay Area singer La Favi, a trap single with rising Chilean rapper AKRIILA, and now this hyperpop/reggaeton hybrid with Ángel Ballesteros — lead singer of pop-perreo trio Meth Math. Earlier Dinamarca productions would have spoken to the hard and fast dembow of Meth Math tracks like “Mermelhada” from their last LP Chupetones, which was co-produced by Nick León. But as of 2018, Dinamarca has been kneading out the harder edges of his reggaeton rattle into something generally mellower and happier. His first foray with Meth Math leaned towards trap, while his solo debut album soñao pulled…
Cumbia is the sound of Latin America, with roots going back to the traditional folk sounds of centuries past, yet save for a select few names, some of the style’s greatest innovators remain virtual unknowns outside of their local area, save for the most dedicated of cumbia obsessives. Luckily for the rest of us, some of those obsessives have seen fit to bring Ranil’s output back into focus, with Analog Africa following up on their 2020 compilation, Ranil Y Su Conjunto Tropical, with an equally infectious collection of long-forgotten works from the Peruvian master.
…Galaxia Tropical is more than just a follow-up; it is a final tribute to a musical titan. Label founder Samy Ben Redjeb recounts a serendipitous 2019 trip where a taxi driver…
Unique collection containing authentic rhythms of Haitian Voodoo drumming. Recorded in Port-au-Prince, Haiti by Soul Jazz Records, this album features The Drummers of the Societe Absolument Guinen.
Voodoo is the African religion at the heart of Haitian life. The complex rhythms of the drums are used to bring down African spirits in Voodoo ceremonies. These drums are the link between the music of Africa and the Caribbean. With links to Cuban Santeria, Jamaican and Trinidadian Afro-religions, Voodoo rhythms are the heaviest, most intense of all.
This record, which consists entirely of recordings of voudou drumming made in Port-Au-Prince, is one of a series of Soul Jazz releases exploring…
The Dahlak Band honed their sound as the resident musicians at the Ghion Hotel, a historic building in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa that was first constructed by long-time ruler Emperor Haile Selassie as an intended residence for his son. At the band’s red-hot core was Tilaye Gebre, a heavyweight of Ethio-jazz, whose story intersects with many of the close-knit scene’s key players. As press notes to this new reissue of Tilaye’s Saxophone with the Dahlak Band assert, “Chances are that if you pick up any gem recorded in Addis Ababa during those times, it features Tilaye on saxophone and his arrangements.”
The Selassie era was brought to an end by the Ethiopian Revolution of 1974 and the dawning of a new military regime that imposed…
Congolese guitarist Kiala Nzavotunga began his career playing in Le Grand Kalle’s Africa Jazz band, but he became tired of the regime in the DRC and relocated to Nigeria in the ’70s, joining Fela Kuti’s Egypt 80 and later forming the African-French Afrobeat group Ghetto Blaster.
The second album with his Afroblaster collective, One Race (Tribute to Hilaire Penda) is dedicated to the titular Cameroonian bassist who inspired and supported countless African artists and musicians worldwide throughout his life. For example, in the ’90s Penda collaborated with Mory Kanté, Tala André Marie, Salif Keita, Kassé Mady Diabaté and Amadou Balaké while based in London. Undoubtedly, Penda also left his mark on Kiala, and this can be heard in the new…
On Mahku, her striking debut for Nils Frahm’s LEITER label, Manizeh Rimer bridges ancient devotion and the smoother edges of contemporary spiritual jazz. Born in Karachi, raised in Switzerland, based in west London – where in 2022 she opened the Love Supreme Projects’ yoga and chanting centre, taglined “ancient practices for current times” – Manizeh brings an open-hearted rigour to the album’s eight chants. Co-produced with the visionary, NYC-based ganavya, who features on three tracks and with whom Manizeh frequently collbaborates when playing in London, this rather stunning debut presents Manizeh’s longtime chanting practice with a tender intimacy, more offering than performance.
The album opens with ‘Ashem Vohu’, a 3,000…