World Music

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THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE WORLD MUSIC QUESTIONNAIRE . . . Dayme Arocena

10 Nov 2017  |  1 min read

Singer, composer, arranger and bandleader, Daymé Arocena was recently dubbed by The Guardian as “Cuba’s finest vocalist”. The young Afro-Cuban artist, mentored by Gilles Petersen and winner of the prestigious Juno Award in 2015, has a rich understanding of her heritage but is also constantly finding new musical inspiration and connection through her love of... > Read more

Drama

THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE WORLD MUSIC QUESTIONNAIRE . . . Jamie MacDowell

10 Nov 2017  |  2 min read

One is good with his fingers, the other is good with his mouth. Beatbox sensation, Tom Thum – best known for the most watched TEDx talk of all time: Beatbox Brilliance – joins forces with bohemian singer-songwriter Jamie MacDowell to create original, genre-defying music that is "redefining musical parameters". Armed only with a guitar, and a versatile... > Read more

THE EVER- EXPANDING LINE-UP FOR WOMAD 2018: The world coming to Taranaki

18 Oct 2017  |  9 min read

With the teaser announcements out off the way (Dragon, Kamasi Washington and Anoushka Shankar) we now get down to the detail with a major list of other acts confirmed to play next year's Womad in New Plymouth (more details below). And with a fascinating mix of well-known internationals (Tinariwen ! Rodrigo Y Gabriela !!), acclaimed local artists (a coup to get Aldous Harding we would think)... > Read more

TWO WOMAD ACTS FOR 2018 ANNOUNCED

28 Sep 2017  |  1 min read

If the first anouncement of an act for next year's Womad festival in Taranaki was a bit undewhelming (Dragon) now it is starting to get serious with two major artists announced, Kamasi Washington and Anoushka Shankar. Both of these artists have appeared at Elsewhere and we have a big interview with jazz saxophonist/arranger and composer Kamasi Washington here and an archive one with... > Read more

ELSEWHERE WORLD SERVICE: A quick overview of recent world music releases

18 Sep 2017  |  2 min read

Here's a frequent flyer/transit lounge column for those at home who want to get their musical passport stamped. Elsewhere has so many CDs and downloads commanding and demanding attention that we run an occasional column which scoops up releases by international artists (IN BRIEF), in much the same way as our SHORT CUTS column picks out New Zealand artists. And of course Yasmin picks up... > Read more

Various Artists: Musical Explorers Series; Deben Bhattacharya, Krishna in Spring (ARC CD/DVD)

25 Aug 2017  |  <1 min read

The excellent archival reissue series of music and films by the late ethnomusicologist Deben Bhattacharya (1921 – 2001) continues with this, a CD of field recordings and a 25 minute film by Bhattacharya from '69. As a note attached observes, at time of the film in the commentary mentions 500 million Hindus in India, today there are about twice that number. The film in... > Read more

Kathak-Krishnalila

Various Artists: Musical Explorers; Deben Bhattacharya, Colours of Raga (ARC Music)

30 Jun 2017  |  1 min read

Elsewhere has previously introduced the excellent double CD set The Rough Guide to Indian Music which, on release in 2014, immediately went into our Essential Elsewhere albums list. For those more familiar with Indian classical and folk traditions, or now ready to take the next step after that Rough Guide, this CD/DVD curated by the founder of Songlines world music magazine Simon... > Read more

Bageshri

ELSEWHERE WORLD SERVICE: A quick overview of recent world music releases

15 May 2017  |  3 min read

Here's a frequent flyer/transit lounge column for those at home who want to get their musical passport stamped. Elsewhere has so many CDs and downloads commanding and demanding attention that we run an occasional column which scoops up releases by international artists (IN BRIEF), in much the same way as our SHORT CUTS column picks out New Zealand artists. And of course Yasmin picks up... > Read more

Alice Coltrane: Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda (Luaka Bop/Southbound)

5 May 2017  |  1 min read

Although well-known in jazz circles for albums such as A Monastic Trio, Ptah the El Daoud, Universal Consciousness and others under her own name on the Impulse label, the pianist-composer Alice Coltrane is perhaps more widely acknowledged as the wife of the legendary John Coltrane with whom she also recorded and performed in the two years before his death in ’67. Shattered by... > Read more

Om Shanti

Rakkatak: Small Pieces (rakkatak.com)

28 Apr 2017  |  1 min read

This core trio of tabla, bass and sitar (augmented in places with violin and vocals) began in Toronto as a solo project for tabla player Anita Katakkar who mixed live sounds with electronica. But it is now a fully-fledged performing and recording group inspired equally by Indian classical traditions and the possibilities of 21st century electric instruments and technology.... > Read more

Riffing on 9

ELSEWHERE WORLD SERVICE: A quick overview of recent world music releases

24 Apr 2017  |  3 min read

Here's a frequent flyer/transit lounge column for those at home who want to get their musical passport stamped. Elsewhere has so many CDs and downloads commanding and demanding attention that we run an occasional column which scoops up releases by international artists (IN BRIEF), in much the same way as our SHORT CUTS column picks out New Zealand artists. And of course Yasmin picks up... > Read more

Yasmine Hamdan: Al Jamilat (Crammed Discs/Southbound)

19 Apr 2017  |  <1 min read

Those who missed the excellent debut Ya Nass by this Lebanon-born singer-songwriter might have caught her as the bar singer in Jim Jarmusch's studied Only Lovers Left Alive movie. On this second album she again works the line between electronica, Arabic pop ballads, edgy and cinematic soundscapes and a smattering of indie rock (Steve Shelley among the guests). With her background... > Read more

Choubi

RECOMMENDED RECORD: Tamikrest: Kidal (Glitterbeat/Southbound)

4 Apr 2017  |  1 min read

From time to time Elsewhere will single out a recent release we recommend on vinyl, like this one . . . Where the first wave of Sahara blues/desert blues musicians who emerged over a decade ago – notably the bands Etran Finatawa and Tinariwen – seemed to have come to their distinctive sound on their own (elements of what we might describe as psychedelic blues and drone), the... > Read more

Ehad Wad Nadorhan/That Night

Aziza Brahim: Abba el Hamada (Glitterbeat/Southbound)

13 Mar 2017  |  2 min read  |  2

The final track on this moving album could not be more timely. It is Los Muros/The Walls and the lyrics in an English translation run in part, “Because of the exile caused by the walls I'm expressing my identity in the verses of this song. This wall that you've erected in a criminal way with interference and injustice is designed to segregate”. The irony is that because of... > Read more

Intifada

THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE WORLD MUSIC QUESTIONNAIRE: Camilo Lara of Mexrrissey

1 Mar 2017  |  3 min read

Back in 2002, Chuck Klosterman wrote an article in Spin magazine about a Smiths/Morrissey convention where tribute bands (These Charming Men among them, of course) played and people discussed Morrissey's lyrics at length. The odd thing about this convention – you can read the piece in Da Capo's Best Music Writing 2003 edited by The Simpson's Matt Groening – was that it... > Read more

Various Artists: Womad Australia and NZ 2017 Compilation (Cartell)

27 Feb 2017  |  <1 min read

Many people are so confident about having a good time at the annual Womad festival in Taranaki that they book for the following year immediately after the festival has ended. As with the Big Day Out and Laneway concepts, the mere existence of the Womad festival is larger than the acts on the bill. Not to say people aren't interested in the specifics, but with so many acts on the... > Read more

Papa Was a Rolling Stone, by the Hot 8 Brass Band

Srdjan Beronja and Various Artists: Sounds of the East (ARC Music)

25 Feb 2017  |  1 min read

This seductive album by Serbian composer/percussion player Beronja – with thorough and informative liner notes typical of the ARC label – follows his similarly conceived Sounds of Varanasi album of '15 which he programmed to include ambient sounds, field recordings and original compositions alongside traditional pieces. It really did evoke that holy city. This one has... > Read more

7/8 Oud and Tarabuk Time

Hanoi Masters: War is a Wound, Peace is a Scar (Glitterbeat/Southbound)

6 Feb 2017  |  2 min read

The history of Vietnam in the last half of the 20th century saw appalling division, wars and retributions. The “American war” was just a part of it. Prior to the American engagement there had been the colonial war against the French and then after the Americans left in '75 there were the terrible things which the victorious north inflicted on those in the south they... > Read more

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THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE WORLD MUSIC QUESTIONNAIRE: Oumou Sangare

30 Jan 2017  |  3 min read

One of the most powerful and expressive voices out of her homeland of Mali -- indeed, out of the African continent -- Oumou Sangare has been a longtime Elsewhere favourite . . . although we conceded when we reviewed her 2009 album Seya we were surprised we hadn't written about any of her previous releases. And we have them all!  She has won numerous world music awards and was signed... > Read more

Seya

THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE WORLD MUSIC QUESTIONNAIRE: Bebel Gilberto

23 Jan 2017  |  3 min read

Given her parentage – her father the famous composer/singer/guitarist Jaoa Gilberto and her mother the singer Miucha – it would have been harder for Brazilian bossa nova star Bebel Gilberto not to have become a singer. She started early enough – as you will see below – and even though her parents separated she spent time with them both as she was growing up.... > Read more

Aganju