From Easter Island to New Zealand, travel through paradise with this recording featuring traditional island music. This new release features music from the entire Pacific Islands, including Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Fiji, Hawaii, Tahiti, and everywhere in between. This release includes songs recorded professionally in the studio, as well as raw field recordings which capture the essence of Pacific folk music.

Nadur is Clannad's first album of new material since 1998's Grammy winning Landmarks and features the full original line-up: siblings Moya, Ciaran and Pol Brennan, and their twin uncles Noel and Padraig Duggan, back together for the first time since the 1989 album Past Present. Nadur, Gaelic for nature is a natural progression to the Clannad sound that since the 70s has fused the traditional with the modern, the past and the future, with stunningly beautiful results.

"This first full-length album ‘Old Tunes, Dusted Down’ is dedicated to the work of father and son Hubert and Andries Boone. Hubert Boone (b. 1940), a Flanders/Belgium equivalent to Bert Lloyd, Peter Kennedy and Ralph Vaughan Williams in England, and Alan Lomax in America was, and remains, one of the pioneers of folk song collecting in his native Belgium. “ ...This Belgian one is a keeper... - folkworld.de I can’t imagine a more fitting tribute to Hubert Boone...” - De Smet (VRT Radio)"

The inspiring group Afrika Mamas are three-time South African Music Awards nominees, and have toured all over the world. They sing in an a cappella or Mbube style, featuring rich textures, thick harmonies, reminiscent of Ladysmith Black Mambazo. The twelve tracks featured on this disc are a fantastic representation of the works of this moving group.

This captivating album presents a beautiful cross-section of music from China and Japan, from tender and contemplative Chinese string melodies to the powerful thunder of Japanese taiko drums. Featuring a great variety of music played on traditional instruments in traditional and contemporary arrangements. Extensive information about each of the artists and the pieces. (ARC Music)

In celebration of ARC Music's 35 years of dedication to world music, Hossam Ramzy presents Rock the Tabla. 10 years in the making, this explosive musical journey brings together musical genius from all corners of the globe. Featuring world renowned artists including Oscar winner & Slumdog Millionaire composer A.R. Rahman, famed percussionist & drummer Billy Cobham, Manu Katche, Omar Faruk Tekbilek, Jimmy Waldo, Chaz Kkoshi, Phil Thornton, John Themis and others. Rock the Tabla is an album that is sure to get your feet tapping, heads nodding and body swaying to this diverse combination of electrifying rhythmic collaborations.

A colorful collection of songs and instrumental pieces from the Spanish speaking countries of the Americas, starting from Mexico to Panama, Costa Rica to Cuba and the Dominican Republic, then Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, Paraguay, down to Chile and Argentina and back up to Brazil.

Gary Stroutsos honors the Hopi Tribe with solo improvisations on a reincarnated leena. Featuring the plaintive and haunting sounds of the Hopi long flute, these pieces are inspired by the landscapes of the American Southwest, and the people who have lived there since time immemorial. Songs for Leena is the follow-up album to Öngtupqa. The Hopi Tribe have maintained their flute tradition for thousands of years. Today, it is still actively cultivated with the help of The Hopi Long Flute Preservation Project, of which Gary is an honorable member. Due to his dedication to the instrument, and long-term friendships with cultural practitioners of the tribe, the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office invited Gary to join the project – an offer never extended to a non-native before. Profits from this album will go towards The Hopi Long Flute Preservation Project.

Khöömei Beat are five outstanding musicians who excel in khöömei - Tuva’s unique style of throat singing. They layer traditional and modern instruments with their distinctive vocals to create powerful arrangements with modern rhythms and electronic sounds. Exhilarating and foot-stomping - a musical art that stretches back to the dawn of humanity, while simultaneously reaching forward to new horizons. An exhilarating mix of khöömei singing with razor-sharp drumming and earthy cello sounds that rush through the soul like the wind from an eagle’s wing. With the authentic Tuvan sounds of the doshpuluur, byzaanchyand igil, Khöömei Beat layer traditional and modern instruments with their distinctive vocals to create powerful arrangements with modern rhythms and electronic sounds.

This beautiful collection of Sufi music comes from Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey, Pakistan, and Egypt. This eclectic mix of songs consists of raw field recordings, and modern renditions of traditional songs, performed on both traditional and modern instruments. This devotional music is largely inspired by Sufi poets such as Rumi, Hafiz, Bulleh Shah, and Khwaja Ghulam Farid.

Classical Music

Lutz Cassel came in touch with the culture of his ancestors for the first time in the early 1960s. This was during song contests at the Castle “Waldeck” in Germany. Although he had no idea of his background (he had been raised in the Christian faith) the music touched him deeply and from this time onwards he began to collect everything connected with Jewish culture and especially with Jewish music and to adapt it for his performances in folk clubs. Step by step he developed a repertoire of songs and also the idea to describe the history of the Jewish people and its music and culture. By and by Lutz started to season his performances with jokes, anecdotes and stories from the thousands of years of history of this people, which consists of more than just the Bible, the Roman Empire and the Holocaust. Lutz was often dissatisfied with the fact that singers of Yiddish songs in Germany generally only described the modern history of the Jews. The origins of the songs were not explained and therefore only a few people understood their meaning. His successes in many small cabarets encouraged him to combine history, stories and music. He did this not in the then popular way of many singer/songwriters, with a moralizing undertone, but with humor and irony- the typical self-irony of Jewish humor. This release is a live recording of a concert which took place in the Hamburg Music Hall for the Hanukkah Celebration of 1986.

Part of ARC Music’s ‘low price’ range, this album is specially designed to be accessible to the casual or novice world music listener; those who wish to experience the music of a certain part of the world, but perhaps aren’t ready to pay the regular price for standard or deluxe albums. The present release is an amiable, deliciously delicate and inspired album with mellow tones, smiling vocals, relaxed earthy, rich vibes and sauntering summer grooves, featuring Ceumar Brazil, Marta Gómez Colombia, Trio Pantango Argentina, Catarina Dos Santos Portugal, Patricia Salas Chile, AKA Trio Fusion and more.

Hossam Ramzy presents very danceable renditions of six of the most popular songs of Abdul Halim Hafiz, who was beloved and revered by everyone throughout the Arabian world in his time and whose music is still immensely popular today and played by radio stations and listened to throughout the Middle East every day.

Classical Music

In the spirit of Paul Simon’s epic, this new release from ARC features a collection of African songs. A potpourri of music has been chosen, from a capella to instrumentals, these songs hail from all over the great continent, including tunes from Zimbabwe, Namibia, South Africa, and more. The songs are sung in a variety of native African languages, showing the immense diversity that exists throughout the African countries.

Vusa Mkhaya embodies the sound of the eclectic, pulsing, dusty streets of Tshabalala township in Zimbabwe’s Bulawayo. He captures the romanticism of the Southern African climes, his voice rich with the vibrations of a heritage that spans decades. Driven by an unquenchable thirst for sound, he has worked with a wide range of musicians and productions, amassing a hugely impressive body of work. Vusa has pushed the boundaries of world music, retaining a mind-bending, soul-searching, spiritually stirring sound that is inspired by life’s questions. It is in that depth he feeds, and is himself fed by the beauty of music. As part of the vocal trio Insingizi he has gained commercial and critical success since their 2004 debut album, Voices of Southern Africa / Spirit of Africa, which sold over 250,000 units in North America. His solo offerings The Spirit of Ubuntu (2006), Vocalism (2012) and now Umanyanyatha are emotive musical stories of love, heartbreak and everyday living; tales delivered in soulful, sometimes haunting, achingly beautiful pieces. Mkhaya gives life to the voice, and it is the voice that gives him life.

Recordings of percussion from around the world – an exploration of countries by their instrumental heartbeat: the drum. With Iranian rhythms on the tombak, a rich variety of tones and textures from Egypt on durbuka, advanced rhythms of Nigerian Yoruba folk music, Japanese taiko, Indian tabla, improvisations from Morocco and more… A fascinating journey into international beats and the culture and stories that lie behind them. The booklet contains in-depth liner notes provided by the artists that showcase the instruments used, the meanings behind the songs, and the cultural significance around the chosen rhythms.

Ssewakiryanga James Jr., also known as SSEWASSEWA, is a Ugandan multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, innovator and educator. He leads his audiences into the soulful African music culture with traditional instruments, songs and stories from his homeland, weaving these traditions together with a modern and global sound. Ssewa Ssewa's music is about social and global issues, diversity, economic development and empowerment. Ssewa Ssewa's music is a cross-cultural marriage between Uganda, Africa and the world. He seeks to promote Ugandan traditions while modernizing and interweaving them with other international genres to renew the spirit of his indigenous culture. The janzi is a Ugandan instrument created and designed by Ssewa Ssewa. It has 22 strings, eleven on each of it's two long, wooden necks. The strings on the left-hand neck are tuned in the diatonic scale, and the strings on the right to the pentatonic scale.

Dance to the Full Moon is the latest Mali & UK collaboration from the imagination of producer Dan Harper (Invisible System). Combining the traditional with the modern, forging new styles in ethnomusicology. Recorded in Bamako, Mali, alongside the best local musicians and griots - the traditional storytellers of West Africa - Dan's production continues to take Malian music into new territory.

Hugo D�az counts as one of the greatest bandoneon players of his or any generation. On this album he plays tangos as well as baroque classics by the likes of Bach and Frescobaldi, all with the brilliance and flair that became his hallmark. D�az was an outstanding technician and through determination and discipline, together with profound feelings, he was able to feel and convey all the facets of the tango in all it's multicolored nuances. He played the music with an extraordinary depth of expression and temperament - even the softest notes and the silences. The bandoneon is the soul of the tango. In Hugo Diaz's hands it lends itself to expressing a rainbow of feelings and emotions in a brilliant variety of styles.

Joji Hirota’s prolific career spans over thirty years and sixteen albums, sculpting dynamic landscapes of rhythm and haunting melodies with the themes of nature and the beauty in every-day life. Since receiving a commendation from the UK Japanese Embassy from Ambassador Orita in 2003 for his contribution to Japanese culture overseas through his musical activities, he has continued to work on a vast number of diverse projects, and with his recent Beyond the Requiem charity concert tours with the London Metropolitan Orchestra in the UK and Japan, has strived to make a difference by supporting the people affected by the Earthquake disaster of 2011 through music. The music featured on this release was used in the recent Martin Scorsese film “Silence,” released in 2017.

Field Recordings from the archives of the late Deben Bhattacharya from various temples of the Sikh, Buddhist and Hindu religions, recorded on location between 1954 and 1973. Discover the roots of much of India's music in their purest and original form. Extensive information about India's religious music and each of the pieces.

The tracks on this new release come from Zimbabwe and South Africa, and feature a variance of inspiring traditional songs and exciting new compositions.; This music is known worldwide for its rhythmic intricacies, driving energy, and unrivaled enthusiasm.; These pieces are sung some a capella, some with instrumental accompaniments, but all with beautiful close harmonies.

Celtic Visions is a captivating and beautiful collection of yearning laments, traditional folk songs and instrumentals from Scotland, woven together into a stunning tapestry of sound with piano, harp, bagpipes, violin and song. Tales of the druids and seers, visionaries and prophets are shared by award-winning artists, from one of the world's most mystical lands, Celtic Scotland. Songs in both English and Gaelic are featured, as are both folk tunes passed down over centuries and new compositions. The artists featured are well-known in their home country, and include Alasdair MacCuish and the Black Rose Ceilidh Band, Allan Henderson, Gillebride MacMillan, and many others.