Reviews

Máscaras

Mas Aya

Mas Aya, aka Brandon Valdivia, is a Toronto-based Canadian-Nicaraguan producer and multi-instrumentalist known in that city for his work with...

Reviewed by Chris Moss in issue: December/2021

Grounded

Cara

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

Project Masnavi

Eishan Ensemble

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

Prayer’s Tale: Taiko Drums & Asian Percussion

Joji Hirota | Joji Hirota & The London Taiko Drummers

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

Lumba

Tamala

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

Reclaim

Mishra

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

Connectivity

Grace Petrie

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

Teenage Dreams

Native Soul

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

Nagtaba

Kandy Guira

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

Olin Ennen

Barbora Xu

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