Agôra

Sometimes things do not go as planned. We were actually going to send you off into the weekend with a brand-new instalment of Jean Trouillet's far-reaching Globalwize format. However, we encountered some licensing restrictions on Mixcloud and could not upload the show. Instead, here's a recent 7" release on Philophon by label head Max Weissenfeldt's Berlin-based outfit The Polyversal Souls. 

The band had dropped its dynamic debut album "Invisible Joy" back in [...]

News these days has pretty much everyone going mental, that is if your soul has not been robbed of its capacity to feel any sort of empathy. Music With Soul mastermind, tropical innovator and one-man-band Alex Figueira (Conjunto Papa Upa, Lola's Dice, Fumaça Preta, Vintage Voudou) was not spared the psychophysical effects of a looming Armageddon, and in 2022, after two years of pandemania, found himself down to his last penny and on the verge of losing [...]

Released at the tail end of 2020 was the remarkable self-titled, afro-futurist debut album by French electronic producer Rrobin and Brazzaville's afro-feminist collective Les Mamans du Congo, led by the charismatic chanteuse and percussionist Gladys Samba. The nine-track longplayer absolutely blew our minds and remains one of our personal favourite examples of transcultural collaboration done well. Combining 'age-old Bantu lullabies performed on common [...]

It was a long train ride home after an even longer night of merrymaking back in 2016. I had recently downloaded the digital version of KUF's debut album "Gold" to my notebook and decided to give it a spin. Moments later, headphones on, I was overwhelmed by this novel, vocal-led, highly emotive wall of sound. Mind racing, dopamine flowing, tears streaming down my cheeks, something had struck a nerve and the pioneering Berlin trio had made a new fan. Fast forward [...]

Spring has sprung in the Northern Hemisphere and that solar energy we've been missing for the past months is slowly making its return. Accompanying the equinox is the debut album by French duo Ireke. Having honed their individual talents in various roles and outfits, the two multi-instrumentalists and arrangers Damien Tesson and Julien Gervaix first crossed paths in a group called Playtime and eventually decided to join forces to explore common ground: "We [...]

If you were around in the mid-to-late 90s, early 00s and onward and caught a whiff of the downtempo stew brewing on the Austrian underground circuit – spearheaded by the globally acclaimed duo of Kruder & Dorfmeister – then the name URBS [of URBS'n'Chaoz and later URBS & Cutex fame] should ring a bell. Likewise, if 'headz' is a genre you can relate to, you will be as excited as we were to hear that the veteran Austrian producer and musician is back with a [...]

As we sit here on International Women's Day, peacefully sipping on a glass of 'çay', we can't help but realise that the fight for equal rights and women's rights in particular may seem universal, even though it's an entirely different one depending on the country you're living in and the traditional power structures you are bound to. Freedom and equality to this extent are relative. While here in Germany the most prominent current buzzwords on this nationwide [...]

It's been pretty much three years on the dot, since we did a short but enthusiastic write-up on Marseille-based multi-instrumentalist, DJ, singer/songwriter, producer and Zimpala (if you know, then you know) co-founder David Walters' tribute to worldwide Creole culture, fittingly titled "Soleil Kréyol" and produced by musical mastermind Bruno "Patchworks" Hovart. Last Friday, he returned to French imprint Heavenly Sweetness with a brand-new LP that we dare say [...]

As we zoom in on contemporary sounds from West Africa this week, following Jean Trouillet's Globalwize 'Mali Special', we bring you the recently released longplayer of Lisbon-based multi-instrumentalist and singer Kimi Djabaté. Hailing from Guinea-Bissau, Djabaté is not just a gifted guitarist and percussionist, but also a balafón (African xylophone) virtuoso, who has collaborated with the likes of Mory Kanté, Waldemar Bastos, Netos de Gumbé and, most [...]

Following our Altercat Argentine jazz double-header in January, we complete this month's Akuphone 'sounds from here and yonder' double-header with the enigmatic, cabalistic duo Ak'chamel and their latest sophomore feat titled "A Mournful Kingdom of Sand". Hailing from "a border state", this mysterious joint venture describes itself as "fourth world post-colonial cultural cannibalists circumcising the foreskin of enlightenment," which sounds about as ominous as [...]

The concept of 'land' is an abstract one, which is glaringly obvious in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It should not come as a surprise then, that the opening track of Jerusalem-based improvisational trio Leviot's spellbinding debut full-length "Sharav" on Akuphone is titled just that. But regional claims and territorial disputes are not at all what this release is concerned with. Leviot (Hebrew for 'lionesses') is a novel project conceived by [...]

Humming Sun Ra's "Door of The Cosmos", we direct our attention to Paris-based Venezuelan trio Insólito UniVerso and their brand-new sophomore full-length on Olindo Records. "Ese Puerto Existe" ('that port exists') is the follow-up to the group's fascinating 2018 debut "La Candela del Río" and sees them continuing to explore the possibilities of Venezuelan music with dreamlike ease. Heralded by an EP last September containing the title track and another tune [...]