Ahmad Al Khatib & Youssef Hbeisch Sabil

Sabil is the work of two Palestinian men who studied music at the Edward Said Conservatory in Jerusalem, players who have incorporated influences from far outside their Middle Eastern home turf. Yet it is also music guided by the deep influences of traditional Arabic song, with more than a nod, in Ahmad Al Khatib’s case, to the work of Iraqi oud playing shaman Jamil Bashir. Youssef Hbeisch, the percussionist here, has slurped up Latin rhythms from Cuba and North American jazz, but, again, without it replacing the music of his home. Between them, they have resumes to slobber over: film soundtrack work, festival slots from Antwerp to Essaouira, Bahia, Brazil to Sweden, stacks of recordings, instructional books, as well as teaching gigs. This playful, open-ended, modal oud/percussion workout honors improvisation as well as tradition, without wearing any particular genre stamp... Bruce Miller listens to this unique recording. Join him.

Attwenger an interview

Michael Stone caught up with the Austrian duo Attwenger at the 2012 South by Southwest music conference in Austin, Texas. He spoke with Markus Binder, the singer, drummer, and multi-instrumentalist, about their second U.S. visit, their latest CD, Flux as well as folk, punk and obscure dialects. "People see what we do from different points of view."

Maria Kalaniemi & Timo Alakotila Åkerö

"I keep thinking that the mixing of pianos and accordions just shouldn't work. Both instruments can play so many simultaneous notes, that it's just too easy for the sound to get all muddy. So when I heard about this new recording, I approached it with some trepidation," writes Greg Harness in his review of the new recording by the Finnish accordion and piano duo of Maria Kalaniemi & Timo Alakotila.

Mariem Hassan El Aaiún Egdat

Mariem Hassan is from a family of Western Saharan nomads, the Saharawi, and her music draws from the poetry and intense repetitive drones of the desert. In fact, her last LP, Shouka, dug deep into guitar-driven sand dune stomps that dispensed with much of the western additives and gave the best of the current crop of “desert rock” bands a run for their collective money... But then it’s never been Hassan’s plan to produce typical Saharawi guitar music, much less make the same record twice. On El Aaiún Egdat, she co-composes the tunes, and her lyrics often deal with the issues of Western Saharan autonomy, praise of the Arab Spring or occasionally, lost love and the loneliness that comes with it. Bruce Miller explores the changing landscape of her music.

On RootsWorld Radio #9 we'll listen to new music and old from Spain, Mali, Western Sahara, Madagascar, Italy, Japan and more. The ensemble SANS offer a live performance from Kaustinen, Finland that features a hybrid Malagasy/Finnish zither introduced by Andrew Cronshaw. Artists on the program will include Eliseo Parra, Mariem Hassan, Amadou and Mariem, Martha Mavroidi Trio, Emel Mathlouthi, Boot, Ricardo Tesi & Banditaliana, Malagache Connexion, Banda Olifante, Slavic Soul Party, Kohichi Makigauri and Bois Sec Ardion. May 5 rcfm.es (Saturday and Sunday, 5 AM eastern time) taintradio.org (Saturday, 8 AM eastern time) All times and more info at www.RootsWorld.org Get all the radio news on the RWRadio web site

Sauti Sol audio interview

Sauti Sol are a young band from Nairobi with big hopes and big ideas. They recently visited Austin, Texas to showcase their decidely pop sound for the American audience, and Michael Stone caught up with them to chat about the future of their music in Kenya and beyond. Here is their conversation for RootsWorld Radio.

Gurdjieff Folk Instrument Ensemble The Music of Gurdjieff

What a curious journey the music on Levon Eskenian's Gurdjieff Folk Instruments Ensemble's The Music of Georges I. Gurdjieff has taken. It began as the folkloric music Georges I. Gurdjieff heard in his travels through the near and middle east, was filtered through Gurdjieff's ear to his collaborator/student Thomas de Hartmann, and finally was re-arranged for traditional Armenian instruments by Levon Eskenian, whose ensemble perform on this ECM release. Gurdjieff, known for his mystical philosophy and syncretic religious views, placed a high value on music and was a talented musician/composer himself. As he travelled through his native Armenia, as well as many other parts of the middle east and central Asia, he collected folk instruments and committed songs and dance tunes to his memory. Between 1917 and 1929, the Russian musician Thomas de Hartmann transcribed and co-arranged many of these pieces for piano. Since the early 20th century, these pieces have enjoyed a robust respect, albeit in a rather small circle... Erik Keilholtz explores the metamorphosis of folk music to art music.

Talabarte Talabarte

The thing that struck me first about this trio from Galicia in northwest Spain is how big they sound. The CD cover shows three musicians, and I kept looking in the credits to see who else joined them. But there is no one else. Accordion, fiddle, and double bass are all they need to put forth a full sound. Most of these songs are traditional, but there are a handful of originals in the mix as well... Greg Harness explores the music of this new Galician band. Read and listen along.

The Touré-Raichel Collective The Tel Aviv Session

Israeli jazz pianist Idan Raichel and Malian guitarist Vieux Farka Touré have more than enough credentials between them to assure an audience. But these kinds of collaborations often have a way of getting lost in the hype of family ties and homeland star status when they try to move out of their safe havens and into a bigger world. Like so many artistic anomalies, the execution rarely lives up to the potential. This is not the case with The Touré-Raichel Collective. The two artists seem to have a genuine affection for one another's music and musical personalities. In these mostly low-key and relaxed performances, joined by Israeli bassist Yossi Fine and Malian calabash player Souleymane Kane, the musicians play off the Malian traditions of Touré with simplicity and grace. The editor ponders the minimalism and maximalism of these Tel Aviv sessions.

Accordion Samurai Accordion Samurai Tref Dampf

The very idea of listening to a quintet of five accordionists may seem daunting to some but it isn’t a new concept. The model has been around for many years. But Acccordion Samurai - Riccardo Tesi from Italy, Markku Lepistö from Finland, David Munelly from Ireland , Bruno Le Tron from France, and Didier Laloy from Belgium - have different cultural backgrounds forces them to find common ground while being bold and inventive in their approach...     Laloy and Le Tron are also part of a quartet called Tref, the other two members being Wim Claeys of the highly acclaimed Ambrozijn (also on diatonic accordion) and Fred Malempré (drums, percussion). If Accordion Samurai had been released on vinyl Dampfcould easily serve as the album’s flip side... Paul-Emile Comeau explores one small corner of the trans-European diatonic accordion scene.

To What Strange Place The Music of the Ottoman-American Diaspora

Experimental musician, record collector and ethnic music autodidact Ian Nagoski curates what is easily his most thorough, penetrating and fascinating collection yet with the 3-disc set, To What Strange Place: The Music of the Ottoman-American Diaspora . The music here, mostly recorded in NYC by an evolving diaspora fleeing genocide and war of the 20 Century's 2nd decade, and played live in downtown cafes and homes, is an astonishing assortment of Greek, Turkish, Armenian and Syrian traditional music... Bruce Miller takes you to that strange place.

Joropo Music 2 CDs from Colombia

In the savannas south of the Andes, joropo or música llanera, the energetic string-band music of the cattle-ranch uplands of the Orinoco River, spread west from Venezuela into Colombia with the advent of commercial recording after World War II. Rooted in the Spanish colonial era, the sound is characterized by a variety of acoustic guitars and guitar-like instruments (bandola, bandolín, bandolón, cuatro), harp, violin, bass, maracas and other native percussion, and the region’s distinctive high-pitched nasal vocal style. Joropo in Colombia has been overshadowed by the popularity of accordion-based vallenato music, and Venezuela’s claiming the genre as a national style. Read Michael Stone's review and listen to a special RootsWorld Radio report

Thanasis Papakonstantinou The Minimal Self

"The minimal self, the crazy dancer, the ark of the movements, the pathfinder of Vega. The more disobedient of the two ghosts; the one that is the ego's omega. He saw the first day that the sun rose – where all the mysteries started from – so it has become profane and inarticulate and an incurable wind that shakes the teeth." So writes Greek composer and musician Thanasis Papakonstantinou about his 2011 recording O Elahistos Eaftos (The Minimal Self). Nondas Kitsos reveals the inner workings of this complex new recording.

Tcheka Dor de Mar

Cape Verdean singer Tcheka's scowling face is only partly visible behind the accusing index finger he thrusts forth on the cover of his latest release, Dor de Mar. Open the CD cover, however, and there he is again, grinning and leaning back... Tcheka (born Manuel Lopes Andrade) is part of his country's acoustic guitar-plucking male singer/songwriter contingent that also includes Boy Ge Mendes and Teofilo Chantre, and over the course of four albums he's captured that uniquely Cape Verdean sense of lilting melancholy that ties the island nation to its Portuguese colonial roots and, more subtly, the rhythms of the African mainland. Tom Orr shows you more of Tcheka's vision.

Blink Blink

The Nordic Master is a program formed by the folk music academies of Finland, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. For those who follow Nordic folk music, the faculty names will all resonate: Maria Kalaniemi, Harald Haugaard, Olov Johansson, and Steinar Ofsdal to name a few. Blink is one of the recent student projects to come out of the program. The ensemble members represent all four Nordic Master countries plus Estonia. With a well-chosen set of traditional tunes and well-crafted originals, this recording demonstrates a blend of all-around musical skill and good taste, and shows why national folk music academies are valuable to all of us. There’s plenty of traditional music here, and often it’s difficult to tell where the traditional music ends and the original material begins. Greg Harness takes you on the musical tour.

Svøbsk an interview

On a fine May evening, at a big outdoor venue at a Canadian music festival, a concert is in full swing with the Danish quartet, Svøbsk, one of the most popular bands on the Danish folk music scene. In the spotlight, down in front of the stage, singer and fiddler Jørgen Dickmeiss, and his wife, accordionist Maren Hallberg, are dancing. The whole audience look on attentively. The dance is a Sønderhoning, to a beautiful, slightly melancholy tune from the little Danish island of Fanø, off the west coast of Jutland. The music floats from the mouth organ Dickmeiss is deftly playing as he dances... Morten Alfred Høirup talks with the Danish folk duo.

Ragnhild Furebotten Never On A Sunday Habadekuk Hopsadaddy

While using brass instruments in folk music is certainly not a new concept, with a long tradition in prerecorded times as well as in various revivals (for example, Brass Monkey), the concept has enjoyed a renaissance in recent years, in no small measure due to the success of adventurous young bands like England's Bellowhead. And the trend is taking root in Nordic regions these days, as exemplified by two recordings from Norway and Denmark. Norwegian folk fiddler Ragnhild Furebotten has gathered together a brass symposium of 6 horn players (tuba, saxophones, trombonium, trumpets and flugelhorn) and created something that is unique among the many folk-brass recordings out there. In Denmark, Habadeduk take a more 'pop' approach to their folk-horn fusion, with a full rhythm section, guitars, accordion and fiddle rounding out the brass band sound. Cliff Furnald hears a blast of Nordic winds. Read and listen.

Mauro Durante an interview

"Pizzica can transcend linguistic and temporal borders," says the leader of Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino, the Salentine ensemble that spearheaded a revival of pizzica tarantata, an ancient folk music born in the southernmost part of Italy's Puglia region. Tarantismo died out decades ago, but its music not only has survived but is thriving, both in Italy and on the international world music scene. George de Stefano talks with Mauro Durante about the position of the music of Salento in the 21st Century.

MORE ARTICLES AND REVIEWS

Review archive Maria Kalaniemi & Timo Alakotila, Finland Mariem Hassan, Western Sahara Pistolera, US The Brothers Goldman, US Gerard Edery, US The Musical Art Quintet, US Lila Downs, US To What Strange Place: Ottoman Music... Tinariwen, Mali John McCutcheon, US Sia Tolno, Guinea Vlada Tomova, Balkan/US Tareq Abboushi & Shusmo, Palestine/US Andrew Cronshaw, UK Salaam, US Najma Akhtar and Gary Lucas Fiolministeriet, Denmark Sevara Nazarkhan, Uzbek

Interview archive Attwenger Svøbsk Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino Just a Band Geoff Berner Juan de Marcos González Steve Riley Väsen Makana Ellis Deolinda Frode Haltli and Trygve Seim Tab Benoit Caroline Herring, Claire Holley and Kate Campbell Annbjørg Lien

Audio Specials AcquAria Sacha Silva Ian Blake, Tigran Aleksanyan, Sanna Kurki-Suonio and Andrew Cronshaw Three Metre Day Habbadám