Saraba Sufiyana

Rafiki Jazz, the global band who bring together all manner of musicians so to demonstrate that music knows no borders, return with Saraba Sufiyana, their fourth album. Opening track ‘Su Jamfata’ has a racing rhythm that finds the vocalists and string players dropping in and out. It's fresh and dynamic and very exciting, a great opener. Following tune ‘Azadi’ is an English-language meditation on a journey through Rajasthan – it's pleasant enough but demonstrates the problem global fusion bands face where they try and blend several different music forms and end up not sounding totally convincing.

When Gaelic vocalist Kaitlin Ross joins on one track, things begin to sound akin to the New Age soup that Clannad once made a fortune playing. To their credit, Rafiki Jazz (no, they're not one of the hot, new UK jazz outfits currently winning plenty of attention) approach things as an acoustic unit – unlike, say, Afro Celt Sound System and other electro-dance fusion bands – so the eloquence of the musical interplay (the steel pan, kora, darbuka and myriad other instruments) is a joy to listen to. In our age of division and hostility , Rafiki Jazz emphasise unit and cross-cultural engagement – and for this I give them thanks.