CHOI Kyung-man, a virtuoso of the piri and taepyeongso oboes, acclaimed for his mastery of rhythm and improvisation, moves with ease between tradition and contemporary creation. This recording explores new roles for these instruments, offering a varied listening experience and a glimpse into a profound musical universe. This album brings together selected tracks from four CDs released in Korea between 2008 and 2021, offering a broad overview of the music of the piri and taepyeongso oboes. In Korean music, the piri is a leading melodic instrument with a loud and steady voice, and the taepyeongso, also played with a powerful and piercing sound, is mainly used for processional music or outdoor performances. Due to their distinctive nature, these instruments are rarely used outside their traditional repertoire to perform complex melodies drawn from folk songs. Found in similar forms across many cultures, the piri and taepyeongso oboes take on a new dimension here thanks to CHOI Kyung-man's unique sensitivity.
Khun Narin's Electric Phin Band are a multi-generational psychedelic powerhouse from rural Thailand whose ecstatic, amplifier-blown folk music has quietly become one of the most unlikely global cult phenomena of the last decade. Hailing from Phetchabun Province, the group formed as a community celebration band - playing weddings, temple fairs, ordinations and village parades. At the center of their sound is the electrified phin, a traditional three-stringed Thai lute whose piercing, spiraling melodies cut through walls of percussion and portable PA distortion. What might begin as a local procession quickly transforms into something transcendent: hypnotic riffs cycling endlessly, rhythms pushing forward with relentless momentum, musicians of all ages locked into communal euphoria. Ten years after their last release, Khun Narin's Electric Phin Band return with their first new album in a decade - and their first ever recorded inside a professional studio. Produced by Tommy Brenneck (known for his work with Amy Winehouse, Charles Bradley, Sharon Jones, Beyonce, Mark Ronson, and The Budos Band), the album captures the band with a depth and clarity never heard before - without sacrificing the ecstatic propulsion that defines them. The result is both refinement and revelation. The phin still soars in sharp, spiraling lines; the percussion still drives with marathon intensity; but now every texture resonates with new dimension. It is the sound of a village tradition amplified for the world stage - communal, kinetic, and joyfully uncontainable. Khun Narin's Electric Phin Band do not simply perform songs; they create momentum. They build trance from repetition. They turn celebration into transport. A decade later, their return feels less like a comeback and more like a continuation of something timeless - music that exists beyond borders, beyond genres, and beyond expectation.
Gypseas of Infinity is a sonic ceremony, a collection of songs reimagined from sacred circles and brought to life in the studio. Each track invites listeners into a space of connection, meaning, and beauty. These songs serve as musical medicine for a world in need of healing-a reminder of what happens when spirit and sound become one.
Whoever has seen them, Mounia and Areski, rue Saint-Louis-en-l'Ile or elsewhere, a little eternal hat for him, a gavroche cap for her, quickly grasps the content of their bond. Between the actress-author and the mythical composer, the sun has been shining for a long time. "With Areski, we have been fraternizing for a few years, we can say that we are celebrating our decade, she smiles between two runs, and much more besides since we met in 2013. And it is almost halfway through this relationship that I approached him for a joint project aimed at nourishing our friendship and making it grow, I thought we needed to work together. I proposed to him a theatrical and musical show for which he would do all the music. It gave Les Momes Porteurs and this album is the original soundtrack or more exactly it was imagined, dreamed like a sound film. For all that, after twenty-three albums, most of them with his wife and partner Brigitte Fontaine, the score that Areski delivers here is once again particularly inspired, he himself rightly recognizes it's "rock dimension, trance and uppercut".
Since bursting onto the scene in 2018 with their debut album, On, Amsterdam-based Altin Gun have been at the vanguard of the 21st century revival of Turkish-influenced psychedelic grooves. Now, the Grammy-nominated quintet return with their sixth studio album Garip - their most ambitious and diverse release to date, and a heartfelt tribute to Neset Ertas - a revered and much-loved Turkish singer, lyricist and baglama player who recorded more than 30 albums and wrote hundreds of songs. Softpak.
Let Us Clap is a bold tribute to the sisterhood of Lamisi's homeland. Deep in Northern Ghana, women and girls have long kept time with intricate handclaps and harmonised chants - an age-old folkloric tradition pulsing with polyrhythms and ancestral melodies. This isn't just music; it's history, passed down through generations, raw and untouched. The album was co-written with Ghanaian icon Wanlov the Kubolor.
Ten years after their last collaboration, Jacques Duvall and Benjamin Schoos return with Plein Sommeil, a duo album that is at once melancholic, ironic, and tender-a poetic mirror of the fatigue of the modern world. The legendary lyricist for Lio, Chamfort, and Daho meets the indie pop producer and sonic adventurer of Freaksville, in a generational union as improbable as it is natural. Between Brussels and Paris, they weave songs about slowness, worn-out love, and resistance through gentleness. Blending original compositions and delicate covers (The Kinks, Higelin, Daho), the album evokes a sensual and lucid refuge amid the overheating of everyday life. Recorded with Bertrand Burgalat, The Loved Drones, and lush string arrangements, Plein Sommeil embraces a handcrafted, timeless aesthetic. It's motto: "Slow business" - a manifesto against the speed and emptiness of contemporary times. Each song, balancing irony and elegance, celebrates fragility and humanity.
TRIBUTE TO ANNE SYLVESTRE These Rendez-vous are a vibrant and contemporary tribute, performed by fifteen artists from different generations and backgrounds who have come together to celebrate the extraordinary legacy left by Anne Sylvestre through music. Each of them has expressed, in their own way, their deep attachment to her world. Whether they knew her, sang her songs, or simply admired her, they pay her a sincere tribute here, on a human level, in the emotion of a live performance. Rendez-vous Sylvestre is not just a series of videos or an album. It is a bridge between generations, a living memory, a group of artists who affirm that Anne Sylvestre's words are more necessary than ever. The location was not chosen at random: these recordings took place in the legendary Studio Ferber in Paris, where she made her last albums. Each artist chose their own cover version and provided their own musical direction. This artistic freedom gave rise to fifteen unique, deeply personal interpretations, imbued with emotion, rebellion, humor, and tenderness, echoing all the facets that illuminate Anne Sylvestre's art and personality.
The heir to Brazilian tropicalism, Santtana marks 25 years of his career with Brasiliano, a true collective celebration that brings together prestigious collaborators: Gilberto Gil, Oxmo Puccino, Flavia Coelho, Piers Faccini, Chico Cesar, Paralamas do Sucesso, Cocanha, Dimartino, Karyna Gomes, Tainara Takua, Rachel Reis and Maria Lado. Sung in eight different languages, Brasiliano is both an ode to linguistic diversity and a testament to it's symbolic power. Carried by luminous and layered arrangements where voices intertwine like a polyphonic conversation, the album treats language as a musical instrument in it's own right, but also as a political tool. Santtana questions cultural heritage, identity, colonial memory, and the possibility of a shared language. With his singular approach-blending popular rhythms, contemporary soundscapes and vibrant melodies-he celebrates the love and exchange embodied in Romance languages, where music becomes fertile ground for encounters and reinvention.
Malian balafon player Neba Solo and donso n'goni player Benego Diakite's A Djinn and a Hunter Went Walking-the first in a series of new releases in collaboration with longtime Nonesuch partner Nick Gold, former head of World Circuit Records-features the leading players of their traditional instruments: the marimba-like balafon, or bala, and donso n'goni, a hunter's harp. On the album, co-produced by Gold, Ousmane Haidara, and Sonny Johns, the acoustic instrumentals are complemented by vocals and percussion as well as touches of mellotron, guitar, and strings. The CD version includes a second disc of their original duo performances, unadorned, recorded in a Bamako garden under a mango tree. They started after the sun went down, and crickets can be heard chirping during the quiet moments.
After My Voyage I, Live in Guyana, the Afro-Amazonian, Valerie Tribord presents: My Voyage #2, recorded between Paris, Macon, Abidjan, Kinshasa, and New York... Renowned musicians from diverse backgrounds and musical cultures: France, the Caribbean, Guyana, and Haiti: Thierry Fanfant, Jay Brixxx, Mike Clinton, Julien Lacharme, Christophe Cravero, Lister Haussman, (Kinshasa) Master Kebs, Marie Paule Tribord, Georges Granville, Kristof Negrit, Alex Poignet, Dabo Carlos, Djanuno, (New York / Haiti) Noldy Cadet, Jp and the Beat, (Dominique) Ibis Lawrence, Bublaz (Jamaica)... 13 tracks, including various works from the solar universe, by Valerie Tribord. From Creole to French, Portuguese, and English, to Reggae, Afrobeat, Zouk/Kompa, and Brazilian ballads, what a musical journey, without borders, through My Journey II. Featured artists: Julien Lacharme (Solaar System), Lyricson, the very talented Guinean artist, and Afro Zouk diva, Ivorian singer Monique Seka, STREAMS HITS. In concert, Valerie must send you everything... On tour, starting in September 2025
Next up in our Cuban Classics series, one of the jewels of record label Areito's extensive and sought-after catalogue. Ricardo Eddy Martinez's Expreso Ritmico from 1978 is a prized album fusing funk, disco, and orchestrated influences with Afro-Cuban percussion, Latin breaks, and lush vocal harmonies. Whilst maintaining it's distinctive Cuban identity, Expreso Ritmico is one of the more American / Western-influenced Cuban titles of the time drawing inspiration from jazz funk, disco, and library music. The album was directed, written, and orchestrated by keyboardist and drummer Ricardo Eddy Martinez, who was also the mastermind behind the orchestration of the Los Reyes 73 album (that was recently reissued by Mr Bongo). Martinez would later go on to work with international musicians and singers such as Gloria Estefan, Jose Feliciano, Chick Corea, and many more, whilst also working as a sound engineer in the US. Produced by Adolfo Pichardo, who worked on much of Areito's output, Expreso Ritmico is packed with gold. The opening title track carries a loose, breezy Latin-disco-funk vibe that breaks into a brilliant Afro-Cuban workout. 'Que La Tristeza Se Fue' was expertly sampled and looped by Jazzanova on their 2008 song 'Look What You Are Doing To Me, featuring Phonte from the hip hop group Little Brother. Elsewhere, 'Tambo Iya' has an Afro-funk, Soul Makossa-esque groove, while tracks such as 'Te Quedas', 'Mi Conga Es La Que Es' and 'La 132' run with a heavy pulsating Latin-funk sound. Head to the sultry psych funk of 'Este Tumbao' for a spacey journey that blends and morphs through genres. A record that was ahead of it's time, Expreso Ritmico is a superb and unique album that merges western influence with Cuban flair. It comes housed in a replica of it's original Cuban sleeve design.
