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Reviews

Review of Varokaa! Hengenvaara

Varokaa! Hengenvaara

Suistamon Sähkö

Nordic Notes

Rating: ★★★

Suistamon Sähkö exist in their own colourful world and, every so often, I’m glad to say, they let us in....

Reviewed in issue October/2021

Review of Tree Dimensional Tunes

Tree Dimensional Tunes

Maarika & the Frocodiles

Global Music Centre

Rating: ★★★

Former Finnish ballet dancer Maarika Autio went to West Africa to study kora and the diatonic balafon, which is rarely...

Reviewed in issue October/2021

Review of Characters

Characters

Flo Perlin

Flo Perlin

Rating: ★★★

Flo Perlin may cite diverse musical influences, given her extensive world travel and her Iraqi and Belarusian heritage, but in...

Reviewed in issue October/2021

Review of Not Leaving Quietly

Not Leaving Quietly

Joe Broughton’s Conservatoire Folk Ensemble

Birmingham City University

Rating: ★★

A track on a folk album led by a bassoon! That’s a rare pleasure. In ‘Hole in the Wall/Nabo’, the...

Reviewed in issue October/2021

Review of Holo Voyage: Inception

Holo Voyage: Inception

Gaiea Sanskrit

Jivamukti Music

Rating: ★★★

Inception is the inaugural release in the Holo Voyage series by Jivamukti Music, which aims to fuse devotional Sanskrit hymns...

Reviewed in issue October/2021

Review of Mopepe Mama

Mopepe Mama

Syssi Mananga

Syssi Mananga

Rating: ★★★★

Syssi Mananga is a Brussels-based singer-songwriter of Afro-pop leanings and Belgian and Congolese heritage whose debut, Retour aux Sources(Back to...

Reviewed in issue October/2021

Review of Tales

Tales

Firasso

GLM Music

Rating: ★★★★

In trying to sum up the output of German instrumental trio Firasso, the best I can do is chamber folk....

Reviewed in issue Aug/Sep/2021

Review of Be Here Whenever

Be Here Whenever

Danielle de Gruttola, Henry Kaiser, Benedicte Maurseth & Stein Urheim

Jazzland Recordings

Rating: ★★★

After the plaintively beautiful but solitary sound of Benedicte Maurseth’s self-titled solo album (reviewed in the November 2019 issue, #152),...

Reviewed in issue Aug/Sep/2021

Review of The Lost Mystique of Being in the Know

The Lost Mystique of Being in the Know

Rising Appalachia

Rising Appalachia

Rating: ★★★★

Full disclosure: your reviewer fully anticipated not raving about this album. While appreciating Rising Appalachia’s raison dêtre, my ears have...

Reviewed in issue Aug/Sep/2021

Review of Dance

Dance

Leni Stern

Leni Stern Recordings

Rating: ★★★★

Since her debut as a leader in 1986, the Munich-born New Yorker has recorded a further 23 albums, of which...

Reviewed in issue Aug/Sep/2021

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