World and International
684 products
Calypso Invasion
Voice of Flowers - Spring Ragas from India / Baluji Shrivastav
Indian classical music has certain modes and ragas dedicated to the seasons, which have been explored by many generations of musicians. In accordance with the Indian calendar, spring runs from mid-February to mid-April, and is known as Vasant (or Basant). The festival Holi celebrates spring’s arrival. In this album, Baluji captures the rapture of spring, expressing seasonal feelings of renewal and hope through the subtle nuances of the chosen ragas. He celebrates his mastery of the sitar with wonderful sensitivity and dexterity. There are also some thrilling moments enthused by the distinctive tabla playing of Sukhvinder Singh “Pinky”, with his vivacious renditions of 1relas and 2chakradas. Baluji cannot see the colors of flowers but he has heard their voices, and they sing out through this joyous album – Voice of Flowers.
Maasai Footsteps / Anuang'a Fernando
Maasai Footsteps is a project that reveals the evolution of the Maasai culture and shows the value of their traditions in the world today. To illustrate this development, Anuang’a brings modern choreography to the traditional performance of song and dance. Anuang’a describes it as “a show that travels to the ancient times and connects to the present, while revealing how much of the present-day culture is influenced by the past... This is a show that brings out the beauty of the Maasai culture and the unique rhythm of powerful voices and dance.” Anuang’a explains that the dancers are not professionals, and that he wanted to demonstrate the raw talent that exists in the local villages, those who sing and dance as part of their daily routine. The three clans involved are Purko from Maasai Mara, Loodokilani from Magadi and Kisonko from Amboseli. Each of the three clans bring their own combination of rhythm, voices and movements to traditional Maasai songs. While the groups perform a cappella, the contemporary dance that Anuang’a displays is a tribute to the Maasai community.“Tradition is what makes people who they are. If you lose it, you lose your identity.” – A.F.
Creole Sounds from the Indian Ocean / Sakili
A vibrant mix of creole heritage. The music of Sakili is from the island Rodrigues, a small volcanic island just east of Mauritius. The island’s European and African influences - waltzes, polka, mazurka, Scottish - all blend harmoniously with the ségadrum rhythms to intertwine the past musical traditions of African slaves with the western world. The three members of Sakili (Francis Prosper, Vallen Pierre Louis and Ricardo Legentil) had their own solo careers and were put together in 2019 by Mauritian artistic director Percy Yip Tong. The purpose of the group’s formation was for a European tour to introduce the rarely heard music of the Rodrigues island.
POSTCARDS FROM IRELAND
BEARS SONIC JOURNALS: FOXHUNT SAN FRANCISCO 1973
Chinese Celebration
THREE TENORS CDDVD
Russian Songs
Hunting Eagles Catching Swans / Lin Shicheng, Gao Hong
Pipa master Lin Shicheng is often referred to as the Ravi Shankar of the pipa. Lin was the teacher to the majority of prominent pipa players in the world today, including Gao Hong. Gao Hong has received numerous awards and honors and has toured internationally. In 2017 she became the first Chinese musician to play national anthem at a Minnesota Timberwolves NBA basketball game in Minneapolis. A truly historic recording of unedited, live performances of classical traditional pipa repertoire, showcasing rarely seen virtuosity and command of Chinese musical tradition. The feature track is a never-before-heard rendition of the Chinese evergreen Moonlight over the Spring River.
Shrivastav: Indian Classical Interactions / Baluji Shrivastav
For Baluji Shrivastav to be such an accomplished and respected musician is a minor miracle. Blinded as a child, Baluji is largely self-taught. His skill, as well as his versatility, is what makes Baluji shine as a musician. Baluji has accompanied such major stars as Coldplay, Massive Attack, Annie Lennox and Noel Gallagher. He received the Order of the British Empire for his contribution to music by His Majesty the Prince of Wales in 2017, and is founder of the blind Inner Vision Orchestra. Baluji is widely recognized as an ingenious musical pioneer. Indian Classical Interactions is an album of vibrant instrumentation, choral prayers and musical revelations. This intriguing new album of original compositions truly highlights Baluji’s poetic and philosophical insight into Indian Classical music.
Levantine Rhapsody / Didem Basar
AMAN IMAN: WATER IS LIFE
IMIDIWAN: COMPANIONS
HISTORY
INSIDE MONUMENT VALLEY
Osmetnica Electronica / Niewte
We learn village music straight from the source, from folk masters. We are fascinated by timbral-emotional phenomenon, beyond description, words, notes. We see parallels between the flow of a folk party and the pulse of a club night, between meaty fiddles and glitch electronica. “The band succeeds in conveying this sense to the listener. The electronics helps stippling traditional rhythms, the variantivity of folk music is transmitted through scratching or light glitching – Niewte seamlessly merges the old with the new.” (Katarzyna Ryzel, “Ruch Muzyczny”) This allows for creating personal, up-to-date music, yet still drawn from archaic Polish idiom. Utilitarian and refined, dancing and deep, local and global, from grandpas to kids.
AL OIDO
Tango Argentino / Trio Pantango
The tango originated circa 1890 in the harbor area of Buenos Aires where musicians performed “a la parrilla” (improvised). Now the tango is a nostalgic, exciting music that has developed into a sound and dance passionately reminiscent of Argentina. Guillermo Destaillats was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1970. At the age of sixteen he began to study music, starting off with piano at the Conservatorio Nacional. Although born in Buenos Aires, it was Germany that Guillermo heard tango for the first time in his life. It was the orchestra of Leopoldo Federico with Julio Sosa as a singer. He was eleven years old then, and it took eleven more years before he started learning the bandoneon, which he took up in 1992, studying with Enrique Fasuolo. In 1993, Guillermo formed Pantango together with Fernando Rubin Saglia. Saglia was born in Buenos Aires in 1968. He began studying music at the age of 20 at the Conservatorio Nacional and the Escuela de Musica Popular de Avellaneda. Michael Elvermann was born in Germany. He played clarinet in the local brass band, both self-taught and with some tuition. In 1983 he studied with Geza Komjathy at the music school in Dorsten. He joined Pantango in May 1993.
