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Reviews

Review of Grounded

Grounded

Cara

Artes Records

Rating: ★★★

Originally due to be released as The Spell of Winter in December 2020, COVID-19 lockdowns have forced a much later...

Reviewed by Kevin Bourke in issue: December/2021

Review of Project Masnavi

Project Masnavi

Eishan Ensemble

Earshift Music

Rating: ★★★★

Closely following their acclaimed albums Nim Dong (2018) and Afternoon Tea at Six (2020), Sydney-based Persian-jazz group Eishan Ensemble reconfigure...

Reviewed by Charlie Cawood in issue: December/2021

Review of Prayer’s Tale: Taiko Drums & Asian Percussion

Prayer’s Tale: Taiko Drums & Asian Percussion

Joji Hirota | Joji Hirota & The London Taiko Drummers

ARC Music

Rating: ★★★★

Joji Hirota is a percussionist, shakuhachi (bamboo flute) player and vocalist who has been presenting Japanese music to worldwide audiences...

Reviewed by James Catchpole in issue: December/2021

Review of Lumba

Lumba

Tamala

Muziekpublique

Rating: ★★★

The acoustic trio Tamala’s second album harvests a generous crop of 13 long songs, featuring Mola Sylla and Bao Sissoko...

Reviewed by Martin Longley in issue: December/2021

Review of Reclaim

Reclaim

Mishra

Mishra Music

Rating: ★★★

Home-recorded entirely live-in-the-room, in a farmhouse in Gloucestershire, Mishra’s new album sets out its stall via an eclectic musical fusion...

Reviewed by Tim Cumming in issue: December/2021

Review of Connectivity

Connectivity

Grace Petrie

Grace Petrie

Rating: ★★★★

Grace Petrie has her huge following of loyal fans and their propensity for singing in mind on her aptly-named new...

Reviewed by Sophie Parkes in issue: December/2021

Review of Teenage Dreams

Teenage Dreams

Native Soul

Awesome Tapes from Africa

Rating: ★★★

Unless you have been living under a rock this summer, the likelihood is you would have heard amapiano booming from...

Reviewed by Alex De Lacey in issue: December/2021

Review of Nagtaba

Nagtaba

Kandy Guira

Top of the World

Que du Bonheur en Son/Vlad Production/RFI Talents/Inouïe Distribution

Rating: ★★★★

Kandy Guira is an Ivory Coast-born singer and dancer from Burkina Faso, an erstwhile member of the supergroup Les Amazones...

Reviewed by Jane Cornwell in issue: December/2021

Review of Olin Ennen

Olin Ennen

Barbora Xu

Nordic Notes

Rating: ★★★★

On her debut recording, Olin Ennen (which translates in Finnish to ‘I Was’), Czech singer and multi-instrumentalist Barbora Xu explores...

Reviewed by Charlie Cawood in issue: December/2021

Review of This Pale

This Pale

Shujaat Husain Khan, Katayoun Goudarzi, Shaho Andalibi, Shariq Mustafa

Lycopod Records

Rating: ★★

Sufi music exists in various forms in different parts of the Islamic world with differing music and poetry in various...

Reviewed by Simon Broughton in issue: December/2021

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