Sometimes, a creation from the contemporary world conceals some of the greatest treasures of the human soul. Between millenary tradition anchored in a territory and globalised modernity, Burkina Hakili is a melting pot of humanity. Few albums contain so much cross-energy: the fibres of the same fabric from which the great Kady Diarra is made!

Sequana is the tenth album by Franco-Algerian singer-songwriter Souad Massi. If her music was previously coloured with folk and chaabi, the sound palette broadens here as far as the Sahel, the Caribbean and Brazil, with Justin Adams (Rachid Taha, Tinariwen, Robert Plant) on production. Souad Massi continues on her path as a committed, liberated woman singing about the causes close to her heart. Sequana is a collection of ten songs, nine of which were written by her, with the intention of capturing the passage of time and that which we must strive to preserve and pass on. The album draws on a diversity of musical styles – folk, country, rock, calypso, bossa, along with sounds of the Middle East and the Algerian desert.

From Norwegian folk singer and harpist Sinikka Langeland comes a seductively subtle contemporary jazz album. The lyrics are all Norwegian or Swedish (the sleeve notes have translations), and celebrate the poetry of Edith Södergran and Olav Håkonson Hauge – the first a shortlived pioneer of modern Swedish poetry, the second the Norwegian "lumberjack poet" who came to the art in his 40s. Langeland's band brings together trumpet-player Arve Henriksen and saxophonist/composer Trygve Seim, and it's a magical combination. Despite a predominant feeling of tranquillity, the singer sometimes adds an almost Nina Simone-like bite, for which Seim's smoky sound, Henriksen's ghostly multiphonics and Anders Jormin's bass are ideal foils. The mood is often broken by grooves that suggest some strange fjord-village cabaret music, or episodes that are like Nordic Miles Davis. It's a real one-off.

Some people have commented that Tinariwen have always been a country band, albeit a North African take on that most North American of genres. That idea is magnified on new album Amatssou, which finds the Tuareg band’s trademark snaking guitar lines and hypnotic rhythms blending seamlessly with pedal steel, piano and strings from guest musicians including Daniel Lanois, the embellished arrangements lending the songs an epic, universal application.

One of the first of the blissed-out rave acts to storm the charts, and also one of the longest lasting, the Future Sound of London deserved a good singles compilation, and fortunately they get one with the Virgin retrospective Teachings from the Electronic Brain. Their highest moments were virtually always their singles, and short-form tracks offer a much easier path to understanding the music of Brian Dougans and Garry Cobain than their occasionally bloated LPs. Teachings from the Electronic Brain neglects nothing of real value, beginning with their first chart hit ("Papua New Guinea") and grabbing the best tracks from their albums Accelerator ("Expander"), Lifeforms (the title track), the live-in-the-studio ISDN ("Far-Out Son of Lung and the Ramblings of a Madman," "Smokin' Japanese Babe"), and Dead Cities ("We Have Explosive"). Best of all, licensing requirements prevented the addition of material from 2002's half-baked The Isness.

Siparia to Soweto is an album that represents a coming together, an amalgamation of people, experiences and culture. It is the melding of different but unique flavors into one; a celebration of the African diaspora’s rich diversity. This momentous production is a reflection of Hugh Masekela’s great love of travel, musical adventure, and collaboration. Before his passing, the South African icon paid a visit to Trinidad & Tobago where he performed and collaborated with the Siparia Deltones Steel Orchestra. During his month-long residency Masekela worked extensively with one of the world’s premiere steel pannists, Akinola Sennon, to record a large catalogue of original compositions and arrangements scored by the great Carlton ‘Zanda’ Alexander. The album’s lead single “The Meeting Place,” features another native of Siparia, “King of Soca,” Machel Montano, who eventually joined forces with the team as an executive producer. The eagerly awaited album features 13 songs comprising a collection of Caribbean classics with African inspirations.

Bombino is back with a brand new studio album - 'Sahel'. The new record is Bombino’s first full album in over five years, and follows 2018’s ‘Deran’, which garnered praise like "the Sultan of Shred" from The New York Times, and "the World's Best Guitarist" from Vice. This praise also turned the guitar luminary + Tuareg folk hero into the first-ever GRAMMY®-nominated artist from Niger. ‘Sahel’ was produced by produced by David Wrench (David Byrne, Frank Ocean, Caribou, The xx) and was recorded at Studio HIBA in Casablanca, Morocco.

Following critically acclaimed Glyndebourne performances in Michael Grandage’s Billy Budd and Brett Dean’s Hamlet, Jacques Imbrailo has established himself as one of the most exciting young baritones on the world stage. His debut solo recital for Linn sees him perform with fellow Prince Consort alumni, Alisdair Hogarth, in a mouth-watering programme of Sibelius and Rachmaninov songs.

Although included in Spain part in most or all catalogues, Errobi was actually from the French Part of the Basque Country. Errobi was one of the longer-lasting of those basque folk groups and certainly the most adventurous or at least the widest-spectrummed.
Errobi's third album is a live one, but offering a selection of tracks from their first two albums, but rocking them up also. Although sonically imperfect (feedbacks and such), this album should give you an idea of what sounded Errobi in their earlier stages, with a more traditional folk rock sound than Ameritsen Bidea. Most tracks have enough progressive qualities to be quite charming and some are dramatic enough to describe the Basque fight for freedom. Musically , their sound is not that far away from Italian groups (singing-wise) or an English folk tinged with Iberic touches.

Kalita are honoured to release the first ever compilation focusing on the musical career of Julie Coker, the queen of Nigerian television. Here we collate seven of Julie’s most sought-after Afro disco and hauntingly-beautiful Itsekiri highlife recordings.

Recorded in the late 70s, Gwindingwi Rine Shumba is Zimbabwean artist Thomas Mapfumo's second full length album. Featuring Mapfumo's incendiary guitar playing and lyrics of struggle, sung in his native Shona language, this is political dance music that rivals the work of another African legend, Nigerian Fela Kuti. Available on CD in the U.S. for the first time ever.

With its two sides split between Perry and Gerrard's vocal efforts, Within the Realm of a Dying Sun serves as both a display for the ever more ambitious band and a chance for the two to individually demonstrate their awesome talents. Beginning with the portentous "Anywhere Out of the World," a piece that takes the deep atmospherics of "Enigma of the Absolute" to a higher level with mysterious, chiming bells, simple but effective keyboard bass and a sense of vast space, the album finds Dead Can Dance on a steady roll. Once again a range of assistant musicians provide even more elegance and power to the band's work, with a chamber string quartet plus various performers on horns, woodwind, and percussion. Impressive though the remainder of the first side is, Gerrard's showcase on the second half is even more enveloping and arguably more successful. The martial combination of drums and horns that start "Dawn of the Iconoclast" call to mind everything from Wagner to Laibach, but Gerrard's unearthly alto, at its most compelling here, elevates it even higher.

Prepare to be blown away by the intesity of Al Bilali Soudan. This music has been performed from at least the 16th century by Touareg griots to celebrate the end of harvest and the changing of the seasons, to encourage warriors and to welcome them back from battles, to praise noble families and to heal the sick. Over centuries this music has evolved through fusion with other ethnic groups.

Recorded in Ghana in 1981, Mick Fleetwood's solo debut reveals more diversity and depth of feeling than any of Fleetwood Mac's multi-platinum monsters. Six of the tracks are not overt attempts at worldbeat, instead using a variety of West African musicians as sidemen, sidewomen, and, in the case of drum ensemble Ebaali Gbiko, sidechildren. Of these six tracks, several stand out. "Walk a Thin Line," written by Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, is an infectious pop song blending Adjo Group's enchanting backing vocals with guest George Harrison's lush 12-string and slide guitars. Another Fleetwood Mac veteran, Peter Greenbaum (aka Peter Green), accompanies a multinational percussion section for a remake of his "Rattlesnake Shake," originally found on Then Play On. Even the Buddy Holly classic "Not Fade Away" gets supercharged with a percussion ensemble made up of Fleetwood on drums and Lord Tiki and Adjo Group on hand drums and percussion. The West African tracks that make up the remainder of the album are pure pleasure.