Born in New Jersey and raised in Northern Galilee, Palestinian-American violinist Akram Abdulfattah's youth and musical upbringing was strongly influenced by his immediate surroundings and steeped in tradition. He enrolled at a local conservatory, was trained in performance and composition and later graduated from the Jerusalem Music Academy with honours. Looking to expand his horizon beyond the familiar Arabic/Palestinian repertoire and push the boundaries, he [...]

With temperatures on a decline in the northern hemisphere, we turn to Norway of all places where the Flammer Dance Band has been steadily blazing its very own trail to glory. The certified off-their-rocker, Oslo-based collective lit a spark with its 2020-released 7" "Mer/Holder Rytme" and we made sure to include the B-Side in our monthly Spotify selection of extraordinary tracks from around the globe back in November 2021 – better late than never. Following [...]

Talking about "UNITY", collaboration and social cohesion, Welsh singer, songwriter, composer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist and producer Carwyn Ellis recently returned to present the latest project of his Rio 18 brainchild, bringing a breath of fresh tropical air to the global airwaves and simultaneously celebrating the seemingly invincible radio format. "Radio Chévere" is more like an actual 45-minute radio show, with none other than the voice of celebrated [...]

As we wake up to another day on this wildly magnificent planet of ours, we feel like this might be the right moment to immerse ourselves in the latest album by Jerusalem-based bassist, composer and improviser Yosef Gutman Levitt and Argentinean-Israeli classical guitarist Itay Sher. Released at the tail end of August via Levitt's own imprint Soul Song Records and titled "UNITY", this nine-track oeuvre realizes a novel "approach [to] Hasidic Jewish nigunim [...]

Leave it to Belgian reissue imprint and digging collective Radio Martiko to drop another fine release that absolutely tickles our fancy. "Guapa Je!" is a compilation of tropical tunes by lesser-known Colombian arranger and composer Edmundo Arias that takes listeners back to the 1950s and '60s, "think of big bands with sharp-dressed musicians playing the finest cumbias, porros and other tropical sounds in fancy ballrooms on a hot evening in Medellín or [...]

Coming straight 'from the heart', Havana's Grammy-nominated Orquesta Akokán presents its "unique brand of mambo" with album number three on Daptone Records. Led by producer and multi-instrumentalist Jacob Plasse and virtuosic pianist, composer and arranger Michael Eckroth, "Caracoles" serves up another crisp helping of life-affirming mambo tunage, rooted in the past yet achored firmly in the 21st century. This novel record of theirs also showcases the [...]

Back in May, we enjoyed a two-hour Globalwize 'African Presence' special introduction to the music of Tanzania with Prof. Dr. Imani Sanga, which you can relisten to here. In it, we encountered the 'taarab' genre, a musical style popular in Tanzania and Kenya, "influenced by the musical traditions of the African Great Lakes, North Africa, the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent." Then late last month, WeltBeat host and selector Jean Trouillet played a track [...]

At times reminiscent of though not to be confused with the entrancing sing-song of the Indonesian gamelan, the significantly more minimalistic soundscapes of the thumb piano on this first-ever studio recording by "lukeme maestro and legendary Langi griot Ekuka Morris Sirikiti" are no less spellbinding and wonderfully haunting. Back in 2018, the Nyege Nyege Tapes imprint delved into Ekuka's work, which proved a bit challenging, seeing as this artist had never [...]

Shifting gears to start the week, we see ourselves turning up a notch with this brand-new, dancefloor-ready various artists compilation on the always stellar Strut Records. Meticulously "curated by revered East African DJ" Kampire, "A Dancefloor in Ndola" sees the London imprint team up with local talent, thus "embracing an innovative approach to musical discovery from the next wave of selectors." Born to Ugandan parents in Kenya, Kampire also spent time in [...]

Rumour has it, he is one of the busiest men in tropical music and has the discography to show for it. And then there's that presumably massive record collection of his that should serve as an abundant source of inspiration during the occasional dry spell. Alex Figueira, the one-man-band and mastermind behind the Music With Soul and Vintage Voudou imprints – also involved with band's such as Fumaça Preta and Lola's Dice – recently resurfaced wielding the [...]

Fleeing persecution, the late 1940s and early 1950s saw several waves of migration by Yemenite Jews to Israel, bringing with them not only a rich and ancient heritage in terms of language and culture, but also music, "mostly religious and ceremonial" in style. Among these new arrivals, hailing from San'a, Yemen, was singer and writer Aharon Amram, who immigrated to Israel as a child and went on to become one of the most prominent and prolific representatives of [...]

Who ever knew that suffering could sound this good?! Musically speaking, Bogotá's Eblis Álvarez is the epitome of an all-rounder and has been involved in countless projects on the Neo-Colombian circuit, including the likes of Chupame El Dedo, Los Pirañas and Romperayo. One of his most prominent and popular monikers, however, is his Meridian Brothers venture, an insanely prolific one-man studio band that "over the decades [...] has released a [rip] tide of [...]