Manhu : Voices of the Sani
Manhu are from the Stone Forest region of Yunnan Province in Southwest China, home of the Sani people. The Sani have lived in this region for many years, probably going back as far as the Qing Dynasty (1600s), The Chinese government categorizes them as part of a large combined ethnic group called Yi, even though the Sani have maintained a strong and unique linguistic and cultural presence in the region for all of that time. On Voices Of The Sani, the quintet explores the tradition of their own people, but acknowledges the cross hybridization of the many cultures who share the region. They also clearly want to make the music live in the present, as you can hear in many of the songs on the album. They even dip into the global with their own Sani rendition of an old American mountain tune they call "Brothers and Sisters.
Various Artists : Aboriginal Folk Songs Of Taiwan
'Aboriginal Folk Songs Of Taiwan' features songs from ethnic minority groups living in Taiwan: Amis, Atayal, Saisiyat, Tsou, Paiwan, Rukai, Bunnun, Seediq and Truku. These aboriginal ethnic groups are distributed across mountainous areas, high plateaus, and flat plains, adhering to various beliefs, lifestyles and musical cultures.
Nohe Y Sus Santos : Tempestad
Nohe & Sus Santos is a four-piece band that incorporates alt-rock en espanol, quirky cumbia and indie pop with soulful, passionate attitude. Honduran vocalist Nohelia Sosa is joined by Her Saints, musicians from Honduras, Mexico, and the United States, empowered by the new Latinx generation, off great, lively musicm and a positive messages of self-identification and respect for the heritage.
Andrew Cronshaw : Zithers
Andrew Cronshaw has a long, deep history with music, most especially as a virtuoso on different kinds of zithers, and exploring the possibilities of sound they offer, whether as a solo artist working with some others, or as part of the group SANS. This new release features him literally alone, although the zithers of the title actually number just two, a vintage, electrified 74-string model and something his own invention, the marovantle, which marries the Finnish kantele to the Malagasy box zither known as the marovany. The album, so typical of Cronshaw's work, is impeccably constructed.
Tranquebar : O
Sometimes it can be better to accept and not examine things too deeply. Let it flow and enjoy it. Take Tranquebar's music. In many ways, what the Danish band create shouldn't work. The mix of banjo, voice, accordion, and percussion is beautifully ramshackle (at least on the surface). Yet it succeeds, and it does it in a fashion that's quite mesmeric. Ø is actually a collection of four EPs, each recorded on a different Danish island (hence the title, as Ø means island). And each island exerts a subtle influence on the shading of the music... With every track on the album, the band show the magic they have and how they knock it all into shape: not only can they write a good tune that takes unexpected turns but they create the kind of chorus that sticks in the brain (at its core, this is essentially acoustic, folky pop music, of a very twisted sort), and they can also arrange with wonderful imagination.
Quintet Bumbac : Miroirs
There's so much in the music of the Balkans to inspire musicians anywhere, and Bumbac draws on all of these and really does bring its own approach; this is no wannabe imitation. All the material here is written by Frenchman David Brossier, who draws deep on the traditions to make luscious original music on Brossier's viola d'amore, the violins of Ariane Cohen-Adad and Christian Fromentin, Léonore Grollemund's cello and Anita Pardo's double bass. All bowed strings, indeed a string quintet, playing with great finesse and richness of sound.
V.A. : Nordic and European Folk and Worldmusic
Two CD samplers of music from all over Europe and the Nordic countries, from very traditional to highly experimental.
The CDs are in simple printed sleeves with track and artist info. Artists include Anne-Mari Kivimaki, Okra Playground, Pauanne, Suistamon Sahko, Belonoga, Dobranotch, Meszecsinka. Click for a full list of tracks and artists
Bulgara : Bear's Wedding
A raw mix of Bulgarian 'wedding music,' jazz, rock and folk music performed with hyper-energy by seven great musicians on kaval, gayda (bagpipe), gadulka, tambourine, electric bass, drums and percussion.
Reem Kelani : Sprinting Gazelle
Subtitled 'Palestinian Songs from the Motherland and the Diaspora' - UK born Palestinian composer and singer Kelani has spent many years recording and collecting folk songs from women in her maternal home of Nazareth, in the refugee camps of Palestine and Lebanon and elsewhere. The works on this recording include arrangements of traditional songs and her own settings of contemporary poetry. The ensemble is a mix of modern and traditional voices: piano, tenor saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet, double bass and drums, with guests on violin, percussion, duduk, yarghul, nay and strings. Highly recommended.
Groupa : Kind of Folk - Vol. 1 Sweden
The 2016 release by one of the most important and revolutionary groups in the Nordic roots movement. Terje Isungset, drums, perc, mouth harp; Mats Eden fiddle, viola d'amore, accordion; Jonas Simonson, flutes, bass clarinet.
Osman, Gubara and Co : In the kingdom of the Lyre
Miriam Ariana and Lene Høst : Vingefang
From the RootsWorld Review: Can a bustling Brazilian song and Swedish slangspolska happily coexist? Can a Denmark-based duo without a squeezebox do justice to a Dominquinhos song about a sensitive accordion? The answer seems to be "yes, indeed." Vingefang - Miriam Ariana (voice and strings) and Lene Host (voice, guitar and percussion) bring a clarity to their music that seems to demand the word "delightful." Whether it is their own compositions or a journey through the music of France, Denmark, Sweden and Brazil, they make it all their own, with only a gentle bit of assistance on two tracks, and a bit of overdubbing by the duo on a few others.... Ariana and Høst seem to know the value of simplicity and use it to great advantage on these eight tunes and songs. Vingefang is a delight.
Nick Wyke and Becki Driscoll : Cold Light
Lee Blackstone writes in his RootsWorld review, "Wyke and Driscoll have produced an album of folk music that mixes wondrous chamber-pop deeply founded on a respect for traditional music and modern songcraft. Cold Light stands as one of the strongest releases of the year."
Andrew Cronshaw : The Unbroken Surface of Snow
British musician and composer Andrew Cronshaw is joined by a global enseble of Tigran Aleksanyan, Ian Blake, Sanna Kurki-Suonio.
Trio Tekke and Dave De Rose : Zivo
The trio bring along a percussionist for their third recording. Formed in London in November 2005 by Antonis Antoniou (tzouras, vocals, and a member of Monsieuer Doumani), Lefteris Moumtzis (guitar, vocals) and Colin Somervell (double bass), the band experiments with a raw, acoustic reinvention of the rebetiko of Greece and beyond.
Emicida : about kids, hips, nightmares and homework
The album arose from a specially conceived 20-day trip to Africa, specifically Cape Verde and Angola, where he worked with local musicians and recorded some of the tracks. These include “Mufete” with percussionist João Morgado, noted for his playing of Angolan ‘semba', the roots of Brazilian ‘samba', and “Passarinhos” and “Madagascar” where you can hear Kaku Alves, Cesária Évora's guitarist for many years. But never forget the uniquely Brazilian component, and together with MCs from the new generation of Brazilian rap this album also includes collaborations with Vanessa da Mata on “Passarinhos” and on “Baiana”, Caetano Veloso.
Lakou Mizik : HatiaNola
Haitian roots outfit Lakou Mizik is the brainchild of singer Jonas Attis and guitarist/singer Steeve Valcourt, They brought together a multi-generational septet of some of Haiti's best musicians to showcase the diversity of modern Haitian sounds, including konpas, kanaval songs, twobadou ballads, and vodou ritual music.Lakou Mizik returns with a barn-burner of a second act on HaitiNola; which revisits the connections between Haiti and New Orleans with a crew of NOLA musical all-stars.
Aurélie Dorzee & Tom Theuns, ft. Michel Massot : Elixir
This crafty concoction brings to mind ancient art works and faraway lands. Oriental melodies take the form of a folk dance or a medieval walk. These three alchemists brew sounds in quest of the “philomusical's stone”. They experiment, improvise and invent in their secret laboratory filled with strange instruments, such as the viola d'amore, mandolauoto, psaltery, nail violin, sousaphone, and sitar. Some had been specially fabricated by stringed instrument makers for this project. For this project, Aurélie Dorzée & Tom Theuns invited the legendary Michel Massot, master of brass instruments, for a golden opus!
Vasilis Kostas and Petroloukas Halkias : The Soul of Epirus
Our November 2019 pick for Music of the Month. The work is the culmination of a lifelong exploration of the beauty inherent in the music of Epirus - its slow tempos, reflecting the isolated nature of this mountainous region close to Albania, and its haunting pentatonic scales, based on five notes instead of the more common seven-note scale. A collaboration between Berklee College of Music graduate Kostas on laouto and veteran clarinet master Petroloukas Halkias, the album illuminates the melodies and musicianship to be found in Epirus' folk traditions of decades past, its ability to evoke both the inescapable sadness of the human condition and its life-affirming joy.
Abdesselam Damoussi And Nour Eddine : Jedba: Spiritual Music from Morocco
Hama Sankare : Niafunke
SANS : Kulku
Real Vocal String Quatrtet : Culture Kin
Pauanne : Pauanne
Rachele Andrioli & Rocco Nigro : Maletiempu
Rinde Eckert : The Natural World
Leyla McCalla : Capitalist Blues
Balkan Messengers : Balkan Messengers
Renowned Balkan accordionist Neskho Neshev and a band of drums, bass and violin kick open the Balkan sound with a jazzy edge and a lot of attitude
Razia : The Road
Hope Masike : The Exorcism Of A Spinster
Betsayda Machado y Parranda El Clavo : Loe Loa: Rural Recordings under the Mango Tree
Philippe El Hage and Youssef Hbeisch : Asrar
Cesare Dell'Anna and GirodiBanda : Guerra
Ann O'aro : Ann O'aro
Basel Zayed's Ayn Trio : Music by Basel Zayed
Moussu T e lei Jovents : Navega!
Michael Stone's pick for 2016, of which he writes: With Navega!, Moussu T e lei Jovents serve up an unsentimental, bittersweet melange, blues-cabaret-chanson rooted in a fiercely local Languedoc sense of place, profoundly altered by the history of French colonialism, immigration from the colonies via the Mediterranean port of Marseille dating to the ancient Greeks, Festus Claudius "Claude" McKay's 1929 novel "Banjo," labor organizing, the Socialist International, World War II and the contemporary European conundrum. Navega! was also one of RW's Music of the Month picks for 2016. Buy this CD and support RootsWorld.
Kries : Selo Na Okuke / Village Tracks
Kries makes wonderfully raw yet thoroughly modern music from Croatia. Driven by men's voices, bowed strings, primitive flutes, drums and more, this is music that speaks to centuries of history and the future, as well. This is a RootsWorld Music of the Month recording, donated by the artists to help support RootsWorld radio and magazine projects. All of your purchase price goes to support RootsWorld.
Karen and Helene : Solen
Two great young, up and coming Danish singers, Karen Mose (from the band Phonix) and Helene Blum sing traditional Danish songs in new arrangements. Karen and Helene give the rich Danish song tradition a new and modern dimension. They are accompanied by an impressive group of Nordic musicians including Leo Svensson, Morten Alfred Høirup and Harald Haugaard, who also produced. Complex, subtle arrangements skirt all kinds of musical borders, enhancing but never obscuring the traditional source material.
Teppo Välimäki : Täysin palkein
The Elvis of Finnish accordion? Real traditional roots, real energy, all solo...
Carl Erik Lundgaard : Yderland
Danish diatonic accordionist joined by a wide ranging ensemble of tradtional and modern musicians including Harald Haugaard, Mads Riishede, Christoffer S. Møller and many others. Yderland consists of primarily new material from accordionist Carl Erik Lundgaard, arranged and produced in cooperation with bassist Mads Riishede. The music is expressive, and has stories to tell, both serious and humorous.
The Henrys : Chasing Grace
Zephyr : October Ocean
From the review in RootsWorld: 'Görån Mansson, Jonas Simonson (from Groupa), and Richard Ekre Suzzi utilize a variety of wind instruments from Sweden and afar, such as the bamboo Bansuri flute. An all-flute trio can certainly have an ethereal sound, as the band demonstrates but Zephyr go well beyond such stereotyping and they construct compositions that indulge in world music influences. They are also a remarkably percussive group, the melodic washes are undergirded by deep tones that, combined, lend a slightly Asian air. Zephyr make a compelling and intriguing showcase for the power and universality of, and experimentation possible with, wind instruments.'
Lena Willemark : Blaferdi (Blue Journey)
Features songs and lyrics, composed by Lena, sung in the Elfdalian language of her home region of Avdalen, Sweden. Program notes and lyrics are translated to Swedish and English in the booklet. It's performed with voice, strings and percussion supplied by Lena, Mia Marin, Emma Reid, Mikael Marin, Leo Sander and Tina Quartey. (Quite a cast!) It is, I think, one of her best (and that goes a long way, I think), so this comes with my biggest "highly recommended" gold star on it
The Henrys : Quiet Industry
The 2015 release by Toronto legends, The Henrys. Led by kona-guitarist Don Rooke, with Hugh Marsh (violin), John Sheard (pump and electric organs), Andrew Dowling (acoustic bass), David Di Renzo (percussion) and vocalists Gregory Hoskins and Tara Dunphy. This one is heavy on lyrics and introduces a great new singer to the band. Highly recommended.
The Henrys : Desert Cure
Back in print! The third disc from this Toronto combo firmly establishes Don Rooke as one of acoustic guitar's greatest unsung heroes. Rooke is a startling original who seems constitutionally incapable of resorting to slide cliches.' - Guitar Player
The Grasslands ensemble and Daniel Ho : Between Prairie and Sky
Daniel Ho, Hawaiian ukulele master with more than 100 recordings, teams up on this gentle gem with Wu Judy Chin-tai, a Taiwanese music composer and producer, and the multi-talented Mongolian Grasslands Ensemble for an album that connects across cultural divides. Read the RootsWorld review
Mats Eden (composer) : Apple Blossom
An album that focuses on Mats Eden as composer, with 16 performances of his pieces played by a variety of artists in a number of styles from folk to classical to contemporary art music.
PONK : Diedina
The 3rd album by this remarkable Czech trio of cimbalom (Eduard Tomastic), violin (Michal Krystynek), and double bass (Jakub Nozicka). Lee Blackstone wrote in RootsWorld: "...another confident, unique statement from a band that likely has more surprises in store for adventuresome listeners." Read the review and listen to some music
Sabil : Zabad, l'ecume des nuits (Twilight Tide)
The duo Sabil is Ahmad Al Khatib ('ud) and Youssef Hbeisch (percussion). On this album, they are joined by Elie Khoury on bouzouki and Hubert Dupont on acoustic bass in an exploration of Arabic music and modern composition and improvisation. This was a RootsWorld 'Music of the Month' recording in 2017. These CDs were donated by the artists and record label, and all proceeds go to support the magazine and radio program.
Monsieur Doumani : Grippy Grappa
This Cypriot band Monsieur Doumani has been making quite a name for itself both at home and abroad in the last 6 months. They take the sounds of their native Cyprus and put it through a blender - making the music both more accessible to a new audience, while also respecting the roots, keeping them healthy and growing. They blend a serious sense of tradition with a cutting social satire and a playful wit. Antonis Antoniou (tzouras), Angelos Ionas (guitar) and Demetris Yiasemides (wind instruments) are musical bandits steal whatever they can and forge it into something all their own, enveloped in a smoky haze of poetry and sharp musical arrangements. The purchase of this CD is for a donation to support RootsWorld, the magazine and radio show of the world's music.
Lakou Mizik : Wa Di Yo
The band was formed by musicians young and old from Jacamel, Haiti after the earthquake of 2010. Their brand new recording is titled Wa Wi Do 'You Tell Them - We Are Still Here.' Says band member Steeve Valcourt: "We have nearly lost everything - but we'll never lose our culture." This is a RootsWorld 'Music of the Month' selection for 2016, donated by the record label to support the magazine. (The bar code has a small mark over it to indicate it was donated.)
RAM : Ram 6: Manman M Se Ginen
These rhythms don't walk alone. They come with melodies and songs and spirits and knowledge. They come with rituals. says Richard Morse, leader of the Port au Prince band RAM. The Haitian ensembles 6th album is a fine piece of work, fusing local instruments and rhythms with contemporary enrgey and politics. This is a RootsWorld 'Music of the Month' selection.
Ponk : Postfolklor
This trio brings together Czech, Slovak and Moravian folk lore with a contemporary acoustic touch. At the heart of the band is the hammered dulcimer or zither known as the cimbalom, a tool common to many eastern European traditions. But musician Eduard Tomastík pushes the instrument into a new range of more modern sounds, carried by the vocals, bass and violin of bandmates Michal Krystynek and Jakub Nozicka. This is a RootsWorld 'Music of the Month' selection, and helps support the radio program and magazine.
Karl Seglem : Laerad
This is Karl's first goat horn (only) album, recorded over three years with a host of artists accompanying him on everything from ancient instruments to modern electronics.
Ferhat Tunc : Kobani
Ferhat Tunç is the kind of singer, rare in today's popular data stream, who must bear witness to the politics of his art in everyday life. Despite having been persecuted, sentenced, and jailed for his sonic activism, if not also because of the infractions inflicted upon him by his own government, Tunç has persevered in focusing his attention on those who have, less fortunately, paid with their lives. Recorded in Istanbul and Oslo, and mixed at the latter city's famed Rainbow Studio by master engineer Jan Erik Kongshaug, Kobani is Tunç's deepest mission statement yet.' - Tyran Grillo, RW
A RootsWorld 'Music of the Month' recording.
Solju : Odda Aigodat (New Times)
Ulla Pirttijarvi is familiar to many who follow the music of this part of the world, having forged a long career in both folk and art music circles, bringing the voice of the Sapmi people to the world. Her daughter adds a more contemporary voice to the mix on this new album, Odda Aigodat (New Times), where they are also joined on some tracks by throat singers, percussionists, cello, bass and some keyboards, and members of the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. At the heart of it is always the sound of the unique and mesmerizing vocal technique called joik and songs in the Sapmi language. They present raw, primal folk chants, gorgeous folk songs and some outer-fringe new sounds throughout the recording.
Darshan : Raza
A RootsWorld Music of the Month selection. Inspired by the mystical poetry and songs of Judaism, Brooklyn based Darshan breathes new life into ancient Hebrew and Aramaic texts. With a deep interest in the connection between music, poetry and their own religious experiences, rapper Eden Pearlstein (ePRHYME) and singer Basya Schechter (Pharoah's Daughter), joined by a stellar ensemble, turn classic texts and traditional prayers into contemporary arrangements that reach into the past and pull it into a world of pop, folk and jazz. (Read more and listen here)
Florida Memory : 2 CDs of Florida folklife
Three CDs of blues, folk and gospel from the Florida Folklife Collection. This set of CDs was donated by State Library & Archives of Florida in support of RootsWorld. All proceeds go to support the magazine and radio program.
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