Last Friday, German leftfield record label Pingipung teamed up with Romanian imprint Future Nuggets to present a hot new 7" release by Bucharest-based artist Cosima Opârtan, or simply Cosima, aka one half of proto-manele duo Raze de Soare.

Cosima – a trained architect, sound designer and co-founder of Queer Night (a local LGBTQ+ party series) – dubs her music widow pop, a melancholy blend of contemporary styles beckoning both to the past and the future, as [...]

Their self-released 2018 debut was an absolute sensation and quickly sold out on vinyl, while "Mara" went on to become one of the most streamed jazz albums of the year. And rightfully so. The Munich-based jazz quintet's organic sound thrives on spacious arrangements, as they move freely and effortlessly between composition and improvisation, producing beautiful melodies over polyrhythmic drum patterns and dubby basslines. 

Mathias Lindermayr (trumpet), Paul [...]

Several years ago Gianna Greco and François R. Cambuzat travelled to the Saharan Djerid desert of Tunisia to document the ancient, religious Banga ritual of Sidi Marzûq. With a background in the undergound post-punk scene of continental Europe and after months of studying, recording, filming and bonding, the two proceeded to integrate their findings into their own musical output, which was to become the contemporary five-piece Ifriqiyya Électrique.

"Their [...]

Over the past years, Saharan rock has become one of the African continent's biggest musical exports, due to the popularity of meanwhile world-renowned desert blues artists the likes of Bombino, Tinariwen and Mdou Moctar. The latter would appear to be "one of the most innovative artists in contemporary Saharan music" and has steadily been making a name for himself with "his unvonventional interpretations, original compositions and verbose poetry."  Master of the [...]

As news reaches us about the ongoing decline of corals on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, we move to the other side of the globe to the Mascarenes, a small group of islands in the Indian Ocean, consisting of Mauritius, Réunion and Rodrigues. A native of La Réunion, French producer Sébastien Lejeune, aka Loya, has spent the past years researching his own cultural heritage as well as the music he grew up listening to before moving to metropolitan France in the [...]

Tunisian producer and avid science fiction fan AMMAR 808, aka Sofyann Ben Youssef, just dropped our latest workout track, for free. The self-proclaimed "interstellar soldier on a quest for mean grooves and the lowest bass possible" has slowly been making a name for himself, as the "sonic mastermind behind Tunisian sensation 'Bargou 08'" (2017, Glitterbeat Records) and last year unleashed his debut solo release "Maghreb United", collaborating with several [...]

Sydney-born violinist Daniel Weltlinger (The Asthmatix, Karsten Troyke) moved to Berlin in 2013, where he has since established himself as a regular, playing in different musical constellations such as the Gypsy-jazz collective Radio Django. We first saw Daniel perform at Ballhaus Berlin in 2017, for the release of his album "Samoreau" (aka part three of "his trilogy of recordings celebrating the musical legacy of the influential Belgian-born French Manouche [...]

Hailing from The Gambia and now residing in Denmark, kora player Dawda Jobarteh is the heir to a long line of Gambian musical royalty. His grandfather was Alhaji Bai Konte, one of the country's most famed kora players. His father was Amadou Bansang Jobarteh, an equally respected kora player and the favoured musician of Gambia's first president. (He also happened to be the uncle of Sidiki Diabaté, father to Malian kora player Toumani Diabaté.) And the list [...]

The Somali port city and capital of Mogadishu used to be home to a bustling music scene from the late 1960s up until the early 1990s, "teeming with pop and folk musicians whose influences spanned several genres of Somali traditional music alongside influences from abroad". Perhaps one of the most renowned groups of the era was the Dur-Dur Band who, free of government constraints, decided not to address politics or spread subversive messages, but rather [...]

Based in France, Cameroonian singer and songwriter Blick Bassy just released his fourth album "1958", which follows on the heels of his acclaimed previous album "Akö". His latest eleven track strong oeuvre is a resounding tribute to Cameroonian anti-colonialist freedom fighter Ruben Um Nyobé, who was killed by French forces in 1958.  

With his haunting yet soothing falsetto voice Blick Bassy calmly honours a man, whose name and legacy are rarely mentioned in [...]

If you are in any way familiar with Brazilian music, then you are bound to have heard of cult jazz-funk trio Azymuth. And if you know about Azymuth, then you will most likely also be familiar with the group's drummer extraordinaire and living musical legend Ivan "Mamão" Conti, who is meanwhile in his early seventies and still going strong. "Mamão was at the root of the group’s 'samba doido' (crazy samba) philosophy, which warped the traditional samba [...]

Remember MALOX? Well, it has been something like two years, since we last reported on the potent Israeli duo (now trio), composed of Eyal Talmudi (sax, clarinet, bag-pipes) and Roy Chen (drums) as well as latest band member Assaf Talmudi (keys). Back in 2016 Eyal and Roy released their album "Gaza Trip" and our ears are still ringing. 

One of the tracks on said album was a loony 8-bit synth composition entitled "Istanbul", which was created by cleverly sampling [...]