The Country, Folk & World Recommendation Thread

[Safar]

Danûk, a group of exiled Middle Eastern musicians come together on Morîk to reignite a shared consciousness of the value of homeland through the rediscovery of centuries-old sounds. Danûk manifests archived phonograph recordings of Kurdish folklore and wedding songs that have been preserved in wax cylinders and discs for more than a hundred years in The Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv and The Phonogrammarchiv of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, into phenomenal auditory icons of profound cultural heritage and identity.

Danûk - De Çêkin (Syria)

"O Rouanez Karet an Arvor" is a traditional Breton hymn sung mainly to Sainte Anne d'Auray.

O Rouanez Karet an Arvor (France)

Eliza Amy Forbes Carthy, MBE (born 23 August 1975) is an English folk musician known for both singing and playing the fiddle. She is the daughter of English folk musicians Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson.

The Eliza Carthy Band - Dribbles of Brandy (GB)

In MacColl’s hands, the whole idea of the haar – the sea mist that inspired the album – becomes both metaphorical and literal. Literal in the sense that the visual images created by the title track are recognisably foggy, tricky, slightly eerie; metaphorical in that those same images represent something bigger.

Lauren MacColl - Haar (Scotland)

Spoiler for Lauren MacColl - An-raoir:

Spoiler for Lauren MacColl - The Lost Bell / Women of the Shore:

[Jaxx]

Thanks for the MacColl, I really liked it.

[Safar]

Nice to read that you also like MacColl`s style of play.


Some more twist and turns in the may be sometimes "foggy, tricky, slightly eerie" musical landscape.

Synthesized Sudan: Astro-Nubian Electronic Jaglara Dance Sounds from the Fashaga Underground.
In his hometown of El-Gedarif, not far from Sudan’s borders with Ethiopia and Eritrea and just outside the disputed Fashaga triangle, the artist known as Jantra is an underground superstar. Known among small local circles as the creator of the genre Jaglara, loosely translating to “craziness”, Jantra draws on regional rural dance styles and celestial inspiration in creating some of the most exciting music to ever emerge from a Yamaha keyboard, albeit one specially modified to suit Sudanese aesthetics better. The well-hidden street parties that result are tremendous, ecstatic affairs.

Jantra - Jaborouna Jabor (Sudan)

Spoiler for Jantra - Shabal:

[Safar]

Bamanya is responsible for building Africa's first DIY modular synthesizer, a huge wall of home-made modules and FX units that he dubbed, fittingly, The Afrorack. His reason for embarking on this difficult project was simple: as he began to investigate the world of modular synthesizers, he realized it would be difficult to acquire the technology in Uganda. His starting points are often abstractions of acid and techno, but Bamanya curves East African rhythms and different scales into these familiar structures, splintering them into fractal shards.

Afrorack - Osc (Uganda)

[Safar]

Translated to "Stars of Agadez," Etran de L'Aïr is one of the longest-running wedding bands in a city renowned for guitar. Constantly performing at outdoor weddings, both in the city and the surrounding countryside, Etran plays exhaustive concerts, late into the night. Even for a guitar band, they push the instrument to the extreme, with three guitars playing simultaneously, soloing over one another, creating a dreamy cacophony of sound.

Etran de L'Aïr - Toubouk Ine Chihoussay (Niger)

[Safar]

Silent Night can sound like a dirge, as anyone who has heard it rendered by the year 4 violin group at a school Christmas concert can attest, but there is something beautiful about its images of tranquility, particularly when you know it was written in the aftermath of a war. Sinéad O’Connor’s version peels away the overfamiliarity.

Sinéad O'Connor - Silent Night (Ireland)

[Safar]

Winner of the Music Crossroads InterRegional Festival (IRF) in Lilongwe, Malawi in August 2008, MOKOOMBA brings audiences an electrifying blend of Afro-fusion and tantalizing traditional Tonga rhythms. The name MOKOOMBA stems from the deep respect that the Tonga people have for the Zambezi River and for the vibrant life that it brings to their music and culture.

Mokoomba - Makisi (Zimbabwe)

Spoiler for Mokoomba - Munaye:

Freshlyground are known for their fusion of different music genres, including African, pop, and jazz. Their music is characterised by vibrant rhythms, melodic vocals, and socially conscious lyrics.

Freshlyground - Nomvula (After the Rain) (South Africa)

Bhekumuzi Luthuli (13 July 1961 - 7 April 2010) was a well known South African Maskandi musician. Born in Kwa-Maphumulo, near the Kwa-Zulu Natal town of Stanger, he started making traditional Zulu music on a home-made guitar.

Bhekumuzi Luthuli - Bengikwethemba (South Africa)

[Safar]

Ahmet Aslan (born 1971 in Hozat, Tunceli/Dersim) is a Turkish musician of Zaza descent. He performs classical songs in Turkish, Zazaki and Kurdish.
Between 1993 and 1996, he studied at the Istanbul Technical University Conservatory. He has been living in Germany since 1996.
By combining classic guitar and bağlama, Aslan created an instrument which he named Di-Tar.

Ahmet Aslan - Susarak özlüyorum[I only miss you in silence] (Türkiye)

The Naghash Ensemble combines the spirituality of ancient Armenian music with new classical music, post-minimalism and the energy of rock and jazz. Three brilliant singers and virtuoso instrumentalists on duduk, oud, dhol and grand piano play new music based on the texts of the medieval poet and priest Mkrtich Naghash.

The Naghash Ensemble - Agahootyan (Armenia)

The Longest Johns are a British folk musical group from Bristol, England, consisting of Andy Yates, Jonathan "JD" Darley, and Robbie Sattin. They are known for performing folk music and sea shanties in the English tradition, and they also compose and record their own music.
....We had originally hoped for 100 entries for this project... When we received almost 500, we had to rethink our plans!..[

The Longest Johns - Leave her Johnny (GB)

[Safar]

Talisk — Not the folk band you were expecting, but the one you need.
Warning — If you see the concertina, fiddle and guitar that constitutes the instrumental setup of Glasgow’s Talisk and assume it’s going to be what you picture in your head, it’s not.
...incredibly infectious and endearing… fresh, invigorating, accomplished and playfully frisky.

Talisk - Storm (Scotland)

John McLaughlin (guitar), Jean-Luc Ponty (violin) and Zakir Hussain (tabla) perform McLaughlin's renowned composition "Lotus Feet" as part of the International Jazz Day All-Star Global Concert at the Hagia Irene in Istanbul, Turkey. Filmed on April 30, 2013.

John McLaughlin, Jean-Luc Ponty, Zakir Hussain - Lotus Feet (England, France, India)

Steve Reich, actually Stephen Michael Reich, (* October 3, 1936 in New York City, New York) is an American composer, pianist and percussionist who is best known in the field of minimal music and is considered one of its pioneers, although he distanced himself from the pure minimalist style in later works. His inspirations come from original African drum music or Balinese gamelan music, as an expression of non-Western folk music, as well as electronic techniques or phasing, music from the Baroque, Renaissance or the Middle Ages, through to psychedelic rock, jazz and composers of the 20th century...

Steve Reich - Music for 18 Musicians (USA)

[Safar]

Dawn and Margie Beaton, who come from a long line of Celtic musicians, started their musical careers at the age of four, learning step dance from their grandmother.
Coming from a family of fiddlers, dancers, and singers, learning stepdancing and the violin at a young age was a logical development. It's a continuation of that significant culture into vibrant tunes and arrangements as the Beaton Sisters' Band!

The Beaton Sisters - live @ ECMA 2010 / Celtic Colours Festival Club Stage (Cape Breton Island, Canada)

Swag Surfin’ belongs to a subgenre of hip-hop called futuristic swag, an alloy of trap and snap music that also includes elements of rock ...Swag Surfin’ is hip-hop’s plucky locomotive, a single that just picks up steam each year.

F.L.Y. (Fast Life Yungstaz) - Swag Surfin' ft. Easton (USA)