world music
Bebel Gilberto, Union Chapel review - less effort, more transcendence, pleaseTuesday, 16 April 2019
How do we want our fleeting, precious, close-up glimpses of the royals to be? Do we want the mystique, the aura, glamour and transcendence? Or would we rather be reassured that they are, in their way, just like us? No performer could have given more... Read more... |
Oumou Sangaré, Earth review - the new Mama Africa takes her crownSaturday, 13 April 2019
Oumou Sangaré is not a woman to be trifled with – tales of people who have crossed her and lived to regret it abound: one story (of many) has her personally hiring a bulldozer in a land dispute and getting a recalcitrant local official sacked. She... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Lisbon: Aga Khan Music AwardsWednesday, 03 April 2019
The inaugural Aga Khan Music Awards, a three-day event held last weekend in Lisbon, celebrated nearly 20 years of wide-ranging work dedicated to the preservation of ancient and threatened cultures, an impressive programme of educational initiatives... Read more... |
Loreena McKennitt, Royal Albert Hall review - making Celtic connectionsFriday, 15 March 2019
Having long been immersed in folk and world music and acoustically-oriented singer-songwriters, it’s a surprise to be given a CD of music by someone who’s never crossed your radar, especially when the artist concerned turns out to have sold some 14... Read more... |
CD: Que Vola - Que VolaFriday, 25 January 2019
Great music is often born of “what if”s. What if we played Beach Boys-style songs lo-fi, loud, at high velocity? What if we played indie guitar with a hint of Congolese rumba? What if we added a string section to late-Sixties pop-rock? What if we... Read more... |
CD: Abdesselam Damoussi and Nour Eddine - JedbaWednesday, 16 January 2019
It’s not often that music of this kind gets a release outside of Morocco, and Arc Music and the producer/musicians must be applauded for curating such an intense, inside view on the ecstatic release of Sufi music across the kingdom, often drawn from... Read more... |
theartsdesk Radio Show 23 - the hottest Brazil sounds for 2019 with guest Tiago Di MauroSaturday, 05 January 2019
The focus of this radio show, one of Peter Culshaw’s occasional updates of global music, is the new sounds coming from Brazil in 2019. The country seems to entering a dark period with new President Bolsanaro having just taken office, but however... Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2018: Black Merlin - KosuaSunday, 16 December 2018
Kosua was released only last month, but its journey began two years ago when George Thompson, aka Black Merlin, released Hipnotik Tradisi, a beautiful and captivating document of his travels through Indonesia, seamlessly blending field recordings,... Read more... |
Kyungso Park, Near East Quartet, Purcell Room review - hot Korean contemporaryWednesday, 21 November 2018
The penultimate concert in the eclectic and impressive K-Music Festival of contemporary Korean music on Monday at the Purcell Room featured some of the most exquisite and affecting performances of the season, with the traditional Gayageum stringed... Read more... |
theartsdesk on Vinyl 44: Thom Yorke, Primal Scream, Elvis, Noisferatu, R.E.M., Bauhaus, Mo'Wax and moreTuesday, 13 November 2018
Enough hyping! This month, without further ado, let’s head straight to the reviews…VINYL OF THE MONTHLOR Lunar Orbit Rendezvous (Lo Records)With Public Service Broadcasting’s The Race for Space making a noise only three years ago (and First Man... Read more... |
Best Albums of 2018Wednesday, 31 October 2018
Disc of the Day reviews new albums, week in, week out, all year. Below are the albums to which our writers awarded five stars. Click on any one of them to find out why. Baxter Dury, Etienne de Crécy and Delilah Holliday - B.E.D. ★★★★★ A small... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Brahms, Ligeti, Lakshminarayana Subramaniam, Svend Erik TarpSaturday, 06 October 2018
Brahms & Ligeti: Horn Trios André Cazalet (horn), Guy Comentale (violin), Cyril Huvé (piano) (Calliope)This is a reissue from the last years of the early digital era (ie 1989), but it's a seriously good one. György Ligeti’s 1982 Horn Trio... Read more... |
