Introducing the October 2024 issue of Songlines, featuring Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

The October 2024 issue (#201) of Songlines is out now, and it’s a ‘ritual issue’ looking at the ceremonial and spiritual in music-making. We take a look at the unprecedented global popularity of Pakistan’s qawwali star Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, we speak to nomadic film-maker Vincent Moon about the thousands of films he’s made of ‘local music’ around the world and we celebrate 25 editions of the Gnawa Festival in Essaouira.

Comedian and actor Omid Djalili tells us about his love of prog rock, Persian music and Carlos Santana mash-ups, we pay tribute to Malian kora legend Toumani Diabaté, Sámi singer Mari Boine tells us why she finally feels at home and Svetlana Spajić muses on how she learnt her ancestor’s traditions like a “second language.”

There’s a Beginner’s Guide to the always-creative Brazilian singer and guitarist Tiganá Santana, we hear about an intuitive new collaboration from Raymond Antrobus & Evelyn Glennie, and Heal & Harrow tell us how they have paid tribute to the women who lost their lives during the Scottish witch trials.

Plus, Amadou & Mariam, June Tabor & Oysterband, Buzz’ Ayaz, Marta Pereira da Costa, K.O.G, WOMAD, Ben Edge, Charlie Parr, Morgenland Festival, Essential 10 Global Ambient albums and a Dispatch from flood-hit Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, as well as all the usual news, listings, reviews, competitions and so much more in a celebratory issue.

Print and digital subscribers will also receive our accompanying Top of the World compilation featuring our pick of the month’s best new music – The Down Hill Strugglers, The Raghu Dixit Project, Mari Boine, Niloy Ahsan, Conjunto Papa Upa, Peni Candra Rini and more – as well as five bonus tracks from Vincent Moon’s Collection Petites Planètes featuring field recordings from Chile, Greece, Morocco, Taiwan and Uganda.

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