This latest album by Ignacio Lusardi Monteverde unearths the historical influences and musical interactions of various cultures, and their effects on the numerous toques heard in flamenco today. Within his own avant-garde compositions, inspired by his travels around the Andalusian provinces, India and the Middle-East, Ignacio embraces the original modes, melodic phrases, specific tempos and rhythms that have been developed and passed down over the centuries. “Ignacio’s willingness to explore out of his comfort zone and reach out to other cultures speaks to his character.” (Phil Manzanera, Roxy Music)

In the early eighteenth century, a number of the most popular traditional Scottish songs were bizarrely attributed to David Rizzio, who more than 150 years earlier had been brutally murdered while serving as secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots. For their second recording on Olde Focus, Celtic HiP ensemble Makaris explores arrangements of the "Rizzio melodies" by galant-era composers including Francesco Geminiani, Johann Christian Bach, and James Oswald. MAKARIS formed in 2018 and the following year released its first album, Wisps in the Dell, to critical international acclaim. (“Absolutely wonderful ... one of the very best releases of 2019” (MusicWeb International); “Marvelous ... Highly recommended” (Fanfare); “Delightful ... a winning combination” (Early Music Review.) The ensemble’s second recording was the EP Tam Lin, a modern fairytale folk opera composed by Fiona Gillespie and Elliot Cole.

A collection of anthems of (former) socialist countries. Some of them changed the anthem after the collapse of the Warsaw Pact with the result that they changed the political system.

"Letters to Bach" is a clever, original and beautiful musical project created by Noa and Gil Dor. In "Letters to Bach", Noa and Gil Dor perform 12 short instrumental pieces by Bach that Noa has written lyrics to and performs with incredible agility and brilliance, supported only by Gil's guitar. Noa and Gil have already "wowed" audiences around the world with these "McGuiver" performances of complicated Bach pieces that were not written for voice and rarely ever performed vocally. The synergy between Noa and Gil is mesmerizing, the lyrics full of humor, depth, romance, technology, political and social statements and plain fun.

Noel Rosa creait la chanson populaire urbaine, le bahianais Dorival Caymmi imposait la magie afro-bresilienne et Vinicius de Moraes fut le poete par excellence de la bossa nova. Aux cotes de ces trois geants, l'anthologie ouvre aussi le spectre a la chanson romantique de Catulo da Paixao Cearense et de Candido das Neves ainsi qu'a quelques autres plumes de reference (comme Orestes Barbosa, Cartola, Ronaldo Boscoli, Humberto Teixeira...). Noirs, mulatres ou blancs, originaires de Rio de Janeiro ou du Nordeste, auteurs - compositeurs - interpretes comme Noel Rosa ou Caymmi ou seulement paroliers, ils epousent les evolutions stylistiques de la chanson populaire bresilienne sur un demisiecle et leur talent litteraire donne a leur versification un halo hautement poetique. Noel Rosa fathered popular urban songs. Dorival Caymmi breathed Afro-Brazilian magic into them, and Vinicius de Moraes was the poet par excellence of bossa nova. This collection also celebrates other in uential artists in Brazil, the likes of Catulo da Paixao Cearense, Candido das Neves, Orestes Barbosa, Cartola, Ronaldo Boscoli and Humberto Teixeira. Whether they were black, white or mulatto, from Rio de Janeiro or Nordeste, composer songwriters or lyricists, each of these artists contributed to the stylistic evolution of popular Brazilian songs for half a century. Their literary talents made their verse a thing of extraordinary poetry.

After he was coldly murdered in 1972 at the age of 31, the immense artist Franklin Boukaka was very unjustly forgotten. He pioneered popular music in the Congo as the high priest of the rumba, and during the sixties the talents of this great singer/political activist made him a shooting star that lit up the skies in Brazzaville. Frémeaux & Associés is proud to present this first official reissue of his work in a retrospective produced by Claude Blanchard Ngokudi of 2 Rives Productions (Tabu Ley Rochereau, Les Bantous de la Capitale, Zao…). From the album that was his testament – produced by Manu Dibango – to his beginnings with the group Cercul-Jazz, this retrospective brings Franklin Boukaka back to the forefront: one of the greatest musicians to come from the Congo, and the great voice of Pan-Africanism and decolonization. Augustin BONDOUX / Patrick FRÉMEAUX

Embark on a captivating musical journey with Roby Lakatos as he delves into the soul-stirring rhythms of Tango. Teaming up with the renowned Gang Tango, the King of Gypsy violinists invites you to explore the rich traditions of Tango from across the globe. From timeless classics like Oblivion and La Cumparsita to undiscovered jewels such as Rookgordijnen and Vale Mousiki, this album is a veritable treasure chest for lovers of passionate music-making.

Manu Le Prince, bresilienne d'adoption et immense chanteuse de jazz, rend hommage a Johnny Alf, considere par certains comme le pere de la bossa nova et influence majeure de Jobim et Gilberto. Manu Le Prince qui a mis en lumiere les repertoires de monuments du jazz comme Cole Porter, Wayne Shorter, rend gr�ce ici a un artiste incontournable, injustement passe dans l'ombre. Elle a enregistre et produit cet album en 2013 a Rio, avec notamment Idriss Boudrioua, le saxophoniste et arrangeur de Johnny Alf sur trois decennies, et les plus grands musiciens bresiliens. La voix suave et jazzy de la chanteuse sublime le repertoire du compositeur carioca et rend justice a son oeuvre fondamentale. Her country of adoption is Brazil, and the immense jazz singer Manu Le Prince here pays homage to composer Johnny Alf, considered by some as the father of bossa nova and a major influence on Jobim and Gilberto. Manu has already dedicated recordings to the songs of jazz monuments like Cole Porter and Wayne Shorter; for this record she chose the unavoidable (and unfairly overlooked) songwriter Johnny Alf. She recorded and produced this tribute in 2013 in Rio, accompanied notably by Idriss Boudrioua, Alf's saxophonist and arranger for three decades, and some of Brazil's greatest musicians. Her suave, jazzy voice puts all her energy into the repertoire of the composer from Rio to finally do justice to his fundamental music.

Tetes de Chien, quintette a capella contemporain pour chansons traditionnelles, nous propose ce Petit tour du repertoire populaire et oral de nos campagnes, plein de drolerie, de poesie et de tendresse. Il mele chansons paysannes et recits de vie collectes aupres de nos aines. Produit par le collectif TO & MA (� Traditions orales et Musiques actuelles �) cet enregistrement est le troisieme album chez Fremeaux & Associes d'un groupe a l'alchimie si jubilatoire et singuliere dans notre paysage culturel. Les Tetes de Chien conjuguent avec un brio sans pareil, tradition et modernite, valorisation authentique du patrimoine immateriel et performance contemporaine. Augustin BONDOUX / Patrick FReMEAUX Tetes de Chien, a contemporary a cappella song quintet, brings us a new album that investigates French songs from the countryside in the popular, oral tradition. Filled with humour, poetry and tenderness, the repertoire mingles peasant songs with stories of people's lives collected from an elder generation. Produced by the TO & MA collective (it stands for "Oral Traditions & Contemporary Music"), Le Petit Tour is the third album released through Fremeaux from a group whose alchemy is singularly jubilant in our cultural landscape, and the material here shows the group's unrivalled brio in adding even more prestige to a timeless heritage with a contemporary performance. Augustin Bondoux /Patrick Fremeaux CHANTONS POUR BIEN PASSER LE TEMPS - LE BON MOULIN - DEDANS LA VILLE DE PLAISANTEMENT - RENAUD eVEILLE-TOI - LE CORDONNIER SUSPENDU - LE JOLI PETIT MOINE - LE CERF PRIS POUR UNE BICHE - LA FILLE QUI SE DeGUISE POUR SAUVER SON AMANT - LE BON ENDROIT - LE MESSAGE a LA DeLAISSeE - NOUS SOMMES CINQ COMPAGNONS - LES TROIS MAcONS CHEZ LA PICARDE - CAMARADE D'O� VIENS-TU ? - BUVONS MA COMMeRE - LE PAUVRE MAReCHAL - LA MeRE GODICHON - LA JEUNE BIQUE DE CENT ANS - UN PETIT TOUR a LA RIDeE. PRODUCTION : COLLECTIF TO & MA

Singer Sheila Dhar, a disciple of Ustad Fayyaz Ahmed Khan (a leading figure in Hindustani classical singing), through the ragas Bhairav and Kaushi Kanhra, traces the many facets of the Kirana gharana musical lineage with sobriety, fidelity, and depth. "Raga, the central concept in all Indian music, is a Sanskrit term which means passion, colour, and attachment, something which has the effect of colouring the hearts of people. The music is never 'prepared', but rather a live communication in which the listener contributes to the reality of each moment. The ideal of the singer is to share with the listener all phases of the creative process, much like an idea developed in extemporaneous speech. (.) In raga development the musician envisions a heightened state of being through the portraiture in the lines of the raga. The lines, colours, and feelings offered by the raga create a field of awareness in which the listener can share in the intended evocation. This live chemistry of participation is a vital factor in traditional performances." - Sheila Dhar

The diatonic button accordion, from the beginning of the 19th century, became hugely popular in traditional rituals, secular celebrations and love songs, bringing a new aesthetic to Masikoro music in the south-west of the Great Island. The Masikoro's appropriation of the instrument began with modifying it's scale to suit indigenous ears and music. This involved carving the reeds of the accordion to turn it into a "prepared accordion". As the instrument is very difficult to find in new condition, musicians play on old models inherited from their fathers, sometimes even their grandfathers. Repaired several times, they produce noises and clicks from the bellows that become elements of expression in the music. Often accompanied by singing, rattles and drums, the accordion now plays a major role in various traditional rituals such as possession sessions, ceremonies of exorcism, of circumcision and funerals. It also accompanies dancing and songs of nostalgia, and sometimes the end of market days.

Bringing together works both well known and entirely new, this remarkable Paganini program is packed with world premiere recordings made from painstakingly reconstructed manuscripts and unpublished discoveries.

The most important of these is the Sonata a preghiera, performed here for the first time with its original orchestral accompaniment. Other fascinating compositions include the Sonata a Violino Scordato that requires re-tuning the violin, the miniatures Capriccio and Agitato casually handed out by Paganini as gifts, and the stunning Introduzione e variazioni sul tema ‘In cor più non mi sento’ which incorporates all of the most spectacular effects of the composer’s legendary violin technique.

Giacomo Orefice is best known as a late Romantic opera composer. His piano output mainly consists of evocative short pieces that draw inspiration from poetry and paintings, as well as landscapes, nature, and scenes from daily life. The childlike atmosphere of Ninnoli is followed by the delightful Valse des amoureuses, Orefice’s only piano piece published outside Italy. The Preludi del mare describe a day at the seaside from the first lights of dawn to the rising of the moon. These impressionist worlds are enhanced in the Quadri di Böcklin by a sound palette that expresses the symbolist painter’s moods of sorrow and solitude. The melancholy Cipressi, a piece of unknown origin, is now seen as Orefice’s musical epitaph.

These recordings, made between 1960 and 1987 by Jean Malaurie during many missions to the Far North, are intended to use their music to reveal the heart and spirit of the Inuit people, forged in a demanding environment. The Inuit live in one of the world's most vast areas. From Siberia -their homeland- to Greenland, they occupy some of the most desolate icy deserts on the planet. Inuit civilisation has adapted to it's terrible environment in one of the greatest challenges of courage and wisdom in human history. Through songs and drums (warrior choruses, throat singing, poignant melodies), the Inuit bear witness to their myths and legends, their identity, their hidden being and their strength in the midst of desolate spaces that would have driven the weakest characters to despair.

The voice of Ti Fr�re rises up, alone in the silence. A voice with an edge and a hiss, grinning and derisive, shouting, rasping and groaning, it threatens and then becomes very sweet and tender, and with it now come all the manifold voices of the Mauritian people: matrons and young girls begin to sway their hips, a magic wave running through their bodies, as their feet beat time and as the fire on the beach is smelt in the warmth of a night thronged with insects and spirits (.). -Jean-Marie Gustave Le Cl�zio. Wherever she came into contact with the outside world, Africa's influence was profound. Slaves left empty-handed with nothing but their memories, voices, bodies, and therefore their songs, rhythms and dances. And these traces grew, despite their new masters' prohibitions, into the unique musical expression of many a people throughout the world. This was how the s�ga, the music of exile, evolved into the traditional song and dance of the people of Mauritius and Rodrigues, and of other Indian Ocean islands too, like the Seychelles and R�union.

Using simple means -yodeling, musical bow, mouth harp, gong, drum and voice- the Adadi of Atauro share their sorrows and joys, both intimately and collectively. The Atauro island has around 10,000 inhabitants, divided into three ethno-linguistic groups, of which only the Adadi (around 2,000 people) have preserved a varied musical practice, despite the fact that it (and their language) is in serious danger of extinction. The music gives rhythm to the walks to the fields, and enhances the harvest of palm wine morning and evening. It often brings tears to the eyes, but softens sadness and intensifies joy at celebrations that include all age groups and genders. Despite an abrupt interruption in transmission in 1974 by Christian missionaries, certain forbidden ritual songs are still remembered.

The Pernambuco Quartet owes it's creation to luck, chance and passion, when four musicians emblematic of their culture came together around the rich traditions of the Pernambuco region - a unique alchemy of poetry, rhythms and music. Outside Brazil, the carnivals of Bahia and Rio are the best known, but the carnival of Recife (one of Brazil's oldest cities, founded in 1537), capital of the state of Pernambuco (Nordeste region), emanates a very special charm, characterised by a generous musical and artistic variety: frevo (carnival music and dance), maracatu (music, dance and procession against a backdrop of Afro-Brazilian worship), caboclinhos (dramatic music and dance linked to indigenous traditions), and so on. This first album by the Pernambuco Quartet is a magnificent journey through the music of Pernambuco, from the quays of Recife to the sert�o, from the city to the arid hinterland, carried by the voice of Antonio Marinho, the flute of Cesar Michiles, the guitar of Breno Lira, the percussion of Lucas dos Prazeres and their shared inspiration.

Rigodon Sauvage, with a repertoire (Southern Alps, Dauphine) drawn from folklorists' compilations and field recordings, has created an innovative style, giving a contemporary echo to a long musical history. The dominant image of the traditional music and dance of the Southern Alps and, more broadly, the Dauphine, commonly associates the music with the violin and the dance with the rigodon. This image is the culmination of a rich musical history that has been traced through archives, folklorists' works and fieldwork. This history, with it's mechanisms common to all the French provinces, has exacerbated certain salient features of popular musical practices, giving them an unprecedented representative value and place. These practices and the repertoires that have emerged have their own particularities -melodic-rhythmic forms, types of learning, functions, relationship to dance, etc.- These practices and repertoires are very different from "learned" music, even though they are geographically and sometimes culturally close.

The nyckelharpa, a bowed instrument, with keys, sympathetic and drone strings, dating from the 14th century at least, in songs and instrumental pieces (scored also for violin, viola and quinton d'amore) -a rich, remarkable timbre still at the heart of Sweden's musical tradition. The nyckelharpa (which resembles a violin with a keyboard of wooden keys), once widespread throughout northern Europe, has seen it's range shrink as music has evolved, surviving only where it has been able to adapt. In Sweden, from the early 20th century onwards, traditional musicians, who until then had been confined to playing solo in a small area around their homes, began to meet up at folk events, spurred on by the Romantic wave sweeping across Europe. They were then confronted with other practices, other tonalities and other repertoires. Even today, the nyckelharpa is still incredibly adaptable. Different research undertaken by instrument-makers and musicians are enlarging it's sound range, and opening it up to classical or contemporary repertoire, to jazz and ancient music.

This recording is a witness to the last passage of a rich musical heritage that fascinated figures such as Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly: the last masters and the first disciples are reunited, who will be the reference for subsequent generations in a completely different social context. Numerous styles of dance and song - often accompanied by the recorder, bagpipes, reed, hurdy-gurdy, zither, tambura lute, violin, cymbalum, gardon viol (with struck strings) or spoons- form the basis of traditional Hungarian music: songs of the old style linked to weddings, traditional quests, winter and summer solstice bonfires...; and the new style nourished by contributions from Serbian, Swabian and Slovakian neighbouring cultures...; As for the Gypsies, dance and a cappella songs play a predominant role, in a style that is often spectacular and whose vocabulary, sometimes very bold, is that of everyday life, mixed with the most delicate poetry.

In this unique recording, Lee Jae-Hwa -a geomungo zither virtuoso- performs the suites Geomungo Hoesang and Geomungo Sanjo in the respective styles of the South and North of the Korean peninsula: distinct forms, techniques and rhythms, but with a shared subtlety, sensitivity and emotion. The geomungo, a 6-string zither, features 16 frets over a resonating board made of paulownia wood. It's origins trace back to the ancient kingdom of Goguryeo (37 BCE to 668 CE), which dominated the territory of present-day North Korea and a large part of Manchuria. It's rich history spans some 1600 years. The geomungo makes dramatic sounds, through the friction created by the plectrum striking the strings, or the rustling created by the subtle movements of the left hand over the strings. Due to it's dignified and stately nature, the geomungo was considered "the greatest of all instruments" throughout the Korean peninsula.

The vocal power of Mohammed Aman, sensitive to the finest melisma, transporting us back, through courtly poetry and chamber music to former glories of the Hejaz, cradle of Arabian civilization. In 1925, Hejaz became part of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which was born after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, but the history of Hejaz goes back much further. Since pre-Islamic times, Hejaz has been a hotbed of poetry and music; it was the annual 'Ukaz fair, where tribes from all over Arabia came to compete in poetic jousts. With the advent of Islam, the Umayyad dynasty settled in Damascus, but the cities of the Hejaz retained their importance, and while Mecca and Medina attracted pilgrims from all over the world, they also flourished in the arts and letters. Musicians formed a class of their own, many of whom were freed former slaves of African, Persian or Byzantine origin. Protected by patrons of the arts, they were also very popular, and this prestige extended to female singers, some of whom were of free status and were veritable divas.

The Ari people of South-West Ethiopia treat the human voice as a veritable instrument: exploring it's entire acoustic range by varying registers, timbres and vowel resonance; their grand-scale polyphonies are highly sophisticated, yet not without elements of spontaneity and surprise. The period of great collective ceremonies begins at the end of the rainy season - marriages (wochmi), the end of harvesting (buk), funerals (efi) and the lifting of periods of mourning (chi: chi). Participants abandon their habitual activities to devote themselves to the celebration of a decisive life cycle event, amid omnipresent singing and dancing. A strong contrast exists in Ari music between the complexity of the collective polyphonic structure and the sobriety of individual voices. A successful ensemble depends on good combinations of simple elements. Moreover, any apparently rigid polyphonic organization is counterbalanced by a certain flexibility in performance, evident in unpredictable entries of freely moving voices and in a wealth of variations. In Ari polyphonies, a variation is an open proposition, addressed to other musicians, provoking reaction and thereby developing the performance.

In this recording, one of the very first in the santur master's extensive discography, Shivkumar Sharma already shows the full extent of his talent: a remarkable inspiration made up of melodic subtlety and rhythmic liveliness. Shivkumar Sharma [1938-2022] is largely responsible for introducing the santur -a musical instrument for folk music widely used in Kashmir- into classical music. He received dual musical training in tabla and santur from his father, and his development as a virtuoso was extraordinarily fast. This new edition of a disc released over half a century ago is a tribute to this musician, who recently passed away and who, following in the footsteps of a generation of artists such as Vilayat Khan, Ali Akbar Khan and Ravi Shankar, brilliantly exposed another facet of North Indian classical music. The tabla accompaniment is provided by Kashinath Mishra [1937], a pupil of the late Pandit Anokhelal Mishra from Benares.

Mosa�c is an ensemble made up of six musicians from Bulgaria, France, Portugal, and Tunisia. Their compositions are above all else a space for musical encounters at the crossroads of jazz and Mediterranean music. Their musical language is varied, combining Balkan ornamentation with the colours of Western European chamber music and the rhythmic essence of North African music. The ensemble explores imaginative worlds and interweaves traditions like a Mosaic, passing from energetic grooves to the breath of the Bulgarian kaval and the woody sonority of stringed instruments. Now that it's creations have been welcomed throughout the Mediterranean, Mosa�c presents a debut album inspired by the different places it has visited and the people it has met.