Folk / Roots
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Following the 2016 release of "Ethiopian hit parade vol.1", Francis Falceto, founder of the Ethiopian series and Heavenly Sweetness continue their work of reissuing the Ethiopian hit parade series on vinyl. These are very rare vinyls, published at the time in only 300 or 400 copies. After releasing about fifty singles and his first LP (Ethiopian Modern Instrumental Hits AELP 10), the late Amha Eshèté, who passed away this year, undertook in 1972 to collect his best productions released on singles in a series of albums that have become mythical (and unobtainable in original). The first four volumes of Ethiopian Hit Parade were released in September and October 1972, and the fifth in January 1973. The one you have in your hands is volume 2. 1. GETACHEW KASSA "Tezeta (slow+fast)" This double version of "Tezeta", by its success and the controversy it fuelled between outraged conservatives and the young pop guard, stands as a symbol of pre-revolutionary Ethiopia - light music trend. Its fast part is very representative of the upheaval in Ethiopian society: Gétatchèw Kassa gives a version that is totally contrary to tradition, but so much in the tone adopted by the young Ethiopian anti-conformists of 1972. This "Tezeta" was, moreover, Ethiopia's biggest recording success - around 5,000 copies, whereas the big hits had a ceiling of 2 or 3,000 copies, and the small hits a few hundred. 2.MULATU ASTATKE "Munayé” In the Ethiopian musical landscape, Mulatu Astatqé is a personality totally apart, atypical, unique in his genre. Musician, arranger, composer, innovator, mover and shaker, his true uniqueness certainly lies in his action for instrumental music, which is not an Ethiopian tradition. This title "Munayé" is in fact the title that opens the album "Ethiopian modern instrumental hits". He is joined on piano by Girma Bèyènè, Testa Maryam Kidané on tenor sax and Andrew Wilson on guitar, Ivo on bass, Tesfayé "hodo" Mékonnen and Girma Zémaryam on drums, and the strings are undoubtedly those of the Police String Orchestra. 3. TESHOME METEKU "Yezemed yebaed" & "Mote adeladayou" Tèshomè Meteku was something of a meteor. Brother of saxophonist Téwodros Meteku, he recorded only four songs, four exceptional jewels, before leaving for Sweden to continue his studies. He is surely one of the voices that best matched Mulatu Astatqé's arrangements. 4. ABAYNEH DEDJENE "Balendjèrié 5 & 7. ALEMAYEHU ESHETE "Alteleyeshigneme" & "Temhert bété" Along with Mahmoud and Tlahoun Gèssèssè, Alèmayèhu Eshèté is one of the most prolific singers in the Ethiopian discography. A leading vocalist with the Police Orchestra since 1960, he was one of the first artists to leave the institution to join the young guard of independent orchestras, such as the Soul Ekos, or the Alem-Girma band which he founded with the pianist and arranger Girma Bèyènè. Often referred to as James Brown or the Ethiopian Elvis for his looks and stage presence, as well as for his music, Alèmayèhu has long symbolised modernist Ethiopia, enamoured of Rhythm and Blues and Soul music, without abandoning the roots that are so unique to the thousand-year-old Abyssinian nation. 6. MENELIK WOSSENACHEW "Belew bedubaye » 9. ESSATU TESSEMMA and SEYFU YOHANNES "Fikir bekumena » Like Tlahoun Gèssèssè and Abaynèh Dèdjèné, Essatu Tessemma was also a singer attached to the Imperial Body Guard Band, until the 1974 revolution. A native of Soddo Wélayta, he died in the mid-1990s. Unfortunately, Sèyfou Yohannes has left us very few traces (only 6 tracks recorded on vinyl). Born in 1946, he died in the early 1970s before reaching his thirties. A pioneer among independent singers, Sèyfou Yohannes sang in particular with The Soul Ekos, a model of the non-institutional band, very open to Afro-American music and produced by Amha Eshèté. 10. MULUKEN MELESSE "Enbayén terègiw" A precocious phenomenon, Muluqèn Mèlèssè was 13 years old when he began his singing career in 1966. Like many vocalists of his time, he started out in the various police bands before singing with the first non-institutional groups or those formed by club owners. This singer will be the subject of the next volume (31) in the Ethiopian series.
In Osni the Flare, the second chapter of Tristan Allen's mythic trilogy, the composer, producer, and puppeteer follows a mortal’s transformation into deity through the discovery of fire. Recorded over four years using wordless vocals, organs, ocarinas, an arsenal of toy instruments, and intricate sound design, Osni the Flare unfolds the origins of flame and temporality across four acts. Weaving a creation myth that shifts between beauty, shadow, and wistful embers, Allen provides a portal to meticulously crafted, emotionally potent sound and story that echo through a fantastical realm.
At the end of June 2025, the Krakow-based label Instant Classic will release the album "Bura" by Raphael Rogiński and the group Ružičniak Tajni, which includes Serbian artists: Svetlana Spajić, Marina Džukljev and Tijana Golubović. The album also features guest appearances by Piotr Zabrodzki (LXMP, Mitch & Mitch) and Mila Gavrilovič. Ružičniak Tajni is a unique meeting of Polish and Serbian musical traditions, the result of cooperation between artists seeking new forms of expression based on the cultural heritage of Central and Eastern Europe. The initiator of the project is Raphael Rogiński - a Polish guitarist, composer and researcher, known for his experimental approach to traditional music and his love of improvisation. In the project, he is accompanied by three outstanding Serbian artists whose work is a conscious combination of local traditions and modern expression: Svetlana Spajić – a renowned ethnomusicologist and singer, specializing in old vocal techniques and archaic song forms. Her interpretations combine authenticity of message with sensitivity to the contemporary context. Marina Džukljev – a pianist moving in the area of improvised and experimental music, known for deconstructing harmonic and rhythmic structures. Tijana Golubović – a violinist and vocalist, drawing from folk performance practice, while simultaneously exploring new sonic narratives. Their collaboration resulted in the album “Bura”, recorded in Serbia in November 2024. The title refers to the characteristic wind from the northern Balkans, symbolizing both the forces of nature and the cultural tensions shaping the identity of the region. The album is a musical encounter of traditional Serbian songs – reconstructed on the basis of oral traditions and archival materials – with modern means of expression. Another key element are Raphael Rogiński’s original compositions, inspired by Sufi poetry, which was translated into Serbian in the 19th century. The sound layer of the project is based on the dynamic interaction of voice, stringed instruments and piano. Spajić brings the depth of archaic vocal techniques, Golubović combines the violin idiom with the vocal one, Džukljev creates complex harmonic structures, and Rogiński transforms the guitar tradition, enriching it with microtonality and modality. The Ružičniak Tajni concert tour will take place in May and June 2025, covering five Serbian cities. The inaugural concert is scheduled for May 16 in Belgrade. The project was created with the support of the Polish Institute in Belgrade. The concert tour is carried out in cooperation with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the cultural programme accompanying the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2025.
At the end of June 2025, the Krakow-based label Instant Classic will release the album "Bura" by Raphael Rogiński and the group Ružičniak Tajni, which includes Serbian artists: Svetlana Spajić, Marina Džukljev and Tijana Golubović. The album also features guest appearances by Piotr Zabrodzki (LXMP, Mitch & Mitch) and Mila Gavrilovič. Ružičniak Tajni is a unique meeting of Polish and Serbian musical traditions, the result of cooperation between artists seeking new forms of expression based on the cultural heritage of Central and Eastern Europe. The initiator of the project is Raphael Rogiński - a Polish guitarist, composer and researcher, known for his experimental approach to traditional music and his love of improvisation. In the project, he is accompanied by three outstanding Serbian artists whose work is a conscious combination of local traditions and modern expression: Svetlana Spajić – a renowned ethnomusicologist and singer, specializing in old vocal techniques and archaic song forms. Her interpretations combine authenticity of message with sensitivity to the contemporary context. Marina Džukljev – a pianist moving in the area of improvised and experimental music, known for deconstructing harmonic and rhythmic structures. Tijana Golubović – a violinist and vocalist, drawing from folk performance practice, while simultaneously exploring new sonic narratives. Their collaboration resulted in the album “Bura”, recorded in Serbia in November 2024. The title refers to the characteristic wind from the northern Balkans, symbolizing both the forces of nature and the cultural tensions shaping the identity of the region. The album is a musical encounter of traditional Serbian songs – reconstructed on the basis of oral traditions and archival materials – with modern means of expression. Another key element are Raphael Rogiński’s original compositions, inspired by Sufi poetry, which was translated into Serbian in the 19th century. The sound layer of the project is based on the dynamic interaction of voice, stringed instruments and piano. Spajić brings the depth of archaic vocal techniques, Golubović combines the violin idiom with the vocal one, Džukljev creates complex harmonic structures, and Rogiński transforms the guitar tradition, enriching it with microtonality and modality. The Ružičniak Tajni concert tour will take place in May and June 2025, covering five Serbian cities. The inaugural concert is scheduled for May 16 in Belgrade. The project was created with the support of the Polish Institute in Belgrade. The concert tour is carried out in cooperation with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the cultural programme accompanying the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2025.
맑은 소리의 모음집입니다. 이번 앨범은 소리가 많이 작습니다. 볼륨을 키워서 들어주세요-! 감사합니다. This album is very quiet. Please turn up the volume-! Thank you.
Natalie Wildgoose's new work, Rural Hours, recorded deep in the Yorkshire Dales with Chris Brain and Owen Spafford. In a space without heating or electricity, piano and folk ensemble blend with the sounds of the fire and wind, quietly depicting the land's memories and losses.
This is the legendary Byron Lee and his Dragonaires carrying the flag of Jamaican Ska and Calypso! First released in 1964 on Kentone label this fine album sees the so called Jamaica's no1 band offering their special mixture of caribbean flavoured sounds. The album consists of a string of hits enhanced by a bunch of Kingston's Top Ska Singers such as Stranger & Patsy, Eric "Monty" Morris, The Charmers, Keith & Ken, The Maytals, Roy And Yvonne.
Long out of print, few copies spotted of this late 70's dreamy folk album...Veronique Chalot was born in Normandy in the north of France, but it was in Paris that she first became interested in traditional French folk music. In 1974 she landed in Rome where she soon earned a small, but dedicated following. England may have its Jacqui McShee (Pentangle), but France and Italy have its Veronique Chalot. For the past three decades Veronique has dedicated herself to playing, recording and researching medieval, renaissance, and early folk music from France and Italy, helping to save these musical forms from total obscurity. A l'entree du temps clair, released in 1982 on the small Italian Materiali Sonori label, was recorded while Veronique was living and researching in Italy. Although it was only her second studio album, Veronique's immense talent and sensitivity was already extremely evident. Here she sings and plays classical guitar (as well as the dulcimer and the hurdy-gurdy), backed by five Italian musicians playing a number of traditional instruments, including bouzouki, bagpipes, crumhorn, bendhir and bodhran, making this album of early French traditional music an enjoyable discovery even nearly three decades after its release.
The legendary singer Salif Keita makes a grand return with So Kono, an acoustic and deeply intimate album. Salif Keita, "the golden voice of Africa," reveals himself for the first time in a stripped-down acoustic format, reconnecting with his roots and his guitar, his long-time companion instrument. The idea of an acoustic album had long been dismissed by the artist himself. "I’m not a guitarist; I use the guitar to compose," he used to say, reluctant to expose this level of vulnerability. However, in 2023, during the Kyotophonie Festival in Japan, organized by photographer Lucille Reyboz and encouraged by producer Laurent Bizot (Nø Førmat!), something changed. Surrounded by the spirituality of a Zen temple and supported by his loyal musicians – Badié Tounkara on ngoni and Mamadou Koné on percussion – Salif agreed to bare himself like never before. The title So Kono, meaning “in the room” in Mandinka, reflects both the simplicity and depth of this album. Recorded in the intimacy of his hotel room in Kyoto, 'So Kono' captures the very essence of Salif Keita: a powerful voice, shaped by trials and travels, elevated by minimalist arrangements. Blending reimagined classics and new compositions, this album resonates as a sincere and timeless work, reaffirming why Salif Keita is considered one of the greatest living singers, across all cultures and continents.
2025 repress. "Out-of-print LPs from the critically acclaimed electronic experimental singer/songwriter. Unavailable since 2012.'This sound / synapse transposition is as haunting as it is beautiful -- surely Grouper's best.' --Tiny Mix Tapes. 'If past Grouper releases have inhabited abyssal trenches and damp backwoods, here Harris takes us journeying across constellations and stars. Two of the most beguiling albums of the year, exquisitely realized and singularly evocative.' --The Quietus. 'This music feels both spacey and expansive and also oddly intimate and grounded, the work of someone who has mastered her tools and knows how to get the most out of them.' --Pitchfork. 'Harris finds a way to dive deeper in simple and unassuming ways.' --NPR."
She's back with yet another masterpiece album, overflowing with emotions, musical ideas and mysterious atmospheres. With Halo, Juana Molina picks up where she left off with her previous acclaimed album Wed 21, and shows once more that she really is "on an evolutionary journey of her own devising" (Pitchfork), which has brought the "eerie, hypnotic" music on each of her albums "to increasingly haunting heights (Spin).
Halo is Juana Molina's seventh album, it contains twelve songs and was recorded in her home studio outside of Buenos Aires, and at Sonic Ranch Studio in Texas, with contributions by Odin Schwartz & Diego Lopez de Arcaute (who have both been playing live with Juana for a number of years), and Eduardo Bergallo (who has taken part in the mixing of her previous albums), with Deerhoof's John Dieterich making a guest appearance in a couple of tracks.
1975 Mekeel Sessions is a mini‑album that brings together the long‑lost, previously unreleased recordings Jackson C. Frank made in 1975 — a set of sessions long regarded as his ‘lost’ work.
JACKSON C. FRANK is the highly regarded debut and the only official album he ever released, produced by friend and fellow musician PAUL SIMON in England and released on Columbia Records in 1965. Jackson has been called the most famous folk singer of 1960s that no one has ever heard of and his influence was felt more in England, where his album was a hit, rather than in the U.S., where his record was a commercial failure at the time of its release. His most famous song “Blues Run The Game” has been covered by scores of musicians including Simon and Garfunkel, Counting Crows, Colin Meloy, Bert Jansch, Laura Marling, and Robin Pecknold, while Nick Drake also recorded it privately.
Intensely expressive free-verse vocal laments over sliding violins, hammered santouri, guitar, and oud - the hybrid sounds of the Mediterranean in the early 20th century. “Aman Aman” cry the singers on these recordings, their voices preserved on 78rpm discs cut between 1911-1935. The phrase roughly translates to “mercy,” a call of despair, but also one of joy and admiration. On many of these sides, that full range of emotion is transmitted at once. Some of these artists are legends, others lost to time. Nearly half are female vocalists, a big part of the Cafe Aman tradition but not as well represented on contemporary releases. All were affected by conflicts leading up to the Asia Minor Catastrophe of 1923, and the forced migrations between Greece and Turkey before and since. Their work reflects these journeys - devastating poems about losing love and losing home, backed by some of the best musicians of the era. Deeply researched over several years, we hear the precise, sensitive, and overwhelmingly powerful vocals of artists like Antonis ‘Dalgas’ Diamantidis, Sofrouniou, and Stellakis Perpiniadis, alongside revelatory recordings by largely unknown musicians whose work is shared here for the first time. Carefully remastered and restored by Jordan McLeod at Osiris Studio, the LP includes detailed historical and discographical notes by Stavros Kourousis, and poetic lyric translations by Tony Klein. Pressed on highest quality vinyl at Smashed Plastic in Chicago and co-released with the great Olvido Records.
After decades spent shaping the sound of southern Madagascar, Damily returns with Fanjiry, his most intimate and focused record to date. A key figure in tsapiky as a guitarist and composer, and a driving force behind a genre he helped define, Damily has long expressed himself through the voices of the singers accompanying his bands. With Fanjiry, he takes a singular step forward: for the first time, he carries his compositions himself through singing — not by claiming the role of a singer, but as a natural extension of his playing and personal storytelling. Known for igniting village ceremonies and carrying the fever of Toliara far beyond Madagascar’s shores, he makes a shift here — not away from trance, but deeper into its core. Recorded and mixed in just three days at Studio Black Box with analog sound engineer Peter Deimel, Fanjiry reduces tsapiky to its essence: a single guitar and a single heartbeat. Damily plays alone, yet fills the entire space — bass, rhythm, melody, breath and pulse merging into a dense, vibrating and constantly moving sound. Each riff becomes architecture, each harmonic opens a door onto memory, childhood landscapes, and those nights when music heals, connects, and pushes back the dark. Free of nostalgia and frozen folklore, Fanjiry unfolds as an intimate territory where tsapiky naturally converges with memories of village life in the 1980s — the Pecto, Radio Mozambique, East African 7-inch records, Malagasy national hits — alongside possession rituals and the practices of local healers. Added to this is a second life lived far from Madagascar, which has allowed Damily to explore the depths of his guitar more freely, pushing his sound further, beyond constraints. Raw and precise, suspended between earth and sky, the album is born from gesture and necessity. Its title — the last star visible before dawn — captures that fragile moment when a single guitar can hold an entire world and still move forward. With Fanjiry, Damily does not step back — he opens the horizon. A solitary record reaching toward others, where intimacy becomes universal and the dance begins again, softly, before sunrise.
After decades spent shaping the sound of southern Madagascar, Damily returns with Fanjiry, his most intimate and focused record to date. A key figure in tsapiky as a guitarist and composer, and a driving force behind a genre he helped define, Damily has long expressed himself through the voices of the singers accompanying his bands. With Fanjiry, he takes a singular step forward: for the first time, he carries his compositions himself through singing — not by claiming the role of a singer, but as a natural extension of his playing and personal storytelling. Known for igniting village ceremonies and carrying the fever of Toliara far beyond Madagascar’s shores, he makes a shift here — not away from trance, but deeper into its core. Recorded and mixed in just three days at Studio Black Box with analog sound engineer Peter Deimel, Fanjiry reduces tsapiky to its essence: a single guitar and a single heartbeat. Damily plays alone, yet fills the entire space — bass, rhythm, melody, breath and pulse merging into a dense, vibrating and constantly moving sound. Each riff becomes architecture, each harmonic opens a door onto memory, childhood landscapes, and those nights when music heals, connects, and pushes back the dark. Free of nostalgia and frozen folklore, Fanjiry unfolds as an intimate territory where tsapiky naturally converges with memories of village life in the 1980s — the Pecto, Radio Mozambique, East African 7-inch records, Malagasy national hits — alongside possession rituals and the practices of local healers. Added to this is a second life lived far from Madagascar, which has allowed Damily to explore the depths of his guitar more freely, pushing his sound further, beyond constraints. Raw and precise, suspended between earth and sky, the album is born from gesture and necessity. Its title — the last star visible before dawn — captures that fragile moment when a single guitar can hold an entire world and still move forward. With Fanjiry, Damily does not step back — he opens the horizon. A solitary record reaching toward others, where intimacy becomes universal and the dance begins again, softly, before sunrise.
Black Truffle is thrilled to present the first ever solo Donso n’goni recording from octogenarian Swedish multi-instrumentalist Christer Bothén. Active in the Swedish jazz and improvisation scene since the 1970s, often heard on bass clarinet, Bothén travelled to Mali in 1971, eventually making his way to the Wassoulou region in the country’s south where he encountered the Donso n’goni, the sacred harp of the hunter caste of Wassoulou society. Though playing the instrument has traditionally been restricted to those who belong to the hunters’ brotherhood, Bothén found an enthusiastic teacher in Brouema Dobia, who, after many months of intensive one-on-one lessons, gave Bothén his blessing to play the instrument both traditionally and in his own style. Returning to Sweden, he would go on to pass on what he had learned to Don Cherry and play the Donso n’goni in a wide variety of inventive settings, including the driving Afro-jazz-fusion of his Trancedance (reissued as BT118).
The seven pieces of Christer Bothén Donso n’goni offer up a stunning showcase of Bothén’s work on this remarkable instrument, heard entirely unaccompanied, except for the final piece where he is joined on a second Donso n’goni by his student and collaborator, the virtuoso bassist Kansan/Torbjorn Zetterberg, and Marianne N’Lemvo Linden on the metal Karanjang scraper. Produced by Johan Berthling (of Fire! & Ghosted) and recorded in three sessions in Stockholm between 2019 and 2023 in richly detailed high fidelity, the instrument’s buzzing, sonorous bass strings make an immediate, overwhelming sonic impression. Hyper-focused on hypnotically repeating pentatonic patterns, the seven pieces are at once relentlessly single-minded and endlessly rich in subtle variations. The concentrated listening environment turns small details, such as the deployment of the instrument’s segesege rattle on two of the pieces, into major events. Six of the seven pieces are traditional, with Bothén contributing the remaining ‘La Baraka’, but the line between tradition and the individual talent is imaginary here: as Bothén explained in a recent interview with The Wire’s Clive Bell, ‘I play traditional and untraditional, and I play the music forward and backward’. While the traditional Wassoulou pieces provide the rhythmic and harmonic elements, Bothén’s individuality as a performer is alive in every moment, felt acutely in boundless variations of attack, improvisational flourishes, and unexpected accelerations and decelerations. Captured entirely live and bristling with spontaneity, this music is undeniably the product of almost half a decade of Bothén’s devotion to the Donso n’goni and its traditional music.
Accompanied by detailed new liner notes by Bothén and stunning colour photos from his time in Mali, Christer Bothén Donso n’goni is a stunning document of a remarkable instrument, played with an almost spiritual intensity by one of contemporary music’s great explorers.