Tabla de contenidos para September 2025 en Songlines

I’m going to blame all the festivals for the reason I was a little late visiting Your Ears Later Will Know to Listen, a current exhibition at Nottingham Contemporary. But, I’m so glad I did. The exhibition bills itself as “artistic and cultural responses to the evocative power of sound” and it’s at its best when the artists personally and candidly explore shared histories through music. We speak to one of the artists, Satch Hoyt, on p80 – the ‘sonic texts’ he has created from African instruments “incarcerated” at the British Museum are quite astonishing, far more rhythmic and dynamic than I was expecting – but he’s only one of 13 artists whose work is being displayed, and many of the others could have equally been the subject of a feature…

New York City imprint Shamus Records, a subsidiary of TRO Essex Music Group, have announced details for a vital double-dose of US folk history. Out August 14, Woody Guthrie’s Woody At Home – Vol. 1 + 2 collects 22 previously unreleased recordings (including 13 never-heard-before tunes and three spoken-word tracks), committed to tape at Guthrie’s Beach Haven, Brooklyn apartment between 1951–52. These rare sides, which include new verses of the Dust Bowl Troubadour’s celebrated ‘This Land is Your Land’ and the only known recording of his ‘Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)’, tap into Guthrie’s revolutionary zeal at source, offering precious insights into his creative processes via song sketches unintended for commercial release. Guthrie himself explains during one of the sessions’ spoken-word portions: “I just want to tell you fellers…

Fayha Choir ‘Zahrat al-Mada’en’ Russ: The Dome Sessions, new on Ruptured Records, was recorded in Tripoli, Lebanon, inside an unfinished Oscar Niemeyer-designed dome. It has many delights, but this vocal cut, by the Fayha National Choir of Lebanon, is a stunner. The natural reverb of the venue adds hair-raising atmospherics to a beautiful rendition of a song made famous by Fairuz. Amaarae ‘S.M.O.’ Charis: This is a breathy, blush-inducing single from Amaarae’s new album, Black Star. The Ghanaian-American Afrobeat fusionist takes cues from Ghanaian highlife pioneer Ata Kak and throws in a filthy Detroit bassline, before adding, in her words, “an infectious zouk melody that sounds like a steel pan lipsing an evil synth”. Love it. The Dwarfs of East Agouza ‘Neptune Anteater’ Spencer: The Cairo-based trio of Maurice Louca, Alan…

There aren’t many music festivals that start with the solemn sounds of 78rpm records from the early 20th century. But Christopher King’s Why The Mountains Are Black isn’t like any other music festival. We’re in the mountain town of Konitsa in Epirus, northwest Greece, close to the Albanian border. King became attracted to the music of Epirus when he discovered it on 78s from the 1920s. He was captivated by what he heard, leading to years of researching and exploring the music, releasing several compilations and, eventually, leaving his home in Virginia to move to Epirus. In his book, Why the Mountains are Black, he writes that the music of Epirus is not “about me”, like most contemporary popular music, but “about we”, the community. It’s a brave undertaking for…

It’s 1am on Sunday at LORE in the Shangri-La area of Glastonbury, and Malawian musical duo Madalitso Band are about to perform. Acoustic foot drums and homemade instruments like the babatoni aren’t typical of ‘standard’ late-night programming at the festival, but that’s precisely the point. Wanting to move away from an idea that traditional or acoustic music is something for the daytime, LORE (a new stage described as “a hotbed of raw sound and rebellion”) decided to put the Malawians in one of the most high-energy sets of the weekend. “Although it’s acoustic and stripped back, it’s still 4x4 music”, explains co-programmer Laurence Walker. “[Madalitso Band] delivered just the same energy and tempo as the breakbeat hardcore you might find in the fields of a free party somewhere deep in…

Outlaw country became a cliché, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t still room for grizzle-voiced, cigarette-puffing, weed-smoking, no industry-BS songwriters, of which Joshua Quimby fits the bill. He made my radar with a fabulous ode to cannabis, ‘Long Green Cigarette’, but his new album, Something Like Country (Joshua Quimby ), is more world-weary, a touch sardonic, bitter, but still hoping for love. Of note is his surprisingly heartfelt and raw cover of Sinatra’s ‘My Way’. Didn’t see that coming! Appalachian old-time stringband musicians can get a little touchy about their tradition. No pianos please! And keep that Irish music far away! Luckily, ace old-time fiddler Jason Cade, aka Hog-Eyed Man, has a broader vision for the music. His new album, Across the Sea (Tiki Parlour Recordings ), has the same…

From London to Suffolk, and Hastings to the northwest of Wales, this month’s round-up explores, in one way or another, the ties of blood and family history. London duo Lost Chimes’ second release, Now I Swim (Yellow Space ) is an evocative blend of Celtic, roots and alt-folk musings. Shades of 70s folk rock abound, especially in Gemma Kirk’s clean, timeless vocals. Family stories take a central theme. The title-track – a haunting meditation on grief and acceptance – builds to a soaring crescendo of voice and percussion. A polished, beautifully cinematic sound. Family is also at the heart of Bev Lee Harling’s Ploughing The Salt Sea (Bev Lee Harling ). The Hastings-based singer-songwriter delves into the family history of her late mother, uncovering stories of “sea-faring ancestors, hard-working women,…

Satch Hoyt has just returned from Nottingham, where he performed at the launch of Your Ears Later Will Know To Listen, a new group exhibition at Nottingham Contemporary centred around “listening back to uncover silenced or lost histories”. Hoyt’s work, which is grounded in researching African diasporic histories to create “a new all-inclusive Black cultural identity”, is a perfect fit – his room in the exhibition features a series of eight large canvases depicting the movement of people and cultures across the African diaspora; they are accompanied by a 22-minute sound work titled Beyond Misspelt Borders. This composition incorporates manipulated recordings of ancient instruments that he has ‘un-muted’ from the British Museum’s ethnographic collections. It is the latest in a series of projects that takes dormant instruments out of museums…

WEBSITE songlines.co.uk EMAIL letters@songlines.co.uk FACEBOOK facebook.com/songlines INSTAGRAM @SonglinesMag Tapestry Feeling bereft and looking for alternatives to the sadly cancelledWOMAD 2025 festival, we came across the brand new (free entry) Tapestry Festival on the weekend of July 19–20. In honour of Jane Austen’s 250th anniversary, West Quay Southampton hosted this initial event on the adjacent South Esplanade open air atrium stage with its beautiful old city wall backdrop. With BBC Radio 3 host Lopa Kothari as MC and recording for an upcoming Music Planet broadcast in mid-August, Southampton University students also filmed the entire event live to display on a giant screen. Add two brilliant BSL signers into the mix – who coped with song order changes mid-set and signing diverse instruments and languages – the mood was set! While initially shoppers seemingly…

In a nation of flamboyant entertainers, Lola Flores outshone the field in colour and charisma to become a star of the world of flamenco-related song, dance, theatre and cinema. And a century and a quarter after her birth in poor, Catholic provincial Spain, she is still a huge figure, with posthumous side roles nowadays as queer icon, star of viral beer adverts, subject of fashion tributes, and, since last year, of a museum devoted to her life in Jerez, her home city. She was born in the deeply flamenco-imbued sherry capital the year after the famous 1922 Concurso de Cante Jondo (a flamenco fiesta) in Granada, organised by Manuel de Falla and Federico Garcia Lorca to purify what they saw as an ancient folk tradition fallen into gaudy showbiz adulteration.…

I’m a person [that] moves light,” says Vanyfox, the 26-year-old music sensation who has been causing a stir in electronic circles for his forward-thinking brand of batida. “I’m learning a lot; I don’t stay on the same thing. I really work – [let’s] say I’m an athlete musician – joking!” he laughs, the lilt of his cosmopolitan accent palpable through the grain of the call. Paulo Alexandre, the man behind the moniker, is on the move, both literally and spiritually. He is currently travelling through Canada – his first time performing in the country – and the nomadic rhythm of travel feels familiar. In the past year alone, his music has taken him from Montreal to Vienna, and, of course, to his old hometown of Lisbon, the city at the…

We review full-length world music, roots and folk albums (not singles or EPs), available on CD, digital or vinyl. Please note we only accept digital submissions. Email details of albums to reviews@songlines.co.uk for consideration The Songlines Top of the World compilation, featuring tracks from our favourite albums each issue, can be downloaded by visiting https://linktr.ee/SL211 Jali Fily Cissokho Kunung Tilo Jali Fily Cissokho Singer and kora player Jali Fily Cissokho comes from a long line of West African Mandinka griots – Seckou Keita is a nephew – and has lived in the UK since the noughties. Kunung Tilo is his sixth release, and one that sees him take a break from his larger, more contemporary Coute Diomboulo group to create a striking solo set. The focus is upon Fily Cissokho’s…

Though Arnaldo Antunes is renowned for his role in the 80s Brazilian Rock movement with Titãs, his most interesting work has always been in his more experimental solo career. Novo Mundo (Selo Risco ) veers between nondescript pop and some stand-out moments, particularly ‘Body Corpo’ with David Byrne, someone whose career Antunes’ own mirrors. ‘Sou Só’, a duet with Marisa Monte, harks back to their work together as Tribalistas. The Risco label is on a roll as they have also released Big Buraco (Selo Risco ) by Jadsa, one half of the experimental electronic duo TAXIDERMIA. On this, her second solo album, she channels early 70s Elis Regina, Portishead from the 90s and noughties Brazilian songwriting. This is demonstrated more than adequately on the title-track which is a great tropicália/samba-rock…

What was your objective when writing this album? I wanted to try and explore new sounds, without wandering too far from my strengths or descending into any sort of naval gazing. I’m just increasingly interested in constructing narrative and experience in songs, and trying to place that in some sort of sonic backdrop. Do you spend a lot of time writing and finalising your songs? It depends; some songs just fall out as soon as they start, and some take aeons to form – so it’s a mix. I also record myself in my home studio, so that can be a laborious process too at times; messing around with mics and guitars, and hyper-focusing on nuances of performance that probably no-one would care about except me. Do you feel that…

Bush Gothic What Pop People Folk This Popular Fydle Records The most bravely inventive folk band in Australia is moving on. Famed for their re-working of self-described ‘darker, stranger’ traditional songs, they are now mixing this material with an unexpected revival of well-chosen and thoughtful Australian pop. They start with a ballad, ‘Lady Franklin’s Lament’, treated first to minimalist piano backing and then a furious, edgy onslaught from a string quartet, with Jenny M Thomas’ fine, acrobatic voice woven through. Then come the surprises. ‘The Girls In Our Town’, a bittersweet 70s hit about lonely teenagers in country towns, is followed by songs made famous by the likes of rock band Icehouse and Paul Kelly, and there’s an urgent re-working of political rockers Midnight Oil’s ‘Read About It’, their angry…

Go Back and Fetch It: Recovering Early Black Music in the Americas for Fiddle and Banjo Kristina R. Gaddy & Rhiannon Giddens University of North Carolina Press Such a fresh notion, expertly brought to fruition, Go Back and Fetch It is a combination song and history book by award-winning Swedish-American author Kristina R. Gaddy and renowned artist-producer Rhiannon Giddens. Gaddy’s previous books include Well of Souls: Uncovering the Banjo’s Hidden History and A Most Perilous World: The True Story of the Young Abolitionists and Their Crusade Against Slavery. Giddens – a multiple Grammy and Pulitzer Prize-winning singer, composer, instrumentalist, MacArthur grant recipient, co-founder of Carolina Chocolate Drops and all-around demigoddess – is no stranger to Songlines readers. In Go Back and Fetch It, the authors use 19 examples of pre-emancipation…

“Wihegou is a genre from Ivory Coast. It is a very specific Bété way of singing during funerals”, wordsofAzia says, her breath raspy with solemnity. The French-Ivorian singer – of Bété descent, like compatriot Dobet Gnahoré – is seated on a wooden chair in her parents’ home, backing a library of her father’s vinyl, which, she highlights, was collected over several decades. Her just-released debut album, MODERN WIHEGOU, arrives as a fusion of soul, jazz and traditional Ivorian Bété rhythms, the singer attempting to connect a newer generation of listeners to ancestral melodies that shaped her childhood. “The idea of MODERN WIHEGOU is to reinvent [wihegou] and to mix it with modern sounds,” she says. wordsofAzia (real name Seyden Tshiala) began honing her musical ideas four years ago at her…

Flaco Jiménez (1939–2025) Pioneering conjunto accordionist In his lifetime, Flaco Jiménez won six Grammy awards (including a lifetime achievement award) and was known for innovating the border-town music of conjunto (Tejano). Yet the accolades were never expected; at the beginning of his seven-decade career, Jiménez’s sound was looked down upon. “People used to regard my music as cantina music,” Flaco once told the US Library of Congress. “The accordion was considered something like a party joke, and I thought that it was always just going to be a local thing in the barrio.” It was his exuberant virtuosity on the three-row button accordion that changed it all. Through pure craftsmanship and skill, he earned himself a title as the king of Tex-Mex music, reshaping the boundaries of traditional norteño music…

“THIS IS FOR ANYONE WHO’S EVER FELT AFRAID TO BE THEMSELVES” When Molly Tuttle set about creating the cover art for her new album, So Long Little Miss Sunshine, she assembled a small army of selves. At the top, she’s got a halo of golden locks, and to the right she’s swimming in an auburn cascade of flower-child hair. Down below, she rocks a messy black mop à la Joan Jett. But most strikingly, there she is in the middle of the image, without any hair at all – the first time she has shown her baldness on an album cover (Tuttle has lived with alopecia since childhood). The wigs are playful, a pop-art swirl of characters, yet the centring of her bald self hints at the deeper story behind…

‘La Zarzamora’ (Columbia, 1948) One of Lola’s most famous numbers, a dramatic paso doble recounting a tale of a married lover, a subject very familiar to Lola, and treachery, composed by the great copla songwriting team of Leon, Quintero and Quiroga, from the show Zambra. ‘Pena Penita’ (RCA Victor, 1952) Another of the classics of Leon, Quintero and Quiroga, this archetypal copla dealing in the tribulations of love was first popularised by Manolo Caracol with his daughter, Luisa Ortega, before Lola made it her own. ‘Historia de un Amor’ (Belter, 1964) A bolero written by the Panamanian Carlos Eleta Almarán, and covered by everyone from Julio Iglesias and the French chanteuse Dalida to syrupy US crooner Andy Williams, showing Lola’s intersection with the world of pop balladry. ‘Que Me Coma…

Albita and Chucho Valdés Masters of Our Roots InnerCat Entertainment A masterclass of 20th century Cuban-American showbiz, this has all the vintage allure of a night at Havana’s Tropicana, or indeed one of the Miami clubs Albita Rodriguez is still playing 40 years after abandoning her career as a country singer in Cuba for a white trouser suit and the bright lights (and anti-Castrists) of Florida. Here she’s teamed up with fellow resident Chucho Valdés, grand old keyboard maestro responsible for 60 years of an unstoppable and headlining amalgam of Afro-Cuban lore, classics, jazz, funk, ballads and more. It’s all virtuoso stuff, with Valdés’ vamping montunos and rippling arpeggios flowing across a selection of six standards and three new compositions by Albita. The standards are best: you can’t have too…

Elena Baklava Yörüklük CPL-Music Elena Hristova has performed with the Macedonian group Baklava since 2006, but now for her solo career she calls herself, slightly confusingly, Elena Baklava. She calls this album Yörüklük, (Nomadism) in Turkish, but it also refers to the Yörük people, a nomadic Turkic minority found in North Macedonia and Anatolia. The album is derived from her research in the Yörük communities where she spent considerable time gathering stories and melodies which she has reworked into Turkish-language originals with one-word titles, like ‘Bayrak’ (Flag), ‘Biber’ (Pepper), ‘Yilan’ (Snake) and ‘Mavi’ (Blue). The opening ‘Bayrak’ is striking and energetic, with a percussive rhythm reminiscent of horses galloping. ‘Elif’ is far less exciting, its use of synth chords never quite working. More successful are those tracks that use traditional…

Ali Boulo Santo Cissoko & Volker Goetze Sargal Motéma Music In 2023, the New York-based trumpeter/producer Volker Goetze and Senegalese kora master Ali Boulo Santo Cissoko teamed up with flamenco guitarist Roberto Monteiro to release the album Flamenkora, which has since gained over 35 million streams. Sargal was Goetze and Cissoko’s first collaboration and was recorded prior to this, but a tour with Monteiro gave the latter album priority. Neither are Goetze’s first exploration into Mande music, however, having recorded the album Sira with Ali’s brother, Ablaye Cissoko, in 2008. Sargal – meaning ‘to thank’ in Wolof – is a collection of 13 gorgeous kora tunes, with Goetze adding subtle and haunting brass embellishment. Mino Cinélu, who has played with everyone from Miles Davis to Kate Bush, adds percussion on…

Ān Ensemble Neshan Nava Music The Ān Ensemble is a nine-piece classical Iranian group led by Sanaz Sattarzadeh, who plays tar. Most of the classic Iranian instruments are included: kamancheh, setar, oud, santur, ney, as well as daf and tombak drums. There are also vocals (and tar) from Siavash Imani. Neshan opens with an introductory Pishdaramad (a short instrumental prelude) which incorporates the whole ensemble, but most of the seven subsequent pieces are solos or duets with an ensemble piece to finish. The opening piece illustrates the colour and sensitivity of the group, with the spotlight shifting from instrument to instrument. The subsequent santur and setur solos really highlight the specific qualities of the instruments, alongside moments when the whole ensemble joins in. Siavash Imani sings the Tasnif ballad (‘Tasnife…

What was your route into researching the Black history of the banjo? When I was still in high school and just getting into traditional music, I saw the Carolina Chocolate Drops play at Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro, North Carolina, so I knew the very general outlines of the banjo’s early history. But it was when I started doing music research while living in Elkins, West Virginia and working for the Augusta Heritage Center as an AmeriCorps, and learned about a Black fiddler named William Adams who had lived less than a mile from where I grew up outside of Washington, DC, that I understood the history had to be both broader and deeper. I met banjo maker Pete Ross in 2012, and his research into banjo history, especially Black banjo…

Festival season is in full swing. I’ve done some this year: we supported Elbow in York Museum Gardens, pretended to be the injured Richard Thompson at Gate to Southwell (“I’m Richard Thompson and so is my wife!”); we performed at the wonderful Sidmouth, Broadstairs, Whitby and had a spot at the Edinburgh Folk and Food Fest. I also stopped by the BBC Proms with the radiant Angeline Morrison, who performed her The Sorrow Songs album with a full band in a three-foot headdress at the Glasshouse in Gateshead. Our African Queen! I grew up attending folk festivals, as did many of my peers. A magical world of volunteers, clog workshops, circus tents and snogging your parents’ mates’ kids turned somehow into a career, and here I am over 30 years…