Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2025 i Songlines

Over the last few years, I’ve listened to Cri d’Amour by the French singer and musician Mélanie Chédeville perhaps more than any other album. I can’t remember where I found out about it, but as soon as I heard it, I was in love. The album is French chanson very much in the vein of Serge Gainsbourg’s Histoire de Melody Nelson with breathy, confessional vocals, staccato organs and moments where a whole song is swept up by an orchestra, but there was also something else going on. It wasn’t until I looked at the liner notes that I understood. The drummer on the album is Tony Allen. As luck would have it, a couple of years ago, I was at an event and saw that Eric Trosset of Comet Records,…

Views, news and events from around the world Fifty years is a long time to stay at the top of your game in the music business, and especially to maintain your drive and enthusiasm. Québec’s Yves Lambert, co-founder and former frontman of the legendary La Bottine Souriante, has not only persisted, he’s grown and diversified. And with his current eight-piece band, Le Grand Orchestre, he’s having more fun than ever. “I’m living by far the finest moments of my career,” he says, speaking in the accented French of Lanaudière, his home region northeast of Montréal. “I’ve never been so happy in my job. With the close understanding between me and the musicians, and their group spirit, it really is my golden age.” Lambert is known for the earthy verve he…

Valentin Ceccaldi and Quentin Biardeau met during high school, and soon began playing music together in various groups. “We really grew up together, musically speaking”, says Ceccaldi. Mainly, they played in free jazz and experimental bands in France, but then four years ago, they decided that they wanted to work more with voices and songs that made people want to dance. Ceccaldi suggested recruiting Marcel Balboné, a musician from Burkina Faso whom he had met in 2015, when the two of them worked on the live music for a production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest in Ouagadougou. Soon after, that was exactly where they relocated, Ouagadougou, for a creative residency. They rented a place and started to work on the songs that would shape Lagon Nwar’s identity. “But after we came…

In February, young Argentine trap star Milo J, 18 years old, was to perform at a venue known as ESMA during Argentina’s dictatorship, when it was the military’s largest illegal prison. Now, it is a place where commemorations are held, as well as artistic events, such as Milo’s performance, which was organised by human rights groups. However, on the day of the event and with 20,000 people set for the show, a judge ordered it to be cancelled, under a request from the government’s Secretary of Human Rights. The news went viral with artists as diverse as rock legend Charly García (73 years old), urban star Lali Espósito (33) and rapper Trueno (23) coming out in support of Milo J. Aldana Ríos, Milo’s manager and mother, shared the words that…

Woranuch made her debut in 1955 at just 16. Her clear and distinctive voice was evident in her first recording, ‘Hua Jai Mai Mee Krong’. She was quickly invited to join ‘King of Luk Thung’ Suraphol Sombatchareon’s band, setting up a male-female-led outfit that became the model for luk thung troupes in the 1960s. She left Suraphol’s band to set up her own troupe and made a significant change from her time in the group. While Suraphol had introduced a male and female chorus line, they did not dance; instead, they held hand percussion instruments. Pongsri ‘livened up’ luk thung by getting them to dance. She would go on to have a string of hits, including ‘Wiman Nai Fun Namta Mia Luang’ and ‘Rot Duan’, which have since become standards.…

Get in touch – we’d love to hear from you! WEBSITE songlines.co.uk EMAIL letters@songlines.co.uk FACEBOOK facebook.com/songlines INSTAGRAM @SonglinesMag Suntou & Mamudou Susso As bright spring light fell through the stained glass windows, we saw four koras waiting to fill our ears with a luminosity of clear, shimmering notes. One kora had traditional hide rings for tuning; these beautifully crafted koras sat waiting, holding the promise of music to make our hearts sing. This was the last evening of Suntou’s 15-date tour with his father, Mamudou Susso, and brother, Musa Susso, and the emotion was palpable. It was clear from Mamudou’s gentle smile that he was thoroughly enjoying touring the UK with his son, and his flourishes set his robe shimmering. To watch a kora player close up is extraordinary – while we…

‘Water No Get Enemy’ (1975) “It reminds me of when I first heard it. It was a concert my father did for his mother’s family reunion festival. I looked over from the window and thought, ‘Wow, what a beautiful great number’; it sounded so sweet.” Recorded by Fela on the album Expensive Shit (1975), the title means ‘nobody hates something as useful as water’. Femi recorded his own version of the song for the 2002 Red Hot + Riot compilation – with proceeds going to charities dedicated to AIDS awareness. ‘O.D.O.O (Overtake Don Overtake Overtake)’ (1989) “This is easily one of my father’s best compositions; it has all the musical elements, the way the melody and rhythms intertwine is just so unique.” This is the sole almost 32-minute track of…

Ibex Band Stereo Instrumental Music Muzikawi The Ibex Band were at the heart of Ethiopia’s fabled ‘golden age’ of music, backing the likes of Mulatu Astatke, Aster Aweke and Mahmoud Ahmed on a number of classic 1970s recordings. Yet their work under their own name remains little-known and, until now, near-impossible to find. The band were led by guitarist Selam ‘Selamino’ Woldemariam and bass player Giovanni Rico, whose contributions shape much of the push-and-pull between tradition and modernity on this 1976 album, previously given only a limited domestic release on cassette. Rooted in Ethiopian scales, Woldemariam’s sweetly lilting electric guitar lines are underpinned by Rico’s more modernistic basslines, which add touches of funk to ‘YezemedYebada’ or a disco bounce to the likes of ‘Yene F’qr’. Two album highlights, ‘Shemonmuanaye’ and…

Independance Maremusica Cabo Verde (Cape Verde) is one of the world’s youngest nations, coming into being in 1975 upon gaining independence from Portugal. As one of its most prolific and celebrated musicians, Mário Lúcio here pays homage to his country’s first 50 years with an album reflecting its diverse range of influences, from West Africa, Portugal, the Caribbean and beyond. 1975 also saw a blossoming of new music in Cabo Verde: the release from suppression of dance styles such as the funaná, music arriving with soldiers returning from war in Angola, Congo and Guinea; and the adoption of electric guitars and keyboards. Lúcio brings back these musical memories by basing new compositions on the styles of that era and weaves in threads from Afrobeat, soukous and rumba. Being rooted in…

Cancionera Sony Music We know Natalia Lafourcade can turn on the intimacy and intensity. On 2024’s Live at Carnegie Hall, she managed to make a showcase venue her “living room” and commanded the audience as fully as she did stellar guests and accompanying musicians. Cancionera, her new album, features no fewer than 18 invitees and accompanists, but from the beautiful opening track – ‘Apertura Cancionera’, an instrumental, with a few bars of humming – we know we are in for an impassioned, thoughtful, theatrical tête-à-tête. The second song, the title-track, starts with classical trills and great suspense, and then Lafourcade, taking on her alter-ego role of wandering troubadour, loudly whispers, ‘Cancionera, no dejes de sorprenderme…’[Cancionera, she never fails to surprise me]. The Spanish spills the plot: she yearns to surprise…

Áššu Luoteniegut Nordic Notes Joik vocalist Ulla Pirttijärvi is among northern Finland’s strongest Indigenous voices. Pirttijärvi combines her powerful singing withWest African influences in her trio, Áššu. The name means ‘Glowing Embers’, and that sense of warmth permeates the group’s second album. With a more layered, contemporary sound than the band’s 2019 debut, the focus is firmly on Pirttijärvi’s exceptional voice, which ranges from breathy on ‘Guoldu / Cold Wind’ to forceful on ‘Guovžža Fámut’ / The Power Of The Bear’. Pirttijärvi has sympathetic backing from Norwegians, including Hildegunn Øiseth, who guests on the ancient bukkehorn (goat horn). Kenneth Ekornes replaces percussionist Harald Skullerud, who died during early work on the album and is remembered in ‘Eahketroađđi’ / Sunset’. Olav Torget provides electronics, vocals, ngoni and guitar, injecting fuzzy desert…

Rammana Salin I first heard about Salin from Haitian jazz artists in Montréal who told me she was the best drummer in the city. They weren’t wrong! With popular social media videos under her belt and a sizeable following, her debut album, Rammana, is well anticipated and delivers on her unique perspective as a Thai artist working in jazz, funk, soul and folk. She blends totally disparate genres like Thai lam and Indigenous Thai tribal drumming with Fela-inspired Afrobeat, the Congolese rhythms she heard in Montréal and a healthy dose of funky horn blasts. As a drummer, she’s like the Thai Tony Allen, living deep in the pocket and bringing an undeniably hot groove to everything she touches. These influences feel incredibly different, but Salin finds the beats that tie…

Asar honiunhoni Pakistani singer Muslim Shaggan comes from an impressive lineage of vocal musicians in two ways. Firstly, his grandfather and teacher was the great Ustad Ghulam Hassan Shaggan and, secondly, through this he belongs to the prestigious Gwalior gharana. Given this it is only right to think that this might be an impressive recording, and the tracks here back up that assumption, comprising what is a very intimate album and a brave solo undertaking. Accompanied only by a tanpura and harmonium, he performs traditional ‘light’ vocal pieces, from thumri to ghazal, showing off what is, fittingly, a light but beautiful voice, and a prodigious technique. It is not flashy, but as anyone knows who has performed, it is the small, and fundamental, details that show you are in the…

Discover the world through music Songlines is the definitive magazine for world music – music that has its roots in all parts of the globe, from Mali to Mexico, India to Iraq. Whether this music is defined as traditional, contemporary, folk or fusion, Songlines is the only publication to truly represent and embrace it. Why should you subscribe? ▶ 10 new issues each year delivered to your door or digital devices ▶ Subscriber-only CD or track downloads with every issue, featuring the best music from around the world ▶ Expert music reviews and global dispatches ▶ Access to every issue in our digital archive and 7,500+ album reviews in our online database From £79 a year magsubscriptions.com/music-songlines subscriptions@markallengroup.com +44 (0) 1722 716 997 Subscribe today at magsubscriptions.com/music-songlines Stated subscription rate based…

COLOMBIA: A Colombian court has ruled that Karol G & J Balvin’s song ‘Perra Remix’ violates children’s rights due to its explicit lyrics and imagery. The court found it sexualised minors and reinforced harmful stereotypes, prompting calls for stricter content guidelines… KENYA: EYU Music has launched a fundraising campaign to build Kibera Creative Arts Center, a centre for the children and community of Kibera. They have released the song ‘Lisanga’ as part of a fundraising drive… NIGERIA: Nigeria’s National Broadcasting Commission has banned the song ‘Tell Your Papa’ by Eedris Abdulkareem, accusing it of targeting President Bola Tinubu and his son, Seyi Tinubu. The ban has stirred debate over censorship and freedom of expression, with critics arguing the ban reflects growing intolerance of political dissent in the country… UKRAINE: British…

Claude Saturne – Pasaj EP Russ: Haitian percussionist Saturne has played with Moonlight Benjamin and many jazz fusion projects but here offers up his own material. Lit by vodou rhythms, there’s a joyous swagger to tracks like ‘Lwa Cheucheu’, despite its lambasting of spurious leaders. Leo Barbieri ‘Up the River’ Erin: Starting with piano notes and spoken word, this track from the Brazilian filmmaker and producer develops into a crescendo of horns and rapped lyrics, reflecting the diverse ways in which water moves and providing an alternative mode of connection to this vital resource. Itchy-O–SÖM SÂPTÂLAHN Spencer: This freakazoid carnival troupe boasts 50-plus members, but boil down to minimalist essentials for their latest enigmatic dispatch. Mutant gamelan performed on alchemically treated cymbals and deep meditation sessions that seem as if…

Jamaica is proud of its musical heritage. Everywhere you turn, someone somewhere is blasting reggae or dancehall. Visiting during Reggae Month, over what would have been Marley’s 80th birthday, there are murals across Trench Town and New Kingston celebrating legends such as Desmond Dekker, Millie Small and Toots & The Maytals. It seems like a good moment to assess the current role of reggae. Although the style initially preached messages of unity, spirituality and strength, does that still hold weight today among Gen Z audiences and the social media generation, or has that changed since Marley’s passing 45 years ago? The legendary Rockers International Records owner, Ainsworth ‘Mitchie’ Williams, has seen artists come and go. Opened in 1976, his remains the last record store on the infamous ‘Beat Street’ in…

There was a brief moment when Masa Nazzal considered starting an Arabic punk band. “This died because I didn’t have the time and angst to do it”, she laughs. Yet there’s a clear case to be made that Nazzal’s current output embodies a punk ethos. An abolitionist researcher, organiser and sound artist, her work creatively and politically defies borders and boundaries alike. Having recently graduated with a degree in anthropology and with years of activist experience under her belt, Nazzal’s sound artistry emerged from a synchronicity of timing. Between late 2023 and early 2024, she travelled to Bihać, Bosnia & Herzegovina, to volunteer with a no-borders group, No Name Kitchen. Before the trip, and unrelatedly, a friend taught her how to use [music production software] Ableton. “I didn’t have a…

The Exposition Universelle, which took place in Paris for nearly six months in 1889, is most famous for the creation of the Eiffel Tower. Indeed the fair was held on the Champ de Mars at the foot of the tower on the banks of the Seine. One of the other famous legacies of the fair came from a Javanese gamelan (an ensemble of mainly tuned percussion instruments) which had a huge impact on Claude Debussy and revolutionised his approach to music and harmony. It’s only recently become known what happened to that historic gamelan that travelled to Paris. As the Exposition celebrated French Revolution’s centenary and 1889’s overthrow of the monarchy, most European countries with monarchies did not take part, including the UK. Though the Dutch were also boycotting, there…

WIN Femi Kuti p38 We have three of Femi Kuti’s Journey Through Life CDs to give away. To win, tell us: How old was Femi Kuti when he first played in his father’s band? Carwyn Ellis & Rio 18 p48 We have three LPs of the group’s Fontana Rosa. To win, tell us: What is the name of Carwyn Ellis & Rio 18’s debut album? The Baltic Sisters p50 To nab one of four Värav/Vārti/Vartai CDs from The Baltic Sisters, tell us: Where did The Baltic Sisters meet in 2022? COMPETITIONS Submit your entry for each competition via the website: songlines.co.uk/competitions. Winners will be chosen at random. Only one entry per competition per household. No cash alternatives. If you would prefer not to be sent details of other Songlines products…

In pre-colonial Rwanda, if a man was still single at age 35, villagers would sequester him in his hut and beat the impuruza (danger drum) to bring attention to his shame and call upon interested single women in the village to form a circle outside his home. He would be led inside the circle and the drumming would continue, aiming to make him feel ashamed, until he chose a bride. As soon as a marriage was confirmed, the danger drums would be replaced by indamutsa drums to send joyous news about the newlyweds to the village. This is according to Obed Hakuzimana of the Gisakura Tour Company, whom I met recently in Rwanda. Drums such as the indamutsa and impuruza have been played in Rwanda for centuries, as has the…

“It was Chrissie Hynde’s idea for me to work with her friends in Brazil, and she told me to do it in Welsh”, confides Carwyn Ellis. “And I just laughed it off at first. I thought it was daft. I mean, who would do that? But she kept reminding me and kind of made me do it. I’m so glad that she did.” A Welsh singer, songwriter and musician, Carwyn is recalling the time in 2018 when he was a member of the Pretenders during a tour of South America. The group’s lead singer, Hynde, had seen all the old Brazilian records he was buying and recommended that he contact musician friends she knew in Brazil. After Carwyn met one of those friends, Kassin, he was back in Brazil by…

Journey Through Life Partisan As its title suggests, Femi Kuti’s new album – his first since the release in 2021 of double LP Legacy +, containing his record Stop the Hate and son Mádé Kuti’s For(e)ward – is intended as a musical biography, hence the presence of updated versions of old favourites such as ‘Think My People Think’ and ‘Corruption Na Stealing’. Produced by Femi at the family’s newly built Legacy Plus studios in Lagos, there are plenty of angry songs such as ‘After 24 Years’ and ‘Politics Don Expose Them’ about oppression and social injustice, but the album finds Femi in unusually contemplative mood, too, with personal reflections on regret, forgiveness and inner growth. ‘Enjoy and learn from experience / Make the best of your journey through life’, he…

El Balcón El Errante elbalcón On their latest album, Montréal’s El Balcón have delivered a dynamite collection of self-written songs seamlessly blending lead singer Valeria’s Mexican roots with East European and Middle Eastern influences into a startlingly potent stew. With an acoustic backbone of requinto and jarana guitars, cajón and upright bass, and with violins, oud and accordion joining the shared voices, their youthful energies have matured into a gig-honed outfit that could shake any audience. Thoughtfully arranged to suit the drama of each song’s subject, the compositions offer a rich variety of tempos and emotions. From the Balkan-infused high-stepper ‘No Creo en Banderas’ to the prairie ballad ‘La Pradera’, their passionate, energising folk-fusion strikes a universal chord. The spirit of the communal dance or a deep yearning are present…

This is quite the grab-bag of music reviews from North American artists, ranging from pop-leaning to super out-there experimental, but still all rooted in tradition. It’s good to expand our horizons a bit! The debut album, Deep Listening (Outside Time ), from duo Zosha Warpeha & Mariel Terán is an aggressive dismantling of tradition. It’s experimental, but not in an intellectual way, more in the way it focuses on tone and timbre before melody. The instruments are an unusual combination, Warpeha on the Hardanger d’amore (a fusion of the Hardanger fiddle and the Baroque viola d’amore, popularized by Irish trad experimentalist Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh) and Terán on Indigenous Bolivian and South American flutes. Both artists come from composition and improvisational backgrounds, and the music feels freshly inspired and very, very…

Timo Alakotila & Yuka Fujino Kokuu Polvoron Last year, the prolific Finnish pianist Timo Alakotila and Japanese accordion player Yuka Fujino released Seiras, which they followed with a tour of Japan. This live recording is of the last date of that tour, in Tokyo. The songs from Seiras appear here in a completely different sequence, with the haunting opener ‘Amare’ now appearing halfway through; there are also two new songs added. Variety comes with guest artists on flute and violin – even a vocal on one track. What’s strange is there’s no sense of it being a live performance, with no applause, even at the end. Even though they’re from opposite ends of the world, the two musicians and composers are well-matched and without the credits it would be hard…

Mohammad Mostafa Heydarian Noor-e Vojood Cardinal Fuzz Mohammad Mostafa Heydarian is 23 years old, but his music resounds with a sense of ancient mystery. It’s unsurprising given the path he’s taken. He was born in Kermanshah, western Iran, which, for more than 5,000 years, has been home of the pear-shaped lute known as the tanbur. Heydarian’s father is a percussionist and tanbur maker, and Heydarian, as a young student of the tanbur, began learning the thousand-year-old maqams of the mystic Yarsan sect aged just seven. His second album extends the mission embarked upon with his debut, Songs of Horaman, a few years ago, presenting a suite of half a dozen original compositions written and performed in the traditional style. Themes uncoil slowly from the tanbur’s brittle timbre, strings strummed boldly,…

The black pearl of tango. This is how the legendary Afro-Uruguayan singer Lágrima Ríos (1924-2006) was known. Despite tango’s African roots (it is argued that the word ‘tango’ has an African origin), Lágrima was one of the only artists of African descent ever to find fame in the style. Born Lida Melba Benavídez Tabárez, Lágrima had a poor childhood. She grew up in the Barrio Sur neighbourhood of Montevideo, where she lived in a conventillo (a huge house with more than 50 rooms, where entire families lived, crammed together). There, immigrants from Italy, Poland and Spain, alongside people of African descent, lived side by side. Although she did not know the exact origins of her ancestors, she knew that her great-grandmother bore the marks of shackles on her wrists and…

“It was like a great hunger that I didn’t know I had,” says Sally Potter, international filmmaker, of her later life drive to compose music. “It was like I’d accumulated all these songs and instrumental pieces in my body and head and suddenly, because of this, I had an outlet.” At home in east London, in a large music room furnished with keyboards and a grand piano inherited from her grandmother, Potter wiggles her fingers at the computer screen, miming the magic enabled by software program Logic. “Discovering Logic was transformational”, she tells me. “Rather than laboriously writing everything out, or relying on memory, it meant I could compose on a keyboard using a sample. Or I could hear the cello I wanted and write it and edit it.” Until…

The untimely death of Amadou Bagayoko, a month before he and his wife Mariam Doumbia were to commence a European tour with performances at Cheltenham and Brighton Festival, has robbed the world of one of Africa’s finest-ever guitarists. Essaying a thrilling mix of blues, rock and traditional African rhythms on a string of eight best-selling albums since their international debut in 1998, Amadou & Mariam took African music into the Western mainstream in a way only rivalled in recent years by Tinariwen. They supported Coldplay and U2 on tour, recorded the official anthem for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany and performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in 2009 to celebrate Barack Obama’s receiving the prize. “I don’t think there’s ever been a band from Africa with whom…

We have a Folk Special lined up starring an extra-long conversation with folk legend Martin Carthy. We will also find out about exciting new folk artists like VARO, The Gentle Good and Quinie, plus we will pick out the UK folk festivals to check out and Britain’s most unusual customs in our Folk Directory. We speak to Rokia Traoré about her plans since being released from prison, we have a Beginner’s Guide to US blues legend Taj Mahal, a profile of the exciting Polish street band Hajda Banda, we chat to Colombia’s Lido Pimienta about her new orchestral album and we take an epic trip to Malawi where we hear from Madalitso Band, Gasper Nali and some of the country’s other exciting names.…

“THE IDEA [OF AMANHECER] WAS TO PUT MOZAMBICAN MUSIC ON THE MAP, TO SHOW THAT IT EXISTED” On hearing from a Mozambican friend that Pedro Ben was living in London, musically incognito, I begged for his number. Ben and his fellow musicians, especially Jaimito and Hortêncio Langa, are the founding figures of Mozambican popular music post-1975. I first heard them in the late 1970s when I was recruited by Frelimo, the ruling party, to teach in a secondary school in the northern Mozambican city of Nampula. Ben, Jaimito and Hortêncio (the latter two known by their first names) were role models for the young teachers and students I met there. The three Mozambicans were part of a loose group of musicians who came together in Maputo, the capital, to record…

Over a held drone, a voice starts singing, and then another begins to imitate it. A third voice is added, and a fourth. Though there are only actually two voices sounding simultaneously, as each voice pauses after two bars, the effect is of a canon that repeats endlessly. The four-bar phrases they sing are simple and narrow-ranged, first going down and then going up, and they are deliberately pitched to create gentle discords of clashing seconds. The song is ‘Sesė Sodų’ (Sister’s Garden), a Lithuanian sutartinė sung by The Baltic Sisters, four singers from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, three sisterly nations on the Baltic Sea. “These are very old harmonies, and they’re sometimes a bit creepy for people nowadays to listen to,” says Laurita Peleniūtė, who is Lithuanian and a…

Roots Rocking Zimbabwe: The Modern Sound of Harare’ Townships 1975-1980 Analog Africa Music scenes are strange things, ephemeral and unpredictable. The right confluence of history, politics, culture, migrations, community, geography, trends, hard work and luck can create a hotbed of unique musical creativity that might define a city for many decades to come. With Roots Rocking Zimbabwe, Analog Africa paints a vivid portrait of the vibrant musical ecosystem that defined Harare in the six-year run-up to Zimbabwe’s independence. The popular sounds of 70s Harare (then still known as Salisbury) were cosmopolitan, taking in rock, hard funk, soul, heavy metal and reggae as well as Congolese rumba and South African mbaqanga. The city’s brightest stars took all of these influences, along with local traditional music, and spun them into their own…

Why have you opted for an intimate, stripped-down, ‘live’ sound on the new album? I like the idea of entering a recording studio where synergy is promoted, where maximum connection between a group of people is sought to find magic through music. Collective work deeply moves me and, at the same time, I realise it generates a particular adrenaline when you know everything is walking on a thread, almost like a juggler… I want to try the magic of recording live and even accept certain mistakes or imperfections that may arise. Eventually, these mistakes or imperfections turn out to be the most special and give a lot of personality and soul to the projects. How does Cancionera reflect the influence of Veracruz? I feel that in the way of writing,…

Eerie mysticism, Estonian cinematics, Irish Americana and some good old-fashioned earthy English folk song all feature in this month’s folk round-up, with a jaunt through the Midlands of England, the southwest coast of Ireland, and Estonia and Scandinavia (via Belgium and Glasgow). Berlin-based Scottish/Irish musician Wyn Oran’s debut album An Angel, A Crowd (Mysteries of the Orb Records ) offers a mesmerising listen. Haunting vocals, swooning mysticism and a heavy dose of melancholic romance imbues Oran’s soundscape. ‘The Flood’ is a warmly trippy track that effortlessly captures the album’s timeless, ethereal and occasionally freaky vibe. Guitar and bouzouki are well employed, occasionally accompanied by the ghostly whispers of tin whistle and mellotron. A wistful listen, like the lingering echo of a dream. In contrast, The Windings of Their Wandering Song…

Sudeshna Bhattacharya & Mosin Khan Kawa Mohini Motvind Records Norway-based Sudeshna Bhattacharya is one of very few female sarod players, having begun training aged just eight, initially with her father, and later with one of the biggest names among sarod maestros, Amjad Ali Khan. Unlike the sitar, the sarod, (descended from the Afghani rabab) is unfretted, hence more difficult to play but offering a greater flexibility in exploring the many microtonal nuances of Indian classical music. On the album Mohini (feminine equivalent of the Hindu god Krishna), Bhattacharya, accompanied by tabla player Mosin Khan Kawa presents three ragas, starting with an exquisite ‘Bhimpalasi’, a hugely popular afternoon raga. She goes on to raga ‘Hamsadhwani’ which has its origins in South Indian (Carnatic) classical music. The album ends with ‘Mishra Bhairavi’…

Where are you based, and how long have you been there? For the past two and a half years, I’ve been based between Spain and the US. I came to Valencia in 2022 for my master’s degree and stayed for the people I met here. Where is home? Home, for me, is where I feel connection and purpose…Of course, I’m always drawn back to California, where I grew up and where my family is. Who are the local music heroes in Valencia? Carles Dénia is beloved for bringing Valencian traditional music to wider audiences. On the most local level, the real musical heroes are the village bands. In the Valencian region, every town has its own woodwind group – and out of a village of 1,000 people, the music band…