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Reviews

Review of The Band Beyond Borders: Fertile Paradoxes

The Band Beyond Borders: Fertile Paradoxes

Amine & Hamza

ARC Music

Rating: ★★

When guest Kaushiki Chakraborty launches into a three-and-a-half octave taan, the rapid virtuoso hallmark of her mesmeric Hindustani vocals, listeners...

Reviewed in issue July/2017

Review of Untouched Folk Songs from the Balkans

Untouched Folk Songs from the Balkans

Muammer Ketencoglu & Balkan Journey

Kalan Records

Rating: ★★★★

Anyone who is into Balkan music – tricksy rhythms, wild sax and accordion playing – is going to enjoy this....

Reviewed in issue July/2017

Review of Zabad, Twilight Tide

Zabad, Twilight Tide

Sabîl

Top of the World

Harmonia Mundi

Rating: ★★★★★

I'm used to the word sebil in Turkish meaning ‘Fountain’, but in Arabic it means also ‘Road’ or ‘Way’: both...

Reviewed in issue July/2017

Review of The Wax Cylinder Recordings

The Wax Cylinder Recordings

Oxford Maqam

Oxford Maqam

Rating: ★★★★

The reign of the wax cylinder was very short – a mere 20 years around the turn of the last...

Reviewed in issue June/2017

Review of Kişlar Lâl Oldu (Winter Has Fallen Silent)

Kişlar Lâl Oldu (Winter Has Fallen Silent)

Mehmet Evren Hacıoğlu

Acoustic Music Records

Rating: ★★★

The strange couple at the heart of this recording is that of Hacıoğlu's silky tenor singing voice, and the divan...

Reviewed in issue June/2017

Review of Sounds of the East

Sounds of the East

Srdjan Beronja

ARC Music

Rating: ★★★

A surprising collection of field recordings and re-arrangements of traditional pieces, Sounds of the East follows on from Beronja's Sounds...

Reviewed in issue June/2017

Review of Kuşların Çağrısı (Call of the Birds)

Kuşların Çağrısı (Call of the Birds)

The Secret Ensemble

Top of the World

Kalan Müzik

Rating: ★★★★★

Many of Iranian singer Mahsa Vahdat's projects have been reviewed in Songlines. I came across the honeyed melancholy of her...

Reviewed in issue June/2017

Review of Fihi Ma Fihi

Fihi Ma Fihi

Bashka

Bashka

Rating: ★★★★

The brainchild of Melbourne-based musicians Murat Yucel and Alisha Brooks (of Unified Gecko and Baro Banda), Bashka's debut album features...

Reviewed in issue April/2017

Review of Yeni Dunya

Yeni Dunya

Light in Babylon

Light In Babylon

Rating: ★★★★

Honed on the streets of Istanbul, the message of Light in Babylon comes out loud and clear, across time and...

Reviewed in issue April/2017

Review of Young Iranian Female Voices: Songs in the Mist

Young Iranian Female Voices: Songs in the Mist

VARIOUS ARTISTS

KKV Records

Rating: ★★★★

This is a result of ten young Iranian female singers having gone to record in Norway. Women singers performing in...

Reviewed in issue April/2017

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