World / Traditional / India

The second part in a collection of stunning Persian-tuned piano pieces, cut from Iranian national radio broadcasts made for the Golha programmes between 1956 & 1965. Morteza Mahjubi (1900-1965) was a Iranian pianist & composer who developed a unique tuning system for the piano which enabled the instrument to be played in all the different modes and dastgahs of traditional Persian art music. Known as Piano-ye Sonnati, this technique allowed Mahjubi to express the unique ornamental and monophonic nature of Persian classical music on this western instrument - mimicking the tar, setar & santur and extracting sounds from the piano which are still unprecedented to this day. An active performer and composer from a young age, Mahjubi made his most notable mark as key contributor and soloist for the Golha (Flowers of Persian Song and Poetry) radio programmes. These seminal broadcasts platformed an encyclopaedic wealth of traditional Persian classical music and poetry on Iranian national radio between 1956 until the revolution in 1979. Presented here is a collection of Morteza Mahjubi's stunningly virtuosic improvised pieces broadcast on Golha between the programme's inception until Mahjubi's death in 1965 - mostly solo, though at times peppered with tombak, violin & some segments of poetry & song. The vast collection of Golha radio programmes was put together thanks to the incredible work of Jane Lewisohn & the Golha Project as part of the British Library's Endangered Archives programme, comprising 1,578 radio programs consisting of approximately 847 hours of broadcasts.

From the late 1950s onwards a music scene developed around Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh, inspired by the prevalence of imported rock & pop records arriving in the country from US & UK and also chanson and bolero records from France & Latin America. This collection documents some of these early home-grown slow rock, pop & rnb 45 recordings from the early 60s, prior to the further embrace of US psych & garage rock-orientated sounds in the mid 60s and into the Vietnam war era.

Two songs from the 1988 work "Iran" in "Narcotic", which was released on CD only in 1997 by the now-deceased British master Muslimgauze, who has repeatedly attacked Arabic / dub through day and night music. An edited version of the work is now available from the well-established prestigious , which represents the Dutch experimental music world! A radical and refreshing mix of elements such as tribal, ambient, glitch, and fill record. Non-standard trance music that mixes consistent tribal beats, distortion, unique textured noise, and minimal jam with darbuca and tambourine to create an enigmatic, euphoric and eerie sound with exotic madness. .. Limited to 500 copies.Narcotic is perhaps one example of an album in both camps of the muslimgauze spectrum, it denotes the expertise acquired in oriental percussion by Bryn Jones after a crescent development and practice through action, part Tribal, part Ambient with shades of texturized noise, glitch details and field recordings, as result the listener is inside this intoxicant atmosphere of exotic madness, where the basic musical premise constituted by the consistent tribal beats from darbukas and tambourines contrasting radically with the eerie sounds from organic noise, distortions and minimal jams.

Prog Rock & Obscure Groove from Indonesia...! Djauhar Zaharsjah Fachruddin Roesli (1951-2004) was a singer-songwriter from Bandung, Indonesia, who played rock and blues in his early years, dreamed of becoming a writer like his grandfather, the famous writer Marah Roesli, and left behind many unpublished poems, and even wrote acoustic protest songs inspired by Bob Dylan. Djauhar Zaharsjah Fachruddin Roesli (1951-2004), a singer-songwriter from Bandung, Indonesia, who even wrote acoustic protest songs inspired by Bob Dylan. This is a miraculous reissue of a 1976 cassette album by Harry Roesli, the legendary rock band he led!

After releasing an album with the band, he studied at the Jakarta Art Educational Institute and went on to the Rotterdam Conservatory in the Netherlands. After returning to Indonesia, he started an avant-garde project that mixed the sounds of Xenakis, Cage, and Stockhausen with the poetry of Indonesian writer Yudhistira ANM Masardi. The group's activities have been multifaceted, including international performances in collaboration with such luminaries as novelist Putu Wijaya and filmmaker/actor Nano Riantiarno. With nearly 20 performers, the album is a miraculous blend of progressive rock, psychedelic rock, funk, and other sounds with Indonesia's unique grooves, using not only traditional Indonesian instruments such as gamelan and choir, but also western instruments such as synthesizer and guitar. It's a miraculous balance of progressive rock, psychedelic rock, funk, and unique Indonesian grooves!

Sublime Frequencies finally unleashes it’s ESSENTIAL compilation from 1970’s Egypt. Modal instrumental tracks from Baligh Hamdi - one of the most important Arabic composers of the 20th Century (writing for legends Umm Kalthum, Abdel Halim Hafez, Sabah, Warda, and many others). Features his legendary group the “Diamond Orchestra” with Omar Khorshid on guitar, Magdi al-Husseini on organ, Samir Sourour on saxophone, and Faruq Salama on accordion. All of these musicians were discovered and recruited by Hamdi to interpret his vision of a modernized, hybrid Arabic music. Under Hamdi’s direction, this orchestra charted a new melodic direction and created a new musical language. This compilation is culled from a specific era of Hamdi’s long career, a decade where he fully realized an international music which incorporated beat driven Eastern tinged jazz, theremin draped orchestral noir, tracks that feature searing guitar solos from none other than Omar Khorshid, and a selection of buzzing, sitar driven, Indo-Arabic tracks establishing a meeting of mid-east and eastern psychedelic exotica, and a vision that created some of the hippest music coming out of the Middle East from the late 1960’s and throughout the 1970’s.

A beautiful album celebrating Hawaii’s warmth and spirit. Enterprising composer and musician Eddie Suzuki made his own path throughout his lifetime. Born on October 4, 1929, Suzuki worked as a young shoeshiner in 1940s Honolulu, saving enough money to take piano lessons. In high school, he led a big band orchestra of 16, and sometimes up to 40 members. By the age of 18, he owned a piano shop that pivoted to become Honolulu’s top guitar store. For Eddie Suzuki, music always came first. In 1973, after performing and composing songs for many years, Eddie Suzuki and his group, New Hawaii, recorded the now impossibly rare album, High Tide. The LP isn’t a rock-outfit, local music journalist Wayne Harada ruminated in a 1973 review. Rather, it’s one man’s vision and version of the now Hawaii. A seasoned mix of psych, Hawaiian, and pop sensibilities, the music on High Tide gave the listener a look into Eddie’s singular vision celebrating the sights and sounds (and spirit) of Hawaii.

Fatiado Discos and Psico BR Discos present a reissue of Solange Borges's Bom Dia Universo, originally released in 1984. Solange Borges is a singer, composer, and instrumentalist, born May 1st, 1954, in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais state, Brazil. Member of the family of musicians "Borges", Solange started playing guitar and piano and got to know the poetic universe with her brothers Marilton, Márcio and Lô Borges. The Borges family was an essential landmark for developing music and including other musician friends in the sixties that would initiate the so-called "Clube da Esquina" movement, that would represent several musicians and records. With figures such as Milton Nascimento, Toninho Horta, Wagner Tiso, Lô Borges, Beto Guedes, and Márcio Borges, Clube da Esquina's sound is intensely characterized as innovative. As a characteristic of this innovative sound, there is, for example, a kind of fusion of the innovations brought by bossa nova with elements of jazz, rock -- mainly the Beatles --, black folk music and Minas Gerais, classical music and Hispanic music. In the '70s, these artists became a quality reference in MPB for their high level of performance and spread their innovations and influence worldwide. Solange Borges is the only female musician member of the collective group "Clube da Esquina" and participated in the album Os Borges in 1980, also in the album Via Láctea, by brother Lô Borges, singing the songs "Vento de Maio" and "Clube da Esquina 2", having released her first LP Bom Dia Universo in 1984. "Bom Dia Universo" is the opening track that names the album, a great sweet sunny song that inspires looking at the beauty of the universe, like portraited on the album cover. "Santa Teresa" song remembers the times when her whole family including other musicians' friends from "Clube da Esquina", shared their home in the iconic neighborhood of Santa Teresa in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais state, known as cultural landmark. "Águas de Rios", "Puim-í" and "Beija-Flor" are gems of Brazilian regional and psychedelic music, with beautiful hippie and nature themes, and harmonies that sound just as great as if you were listening to a female version of Clube da Esquina albums. Bom Dia Universo album songs also range from rock to progressive rock, were as Solange Borges group shows it´s instrumental and composition abilities of Nico, Telo and Yê Borges, Tito Andrade, Ronaldo Venturini, Fernando Moura, Marcelo Sarkis, Silvio Nélio and Gerdson Mourão, also responsible for music direction. Contains the original 1984 insert with lyrics plus photos from her personal archives.

Following the incredible (and successful) compilation Taiwan Disco, the master minds behind Aberrant Records present this delicious record. Subtitled Disco Divas, Funky Queens and Psych Ladies from Asia from the 70s to the Early 90s you don't have to take a wild guess to figure out what you'll find here, a treasure trove filled with exotic jewels from Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and South Korea, from Asian funk to psych-tinged awesomeness, disco madness and much more. Features Chailai & Sawanee, Chantana Kittiyapan, Lei Si Si, Ding Dai, Yasmin, Wong Foong Foong, XYZ, Fatimah Razak, Chen Qiong Mei, Sum Sum & Pan Pan, Grace Simon, and Hit Girls.

Africa, released by Liuto Records - the label founded in 1970 by Piero Umiliani and his wife Stefania - belongs to the canon of library music produced in Italy across the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, which encountered many of the country’s most talented composers employed within the film industry, where they were offered unparalleled creative freedom to experiment and produce radical and forward-thinking sounds. A long-standing holy grail for collectors of visionary Italian music, Africa emerged under Umiliani’s moniker M. Zalla, the pseudonym he used when tidying up uncompromising and avant-garde music textures. It was years ahead of its time upon release in 1972, encountering the maestro locked within the walls of his Sound Work Shop Studio, weaving complex narratives and sonic collisions, while incorporating dozens of influences from a life spent experimenting and discovering new sounds. Launching from the prog-tinged rhythms of “Africa To-Day”, the album immediately shifts toward radical waters with the glacially paced pulsing rhythms and abstract electronics of “Echos” and “Sortilege”, the rippling minimalism of Savana, and the ‘fourth world’ temperaments “Green Dawn”, but still refuses to be nailed down. Across the two sides, experimentation drives the sound, as the hypnotic drumming and bass lines of “Rhythmical Stress” break through, opening space for the flute driven works, Sadness”, “Folk Tune”, and “Mysterious, “ as much as diving, percussive and tonally rich works that make up the majority of the second side. If ever there was an LP to expand the notions of Library music’s vast potential and scope, M. Zalla’s Africa has to be it. Nearly 50 years on, it feels as fresh and forward thinking as anything that has come since. A true masterpiece of the genre, that stands with best of any other idiom of experimental music, it’s impossible to recommend enough. The album comes remastered from the original analogue master tapes, and housed in a sleeve that faithfully reproduces the original cover design and also include a obi-strip,

Musician and composer Sahba Sizdahkhani serves as a unique crossroad of East meets West. Influenced heavily by both 1960’s spiritual free-jazz and Persian Classical Music, he channels the fire-energy and longing for connectivity these two stormy histories represent. At age 12, his self-proclaimed “aha moment” occurred while listening to The John Coltrane Quartet for the very first time. He was hooked and immediately began studies on jazz drum set and classical snare drum. As the years passed, however, his ferocious love of jazz and improvisation would open pathways and pointers to his native roots of Persian Classical Music, and eventually, he would begin formal studies on the Iranian santur with master santur player Faraz Minooei. Sahba has completed two separate Bachelor of Arts degrees: one at Berklee College of Music, in Jazz performance, and the other at The University of Maryland, in Art History & Archeology. He worked in Paris for several years in textile design but ultimately moved back to New York city to further pursue jazz drumming. He has composed film scores for Chelsea Winstanley (JoJo Rabbit), Whalerock Industries, maverick avant filmmaker Paul Clipson, as well as a live score performance for the Cinema 16 series in the legendary tunnel underneath the Manhattan Bridge. Additionally, Sahba has recently recorded with Michael Morley(Dead C) and currently has running musical collaborations with Derek Monypeny, Rob Magill, and Zachary James Watkins + Ross Peacock. He has shared live bills with a vastly diverse class of artists including Laraaji, C spencer Yeh, Susan Alcorn, Henry Kaiser, Rova Saxophone Quartet, Sunwatchers, Wizard Apprentice, Talibam!, Plankton Wat, Peter Brötzmann, and Don Dietrich (Barbetomagus). He has performed at The White House, Park Avenue Armory, Kennedy Center for the Arts, Basilica Hudson’s 24 Hour Drone Festival, WFMU live performance, “Fire Over Heaven” at Outpost Artist Resources, The Embassy of France, VOA studios, and Garden of Memory Festival at The Chapel of the Chimes. Sahba’s hazy, atmospheric solo performances with 104-string santour and drums have been described as “a dispatch from antiquity.” And WIRE magazine recently stated “Sahba Sizdahkhani starts playing [his] instrument as if he's pleading for his life. His playing is breathtaking. . .” This particular work, “GANJ,” which translates to “treasure” in Farsi, documents the magical first meeting between a musician and a new instrument. It is the first ever raw, unrefined recording of Sahba on solo santur as opposed to drum set. It was recorded in solitude during the Winter Solstice of 2019 without any prior training or study whatsoever on the mystical 102-stringed trapezoid dulcimer. The consequent emphasis due to lack of any technical skill, was pure sonics, overtones, resonances, and an homage to minimalist composers such as Terry Riley, La Monte Young, and early Miles Davis. Days after completing this work, Sahba rushed to seek out formal studies of the Persian Classical Radif with his current teacher, Faraz Minooei.

It was recorded before coming to the United States by Indian classical vocalist Pandit Pran Nath (1918-1996) who had a great influence on the art world such as minimal music-Fluxus such as La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Henry Flynt etc. , 1968 The recording work Ragas Of Morning & Night (released from Gramavision in 1986) in India is finally officially reissued from the label of his direct disciple La Monte Young!

On the A side, the morning Raga Raga Todi, which is full of vitality suitable for awakening, is recorded, and on the B side, the night Raga Raga Darbari, which is swept away by the rhythm of a loose tabla, is recorded. At that time, there is an anecdote that Mr. and Mrs. Lamonte listened to the recording of Pandit Pran Nath around 1968 and fell in love with the voice and passed the seal, but when you see that this sound source was recorded in the same year, it was probably recommended by them in 1986. It was probably released by Gramavision in the year. A masterpiece of pure and crystallized meditative Kirana guarana from Ustad Abdul Wahid Khan (Pandit Pran Nath's master).

“The land of Kanada, Gopal Nayak, the romance of the Mughal courts, Mian Tansen, classicism,
blue notes, imagination, an ancient virtuosic performance tradition handed down for centuries
from guru to disciple, Ustad Abdul Wahid Khan, lifetimes of devotion – all of these together
and more make up Pandit Pran Nath ’s Darbari, a masterpiece, a gift to our time. ”

–La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela

55 Historical Recordings Of Traditional Music From Greenland 1905-1987 features historical recordings of traditional Greenlandic music recorded between 1905 (by the British ethnologist William Thalbitzer) to 1987 and collected by the Danish ethnomusicologist Michael Hauser. It was published in Greenland by Ulo. Sub Rosa took the decision to enlarge the distribution of this tribute to traditions and roots of the Inuit culture. This is more than an hour of ultra-rare documents, the testimony of a century of Inuit recordings. As a guide through this abundant material, included is a 24-page booklet with notes, comments and photos. Voices recorded in Greenland almost hundred years ago on wax glader cylinders, a lost shamanic story, a duel-song, a mournful melody and a unique collection of drum dance and songs. Hope, happiness and mournings - all of humanity is right here.

When Rey Sapienz was eight years old, the Democratic Republic of Congo was plunged into the Second Congo War. The conflict lasted five years and was the bloodiest since World War II, leaving an indelible mark on East Africa and creating mass displacement and loss of life. But Sapienz endured, cutting his teeth as a young rapper at twelve, first performing to celebrate Congo's independence day. When he finished school, he headed to nearby Kampala to hone his craft and collaborate with local producers. But civil war broke out back home and he was forced to extend his stay in Uganda. Since then, Sapienz has established himself as a force to be reckoned with, co-founding the Hakuna Kulala label, teaching his Ableton Live skills to Kampala's young producers and releasing two acclaimed EPs. 

For his debut album, Sapienz embarks on an ambitious project that travels beyond the avant beatscapes of his early material. Alongside traditional percussionist, vocalist and dancer Papalas Palata and rapper Fresh Dougis, he has formed The Congo Techno Ensemble, utilizing their skills and experience to offer a statement that speaks to the past, present and future of the DRC. On "Na Zala Zala", the trio channel rich musical traditions and historic tension, evolving electronic and traditional forms into boundless sci-fi mutations. 

These tracks break open the stories all three artists accumulated in the DRC, augmenting radioactive techno-dancehall beats with radical, open-hearted words and rhymes. "I'm sick, I want to heal," Fresh Doughis raps on "Posa Na Bika" over a sparse, minimal syncopated beat. The track sits in a dream space, with haunting vocal loops dancing around Doughis' powerful Lingalan words. "I have become stupid, I have become useless, listening to everyone's advice." 

Elsewhere on the clattering 'Dancehall Pigme', Sapienz's metallic beats burn underneath Papalas' rousing chants. "I'm here trying to survive," he mourns. "What do I do to get what I deserve." The songs paint a tragic picture, yet reveal the hope and passion of three creative minds recounting difficult truths. 

"Na Zala Zala" is a heady cocktail of stylistic futurism and harsh reality that could be compared with Zazou Bikaye's seminal "Noir et Blanc or Denis Mpunga & Paul K.'s genre-breaking electronic experiments. But marked by the DRC's recent scars, it's a critical work that stands painfully alone.

Les Filles de Illighadad comes from the village of Illighadad in a remote region of central Niger. Like many of the villages in the area, its borders are loosely defined, owing to the largely pastoral population. It rests on the shore of a seasonal pond that swells during the rainy season. The center of town has a well, some small houses, and a school. But most of Illighadad’s people live in the surrounding scrubland desert, in tiny patched roof houses or temporary nomadic tents, hidden among the trees. 

Les Filles de Illighadad (“daughters of Illighadad”) was founded in 2016 by solo guitarist Fatou Seidi Ghali and renowned vocalist Alamnou Akrouni. In 2017 they were joined by Amaria Hamadalher, a force on the Agadez guitar scene, and Abdoulaye Madassane, rhythm guitarist and a son of Illighadad. Les Filles’ music draws from two distinct styles of regional sound, ancient village choral chants and desert guitar. The result is a groundbreaking new direction for Tuareg folk music and a sound that resonates far outside of their village. 

To emerge from this small village to perform on stages around the world is no small feat, and is a testament to the band’s unique sound. But their home is more than their narrative. Illighadad is central to everything about the band, from their repertoire, the way they perform, the poetry they recite, even the way they sing. Music has always traveled in the Sahel, from poetry recited by nomads, scratchy AM radio broadcasts, to cell phone recordings sent over WhatsApp. Yet even today each village has its own style. When Les Filles perform, they play the music of Illighadad. 

At the heart of Les Filles’ music is the percussion and poetry of tende—a term used for both the instrument and the type of music— whereby a mortar and pestle are transformed into a drum, and women join together in a circle, in a chorus of singing, chanting, and clapping. Sometimes it’s music for celebration, sometimes it’s music to heal the sick, sometimes it’s poetry of love. But it’s always music of people, where the line between performer and spectator breaks down. To be a witness is to be a participant, to listen is to join in the collective song. 
It’s precisely this collectivism that makes the recording “At Pioneer Works” seem so natural and timeless. Recorded in the Fall of 2019, “At Pioneer Works” finds the band at the height of their touring career. Over two sold-out shows, the band brought Illighadad to New York, their first performance in the city. Speaking of the night, The New Yorker's music critic Amanda Petrusich writes: “The crowd in Brooklyn was entranced, nearly reverent. Les Filles’ music is mesmeric, almost prayer-like, which can leave an audience agog... whatever rhythm does to a human body—it was happening.” 

There’s something bittersweet that it’s the sound of Illighadad that has propelled Les Filles’ to travel so far and so often. Playing on a stage 5000 miles from home, their performance evokes the village with a heavy ever-present nostalgia. In singing the songs of Illighadad, Les Filles’ invite the audience to share in the remembrance, to hear the poetry and driving tende, to stumble out into a night lit by a faint moon, joining in chants that carry over the nomad camps, in a call to come together and sing under the stars.

This double CD set was originally released in honor of Pandit Pran Nath’s 84th birthday, November 3, 2002, and is the first recording of his singing on the Just Dreams label. CD 1 features a 1971 recording of a live performance of Raga Malkauns that was one of his most intense and powerful, although technically not so well recorded. CD 2 presents a 1976 studio performance of the same raga and the same compositions that is both well recorded and extremely masterful. Together in one release, the two performances provide a rare opportunity to study, compare and enjoy the range and expressiveness of this great raga and the breadth of musicianship evidenced by the renderings of Pandit Pran Nath.

These 28 tracks, 72 minutes in total, cover a wide range of musical styles and eras, from the 60s to the present, urban to rural, primarily by Thai vocalists and musicians, with contributions from Japan and the Philippines. 60s-America-style pop by Suri Yamuhi and the Babylon Band as well as contemporary EDM, trap and hip hop sounds are all present, but the core of this soundtrack are luk thung and molam classics from the 70s and 80s by Angkhanang Khunchai, On-uma Singsiri, Dao Bandon, Khwanta Fasawang and “The Countryside is Great” by Rungphet Laemsing, a pivotal song in the film. All tracks are complete versions, some incorporating dialogue from the film. This CD-only OST features English lyrics, and liner notes by the film’s directors Katsuya Tomita and Toranosuke Aizawa, plus Iwao Yamazaki, Young-G and MMM of the Kuzok team, and Soi 48. This is the first soundtrack release by EM Records. 

TRACKS: 

01. Pai Tuktuk Dwai - DJ Pai Dwai 
02. Pai Massage Dwai - Young-G (stillichimiya/ Omiyuki CHANNEL) 
03. The Smell of Money - Suri Yamuhi & The Babylon Band 
04. You've Left Me Alone - Suri Yamuhi & The Babylon Band 
05. Porra - XXXSSS Tokyo 
06. Only Som Tam - On-uma Singsiri 
07. The Countryside is Great - Rungphet Laemsing 
08. Isan Radio 
09. Bong Ja Bong (Pipe, oh Pipe!) - Dao Bandon 
10. Burn! Burn! Burn! ~ Surfin' Dien Bien Phu - Suri Yamuhi & The Babylon Band 
11. I Will Buy You Back - Bar Nong Khai Band 
12. Samet Love - DJ Pai Dwai 
13. That Goddam Motorsai - Khwanta Fasawang 
14. The Stench of Night – from Chit Phumisak's poem - Surachai Jantimathawn 
15. Saramanda - DJ Pai Dwai 
16. Tamarind Leaf (molam) - Angkhanang Khunchai 
17. Bahn Swairon - Khun Narin's Electric Phin Band 
18. Khaen Whistle Reprise (JRP Tondo mix) - DJ Kensei feat. Tondo Tribe 
19. Vang Vieng Bank (Change Yen to Lao) OST mix - DJ Kensei 
20. Xieng Khouang's Daughter - Thong Boonma (lam), Le Boonma (khaen) 
21. Get Em - XLII 
22. Paun's House - Suri Yamuhi & The Babylon Band 
23. Xanadu - Young-G (stillichimiya/ Omiyuki CHANNEL) 
24. Kanom Party - Young-G (stillichimiya/ Omiyuki CHANNEL) 
25. The Song of an Angel - Suri Yamuhi & The Babylon Band 
26. Ying's Story - Subenja Pongkon 
27. Isan Lam Phloen - Angkhanang Khunchai & The Ubon Phatthana Band 
28. Full Moon (Atsani Phonlachan) - Yuzo Toyoda, Takeshi Yamamura 

Includes color insert. Sub Rosa present a reissue of volume one (Mindanoo Mistiru) and two (Gold From Wax) of Ethiopian Urban And Tribal Music, both originally released as two distinct LPs on Lyrichord in 1972. Mindanoo Mistiru and Gold From Wax were recorded by Ragnar Johnson. Ethiopia contains many diverse peoples and many styles of music. It was still an empire in July and August of 1971 when these recordings were made. Over 70 languages and 200 dialects are spoken in Ethiopia. In much of the music, lyrics are more important than instrumentation, and the transmission is oral. The urban musicians, the bagana, and Mary Armeede, were recorded in Addis Ababa. Ethiopian urban musicians come from many parts of the country and are familiar with, and adapt to, styles of regions other than their own. The Afar divination chants and flutes were recorded in the Danakil desert. The Anuak toum and Nuer harp, lament and dance were recorded near the Sudan border. The Konso dance and the Gidole Fila flute dance were recorded near the Kenya border. Mindanoo Mistiru means "What is the Unknown?". Gold From Wax refers to the two layers of meaning in Amharic poetry. File under: Le Coeur du Monde.

An unknown duo who started singing as a duo in their mid-teens, they recorded more than 600 songs over 29 years, starting with , , , , and nowadays. Honest Jon's is a compilation album of the incredible love songs of the 1960s by Gonzalo Benitez and Luis Alberto Valencia, who have also left their work on labels such as Caife, which also has a compilation to unravel the fascinating catalog. > Arrived from. A work that fully packages their unknown music that is intensely beautiful and desolate, supported by exquisitely romantic harmony and heart-pounding guitar play!

Umsakazo Records is proud to present the first in a series of limited-edition replica 45rpm records. This collection of ‘seven singles’ has been carefully curated from key holy-grail recordings made during the golden age of South African township jive. It is fitting that the first in this series comes from the band so closely identified with the genesis of the style – the Makgona Tsohle Band, the hardest working session team in apartheid-era South Africa. Under the guidance of talent scout and producer Rupert Bopape, the Makgona Tsohle Band (“The Band That Can Do Anything”) would underpin literally hundreds of recording sessions as the house band of Gallo Africa’s Mavuthela Music subsidiary from its launch in 1964 right through to 1977. This included all of the hit records made by Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens, as well as classic hits from the Mthunzini Girls, Irene Mawela, Abafana baseQhudeni, Lemmy ‘Special’ Mabaso, Reggie Msomi, Sipho Bhengu, Teaspoon Ndelu and so many more artists essential to the sound of urban jive music. The Mavuthela operation formed the core of Gallo’s ‘black music’ production and, by the mid-1970s, accounted for as much as 20% of the organisation’s total income. Mavuthela’s market dominance was usually attributed to the resourcefulness of director Bopape, along with the well-oiled machine that was Gallo Africa. True enough, Mavuthela releases were of a high musical and technical quality and were always well publicised, be it through Gallo’s promotions department or the countless stage performances made by Mavuthela artists in South Africa and neighbouring countries. But the Makgona Tsohle Band was the real secret to Mavuthela’s success. Its repertoire stretched from traditional sax and accordion jive right through to disco and ‘English pop’, and this 45rpm sees them effortlessly tackling the burgeoning 1970s Soweto soul-jazz sound. Ironically, the musical influence behind this recording was almost certainly Michael Xaba, the seasoned African jazz veteran who had scornfully referred to the newer strains of jive in the late 1950s as ‘mbaqanga’. As the Makgona Tsohle began making history as the country’s first all-electric ensemble, that epithet would resurface and was eventually ‘reclaimed’ as a term of endearment for the music they had largely created. By the 1970s, Xaba and a number of other longstanding jazzmen found themselves employed by Mavuthela as musical directors, under the initiative of Bopape who was not particularly musically inclined himself. The Makgona Tsohle Band members consequently gained a rich musical education and were fully equipped to move into arranging and producing roles when Bopape retired in 1977. Issued only once on a 45rpm single in 1972 - and restored from the original master in Gallo’s Johannesburg tape vault - “Take Your Time” and “Marabi Blues” both offer new insight into the diverse catalogue of this greatest of all mbaqanga bands.

A collection of stunning Persian-tuned piano pieces cut from Iranian national radio broadcasts made for the Golha programmes between 1956 & 1965...

Morteza Mahjubi (1900-1965) was a Iranian pianist & composer who developed a unique tuning system for the piano which enabled the instrument to be played in all the different modes and dastgahs of traditional Persian art music. Known as Piano-ye Sonnati, this technique allowed Mahjubi to express the unique ornamental and monophonic nature of Persian classical music on this western instrument - mimicking the tar, setar & santur and extracting sounds from the piano which are still unprecedented to this day.

An active performer and composer from a young age, Mahjubi made his most notable mark as key contributor and soloist for the Golha (Flowers of Persian Song and Poetry) radio programmes. These seminal broadcasts platformed an encyclopaedic wealth of traditional Persian classical music and poetry on Iranian national radio between 1956 until the revolution in 1979.

Presented here is a collection of Morteza Mahjubi's stunningly virtuosic improvised pieces broadcast on Golha between the programme's inception until Mahjubi's death in 1965 - mostly solo, though at times peppered with tombak, violin & some segments of poetry.

The vast collection of Golha radio programmes was put together thanks to the incredible work of Jane Lewisohn & the Golha Project as part of the British Library's Endangered Archives programme, comprising 1,578 radio programs consisting of approximately 847 hours of broadcasts. 

From the late 1950s onwards a music scene developed around Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh, inspired by the prevalence of imported rock & pop records arriving in the country from US & UK and also chanson and bolero records from France & Latin America. This collection documents some of these early home-grown slow rock, pop & rnb 45 recordings from the early 60s, prior to the further embrace of US psych & garage rock-orientated sounds in the mid 60s and into the Vietnam war era.

“Absorb the pain and react smoothly… don’t become distracted by the white noise of possibilities… experience a flow-like state, even an Ultra Instinct” — Platinum Mike Perry The collection of instrumental piano-based pieces, Kirby says, is the outcome of “trying to accept the duality of the world, and through that find peace”. Though he recorded Conflict about a year ago, Kirby decided to spontaneously release it in response to the escalating global crisis, with the hope that it might help fortify the listener and induce inner calm.

From the late 1950s onwards a music scene developed around Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh, inspired by the prevalence of imported rock & pop records arriving in the country from US & UK and also chanson and bolero records from France & Latin America. This collection documents some of these early home-grown slow rock, pop & rnb 45 recordings from the early 60s, prior to the further embrace of US psych & garage rock-orientated sounds in the mid 60s and into the Vietnam war era.

'Khalik Hena' was recorded in 1973 by legendary Arabic Diva Warda who has been sampled by Jay Z and J Dilla. The album recorded in public mixes traditional Arabic music with a tinge of 70s grooves. Here Warda delivers a deep hypnotic performance backed by her full-size orchestra featuring those unparalleled Arabic strings that made recordings by Oum Khalthoum, Farid El Atrache and Abdel Halim Hafez so famous. 'Khalik Hena' is one of her all-time classics, written by equally legendary composer Baligh Hamdi and the audio has been newly remastered. This release features the LP original artwork with a 2 page insert featuring a new introduction by Mario Choueiry from Institut du Monde Arabe who curates Wewantsounds' Arabic series of reissues.