Around the World - Preview
1 November 2024
This week
Music from: Afghanistan, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Georgia, Italy, Kurdistan, Libya, Morocco, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Portugal, Romania, Senegal, Shetland, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, and USA.
Music By: Ali Doğan Gönültaş, Amaka Jaji, Amy Laurenson, Asleep At The Wheel, Ayom, Aysanabee, BabelNova Orchestra, Buzz' Ayaz, Carmen Souza, Driss El Maloumi, Elaha Soroor Al MacSween & Sonita Alizadeh, Fanfare Ciocărlia, Flo, Fränder, Ganna, Hysterrae, La Bottine Souriante, Maatakitj, Mauro Durante & Justin Adams, Orchestra Baobab, Otherish, Pankisi Ensemble, Queralt Lahoz, Seckou Keita, Steve Forbert, Thandiswa, and Tondini.
Featured Album
The featured album is new from Ayom which is called Sa.Li.Va. I saw them play WOMEX in 2022 in Lisbon filling the room with great vibes and much dancing. And this is such a good album. From Brazil, Angola, Italy and Greece with Brazilian singer and percussionist Jabu Morales they play music from the lusophone regions of Latin America, Africa, and the Mediterranean.
Their music that stretches across the Atlantic from from Brazil to Angola and in the middle of the ocean the Portuguese speaking Cape Verde is included.
They say their sound is a mix of Brazilian, Tropical, Afrolatin, and Afrolusitan but also influenced by the cosmopolitan energies of Lisbon and Barcelona, where the group’s musicians have made their homes. In fact they were formed in Barcelona with the aim of composing new music that fuses Brazilian rhythms with rhythms from all over the world.
Their new album called Sa.Li.Va. I think that’ll be my Christmas party album for this year.
AYOM - EU ME QUERO MAIS (feat. Juliana Linhares)
The name, Ayom, refers to the “Lord of Music'' that, in Afro-Brazilian mythology (Candomblè), exists in the tambor and taught humans to play music and sing. Blending century-old traditions with the black and rhythmical language of Lusophone cultures, Ayom provides a hot-stepping and spiritual voyage across the African diaspora. [Ayom.com]
WOMEX 2024
It’s the first of the new series of Around the World. I’m back from holiday and from WOMEX – the World Music Expo held this year in Manchester – and eager to bring you the best in roots, rock, traditional, electronic, and other global sounds.
One of the great bands from West Africa is Senegal’s Orkestra Baobob. They are into at least their second generation having formed in 1970. I guess some of the members I saw play last week were in the original line up – and what treat it was to see such a legendary band.
Photo by Rob Crawford
Since February I’ve been playing Buzz ‘Ayaz music. First the singles and now the album, and while I was off, I have seen them play live twice. The first time was on a wet night in Ljubljana on 2 October and last week in (a surprisingly not wet) Manchester at the celebration of World Music that is WOMEX.
Buzz' Ayaz - Efdji (official video)
Monsieur Doumani founder, Antonis Antoniou's new project manifests a fuzzy urban soundscape of synth textures, dubby electronics, ‘70s psych organ, growling reed utterances, big beats and microtonal Anatolian melodic spices, serving up fresh Eastern-Mediterranean psychedelia.
Buzz' Ayaz primarily draws clear inspiration from 70s psychedelia and decidedly influenced by 90's pioneer American band Morphine as well as Turkish Anatolian experimentalists Baba Zula, among others. The result is a simultaneously menacing and sparkling trance-like dream state of sound.
The band’s four musicians—all activists in their own right—hail from both sides of the divided capital of Cyprus, Nicosia, and their sound reflects a mosaic of cultures, traditions, and the island’s turbulent political reality.
Buzz' Ayaz has just released their long-awaited debut album on the iconic Glitterbeat Records. [WOMEX website]
And last week, I had a couple of conversations with Antonis Antoniou who created the band – such a gentleman – I’ll be starting the show with one of their songs.
Throughout the show this week I’ll be reflecting on some of my personal highlights from Manchester – the performances, the people I met, the music I heard.
A former featured album is Tidet by Amaka Jaji. In the Tamahaq language Tidet means Truth. Tamahaq is a Tuareg language spoken in Algeria, western Libya and northern Niger.
AMAKA - AMIDI (Official Music Video)
Jaji grew up in Ghat, an oasis town in the south of Libya and although his father was a Sufi sheikh (a spiritual guide and teacher) it wasn;t until Jaji moved relatively recently to Tunisia that he began to develop an appreciation of the culture he left behind.
And that appreciation and interest in the further development of Tuareg music. “Tuareg music stopped developing and moving in the ‘90s. We’re stuck with the old style and our bands make very similar music.” he told Okay Africa. “The whole world knows about digital sounds, synths and 808s. Why isn’t there anyone who takes rhythms from South Libya and makes them international and accessible to all of humanity?” he continued. “My vision is to take Tuareg and Sufi music and make it popular and understandable, so those who don’t know what I'm saying can still enjoy it, because music is a feeling.”
You can find that on Bloc C records (Facebook).
A lot of this week is given over to talking about and playing musicians who were at WOMEX – the World Music Expo in Manchester last week – the 30th annual expo. Many of the bands I knew and some I had seen before And I had played music by many here on Around the World, but some were completely new to me and some very surprising and unexpected.
In that category was the Catalan singer Kieral Lahoz (Queralt Lahoz) who blends traditional Flamenco and Hip Hop, poetry and performance.
Queralt Lahoz - En Otro Lugar
Her family is from Southern Spain – hence the Flamenco learned from her grandmother – while as she was growing up, her mother was playing Hendrix and the Doors. Leading to a really interesting mix of styles. Her influences range from traditional Spanish Flamenco singers to Spanish rappers to the Wu Tang Clan.
In 2023, she was one of seven winners of the Music Moves Europe Award for emerging artists.
I had never heard of her – she played with a three piece band and was really entertaining.
One of the most impressive musicians I saw play at WOMEX - the World Music Expo – was Ukrainian musician Ganna (Gryniva). She is Berlin based and travels through Ukraine and the Carpathians to seek out truly old folk songs. She told the audience that during the communist times in Ukraine there was a sort of invented “folk” music which was superimposed on the culture of the region and you have to look even deeper to find the true music of the peoples who have lived there for centuries.
But it’s not a usual folk music performance. She’s an electronic musician who takes the music – loopes her singing in to a one woman polyphonic presentation along with sounds of the original singers, the countryside. It was an incredible one woman show. She has a new single – it’s called Mermaids.
There’s more about WOMEX 2024 on Around the World. There is a preview of the show on Mixcloud (see above) and you can hear it broadcast here:
Where and when to listen.
Friday:
Akaroa World Radio 2:00 pm local New Zealand Time (3:00 am GMT 4:00 am CET)
NAR-GROUP Germany – 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m (CET)
Mosel Radio – 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m (CET)
NAR-Alf – 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m (CET)
Saturday:
RCFM (Radio City FM) Duisburg, Germany 3:00 – 5:00 pm CET
World FM 10:00 pm local New Zealand Time (11:00 am GMT, 12:00 noon CET)
Essential Radio Midnight to 2:00 am GMT (1:00 am CET)
Sunday:
West Coast FM Namibia 10:00 pm to 12:00 noon Central Africa Time (2:00 to 4:00 GMT)
NFRS Osaka Japan: 12:00 noon local time (3:00 am UK time 4:00 am CET)
973FM in Singapore and 11:00 pm local time (3:00 pm/15:00 hours UTC – Universal Time).
Slice Audio 10:00 pm local time (11:00 pm CET)
Armagh City Radio 10:00 pm local time (11:00 pm CET)
Monday:
SparkFlame Radio: 00:00 am GMT (01:00 CET)
Waterwaves Radio: 8:00 pm GMT (21:00 CET)
KNC Radio St Lucia 6:00 am local time (10:00 am GMT 11:00 am CET)
BR2 Pure Gold Radio – Costa Blanca, Spain 10:00 pm local time (CET)
Akaroa World Radio 10:00 pm local New Zealand Time (11:00 am GMT, 12:00 noon CET)
World FM 10:00 pm local New Zealand Time (11:00 am GMT, 12:00 noon CET)
Wednesday:
World FM 4:00 am local New Zealand Time (5:00 pm Tuesday GMT, 6:00 pm CET)
Life Right Radio (London) 7:00 pm
Slice Audio 4:00 am local time GMT (5:00 am CET)
Radio Skye (Radio Garden) 10:00 pm GMT (11:00 pm CET)
Stirling Community Radio 10:00 pm GMT (11:00 pm CET)