BAB L’BLUZ
Bab L’Bluz (literally “The Door of the Blues“) is a Franco-Moroccan group formed in 2018 in Marrakech. The band is inspired by traditional music Gnawa and Hassani to which combines rock, psychedelic sounds and blues. The project was born from the meeting of the charismatic Yousra Mansour (voice, awisha, percussion and guembri), who grew up in the city of El Jadida on the Atlantic coast of Marcocco listening to the Lebanese diva Fairouz, the Gnawa music of nearby Essaouira, but also Janis Joplin, Oumou Sangaré and Erykah Badu, and the French Brice Bottin (guembri, guitar, percussion and choirs) in Marrakech in early 2017. Both fans of Gnawa music, decided to learn together to play the Guembri, a plucked string instrument…
ELIADES OCHOA
summer 2024 / autumn 2024
We all know the parable of the Buena Vista Social Club project because it has entered the collective imagination like few other events. In 1996 the American guitarist Ry Cooder and the conductor Juan de Marcos Gonzalez gather a group of musicians, famous in the ’40s-’50s and mostly forgotten, who practiced the traditional sounds of Isla Grande: son, bolero, danzon, at the time crushed by the empire of salsa. Eliades Ochoa was the child – «el nieto», the grandson – (before the arrival some years later, of the “little” Roberto Fonseca) in that cheerful gang of octogenarians who stunned the whole world. Yet Eliades Ochoa, in 1996, was not exactly of first hair: he was already fifty years old and…
VOILAAA
After the great success of On Te L’Avait Dit (2015) and Des Promesser (2017), the insatiable French producer returns to his first love, disco music, looking at his African and Caribbean influences. In 2021 the new album Voiciii for Voilaaa, signed Favorite Recordings, was released. As an immersive dive into his Afro-disco universe expressed in 14 tracks, it goes without saying that in this LP you can find all the ingredients that made him famous: convincing and dancefloor-friendly festive pieces, irresistible funky arrangements and an undeniable sense of humor and irony. No doubt, as everywhere in the 70s and 80s, funky and disco movements were extremely influential in these places, and in most cases, the combination of the festive, but…
Acid Arab
Hence the idea of creating something new, in which the intense and sharp sounds of techno and house met with the melodies, harmonies and songs of the Arab world. After the first experiments, they shared their findings with producers and musicians, inviting them to take part in the project. So the first single and the next compilation album, Acid Arab Collections came out, which includes collaborations with Crackboy, Pilooski, Etienne Jaumet and I:Cube. Acid Arab have thus created a new form of world music, appropriating the codes of Middle Eastern music and transforming them with the typical analog instruments of techno, such as the beatbox and the bassline machine. Acid Arab, who live expanded into a trio with the addition…
ETRAN DE L’AÏR
SPRING SUMMER 2024
The city is Agadez, famous Tuareg city and nerve center of desert blues and the founder of this story is Aghaly Migi. It is he who founded the group in 1995 and over the years to teach his brothers how to hold the guitar, the most common weapon in the dusty streets of Agadez and who handed to the world musical legends like Bombino. Unlike the most famous colleagues, the Etran de l’Aïr have always maintained a more familiar and perhaps more authentic dimension. In fact, one of the peculiarities of the desert blues of Agadez is to be a ceremonial music played at weddings, baptisms, political events. Even the rhythms were more rudimentary at the beginning of their history…
ROBERTO FONSECA
A cultured and creative artist, with a great jazz sensibility and a precious cultural background rooted in the Afro-Cuban tradition. His latest album YESUN (Wagram / Audioglobe) has just been released: 12 original compositions, numerous guests including the saxophonist, winner of a Grammy Award, Joe Lovano and the famous Franco-Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf. A record suspended between tradition and modernity, where Cuban rhythms intertwine beats, retro keyboards and vocal acrobatics. “Yesun is the record I’ve always aspired to. All my influences are here, all the sounds and vibrations that belong to me and define me“. Roberto Fonseca will be accompanied by drummer Raul Herrera and bassist Yandy Mantinez-Rodriguez.
FATOUMATA DIAWARA
London Ko, the new album by Fatoumata Diawara co-produced by Damon Albarn, was released on May 12. With this new album, Fatoumata Diawara continues to reinvent traditional African music, uniting his Mandinka roots with Afrobeat, jazz, pop, electronic and hip hop influences. A synthesis that is also reflected in the title of the album, which combines the names of a western metropolis like London with that of the Malian capital Bamako. In London Ko, the African artist, among the most intense voices in the international world music scene, joins forces with Damon Albarn (Gorillaz, Blur), who co-produces some songs of the album and appears in six tracks, including the first single, Nsera, released with critical acclaim from Pitchfork, Stereogum, okayafrica, WNYC,…
Kyle Eastwood
Kyle Eastwood grew up in Carmel, California, the eldest son of director Clint Eastwood. Immersed in music since childhood thanks to his parents’ passion, Kyle grew up listening to jazz greats, from Miles Davis to Duke Ellington and Count Basie. “When I told my father I wanted to be a musician, he was really happy. Music has always been important in my family”. Encouraged and supported by his father, Kyle Eastwood began playing double bass and electric bass and after studying he started playing in the United States. It’s with the release of his first album in the late 90s that he begins his recording production, while simultaneously realizing the soundtracks of his father’s films: Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby,…
Private: AFROTRONIX
AfrotroniX, mixes Africa and Western cultures between dance and digital arts, fusing electronic music with African rhythms and blues of Touareg going towards a futuristic musical world. Discovered in Paris, he worked with international artists such as Lorenzo Jovanotti, Baaba Maal, Youssou N’dour, Salatiel, Mbongwana Star, Brian Kennedy ( Rihanna, Chris Brown) and many others..
ANA MOURA
But what differentiates her is not only the depth and sensuality of the timbre of voice, which few other singers possess, but her ability to transform into fado every melody to which she lends her voice. There is no other fado voice like Ana Moura’s. Ana began to cultivate a passion for music as a child, helped in this by a family of singers. Although he had been able to perform in any musical genre, he soon realized he had a particular inclination for fado: at the age of six he sang his first fado song Cavalo Ruço, but during his adolescence he decided to put this music aside for a while. In this period, despite singing songs of other…
AYOM
International awards are not lacking, from the Best Group for Songlines 2021, to the Best Album World Music 2021 for Mojo: Le Monde praised their concert at the Trans Musicales in Rennes (the historic festival that for 43 years announces tomorrow’s music trends) defining this edition as “marked by the carnival joy of the Ayom group”. Their name Ayom, is the “Lord of Music“, which in Afro-Brazilian mythology (Candomblè), is the deity who lives inside the drum and who taught humans to make music and sing. Mixing numerous musical and rhythmic traditions, Ayom embarks on an exciting and intimate journey on the routes of the African diaspora. Thus flourishes their nomadic and deep musicality, provocative and dancing, where tradition and…
MAGALÍ SARE & MANEL FORTIÀ
ON TOUR
The engaging encounter between two eclectic talents, the Catalan singer Magalí Sare and the multifaceted musician Manel Fortià. This collaboration combines the sweet and versatile voice of Magalí with the instrumental richness of Manel, creating a unique sound experience that crosses stylistic and linguistic boundaries. Magalí Sare, born into a family of musicians, began her career in the choir directed by her sister during her childhood, then evolving to projects such as Quartet Mèlt. Her delicate voice and dedication to jazz have shaped an impressive career, including collaborating with artists such as Clara Peya. Manel Fortià, graduated in Computer Science, has abandoned that road to dedicate himself to his true passion: music. His experience in New York has enriched his…
SHANTEL
Shantel interacts with the audience and the audience adores him for this: “When he crosses the barriers and almost drowns in the crowd, even the most experienced festival goers appear surprised. Shantel puts his finger on his mouth and invites the audience to sit, he among thousands of people, caught by the spotlight. And then he begins to sing lightly in his microphone “Anarchy and Romance, we do not need any guidance…” until the musicians on stage attack with a powerful storm of bass and brass. This is the moment when the crowd starts dancing again, with Shantel still among them”. (FAZ) In conclusion: “Who has ever seen a Shantel concert, knows: everyone will dance in an ecstatic and euphoric…
OUMOU SANGARE
Oumou Sangaré is famous all over the world for its vibrant and powerful music, which often contains revolutionary messages on topics such as women’s rights, tradition and poverty. Since the release of her debut album Moussoulou in 1989, the career of the Malian singer has not had any stops. Among the most important stages of his rich and fruitful journey are some of the most important recordings in the history of contemporary African music: Ko Sira (1993), Worotan (1996) and Seya (2009), the latter nominated for a Grammy Award. Counting among her fans the likes of Alicia Keys and Beyoncé (who sampled the classic Diaraby Nene for the soundtrack of the 2019 film The Lion King), Sangaré has long broken…
BAB L’BLUZ
Bab L’Bluz (literally “The Door of the Blues“) is a Franco-Moroccan group formed in 2018 in Marrakech. The band is inspired by traditional music Gnawa and Hassani to which combines rock, psychedelic sounds and blues. The project was born from the meeting of the charismatic Yousra Mansour (voice, awisha, percussion and guembri), who grew up in the city of El Jadida on the Atlantic coast of Marcocco listening to the Lebanese diva Fairouz, the Gnawa music of nearby Essaouira, but also Janis Joplin, Oumou Sangaré and Erykah Badu, and the French Brice Bottin (guembri, guitar, percussion and choirs) in Marrakech in early 2017. Both fans of Gnawa music, decided to learn together to play the Guembri, a plucked string instrument…
ELIADES OCHOA
On Tour
We all know the parable of the Buena Vista Social Club project because it has entered the collective imagination like few other events. In 1996 the American guitarist Ry Cooder and the conductor Juan de Marcos Gonzalez gather a group of musicians, famous in the ’40s-’50s and mostly forgotten, who practiced the traditional sounds of Isla Grande: son, bolero, danzon, at the time crushed by the empire of salsa. Eliades Ochoa was the child – «el nieto», the grandson – (before the arrival some years later, of the “little” Roberto Fonseca) in that cheerful gang of octogenarians who stunned the whole world. Yet Eliades Ochoa, in 1996, was not exactly of first hair: he was already fifty years old and…
VOILAAA
After the great success of On Te L’Avait Dit (2015) and Des Promesser (2017), the insatiable French producer returns to his first love, disco music, looking at his African and Caribbean influences. In 2021 the new album Voiciii for Voilaaa, signed Favorite Recordings, was released. As an immersive dive into his Afro-disco universe expressed in 14 tracks, it goes without saying that in this LP you can find all the ingredients that made him famous: convincing and dancefloor-friendly festive pieces, irresistible funky arrangements and an undeniable sense of humor and irony. No doubt, as everywhere in the 70s and 80s, funky and disco movements were extremely influential in these places, and in most cases, the combination of the festive, but…
Acid Arab
Hence the idea of creating something new, in which the intense and sharp sounds of techno and house met with the melodies, harmonies and songs of the Arab world. After the first experiments, they shared their findings with producers and musicians, inviting them to take part in the project. So the first single and the next compilation album, Acid Arab Collections came out, which includes collaborations with Crackboy, Pilooski, Etienne Jaumet and I:Cube. Acid Arab have thus created a new form of world music, appropriating the codes of Middle Eastern music and transforming them with the typical analog instruments of techno, such as the beatbox and the bassline machine. Acid Arab, who live expanded into a trio with the addition…
ETRAN DE L’AÏR
On Tour
The city is Agadez, famous Tuareg city and nerve center of desert blues and the founder of this story is Aghaly Migi. It is he who founded the group in 1995 and over the years to teach his brothers how to hold the guitar, the most common weapon in the dusty streets of Agadez and who handed to the world musical legends like Bombino. Unlike the most famous colleagues, the Etran de l’Aïr have always maintained a more familiar and perhaps more authentic dimension. In fact, one of the peculiarities of the desert blues of Agadez is to be a ceremonial music played at weddings, baptisms, political events. Even the rhythms were more rudimentary at the beginning of their history…
ROBERTO FONSECA
A cultured and creative artist, with a great jazz sensibility and a precious cultural background rooted in the Afro-Cuban tradition. His latest album YESUN (Wagram / Audioglobe) has just been released: 12 original compositions, numerous guests including the saxophonist, winner of a Grammy Award, Joe Lovano and the famous Franco-Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf. A record suspended between tradition and modernity, where Cuban rhythms intertwine beats, retro keyboards and vocal acrobatics. “Yesun is the record I’ve always aspired to. All my influences are here, all the sounds and vibrations that belong to me and define me“. Roberto Fonseca will be accompanied by drummer Raul Herrera and bassist Yandy Mantinez-Rodriguez.
FATOUMATA DIAWARA
London Ko, the new album by Fatoumata Diawara co-produced by Damon Albarn, was released on May 12. With this new album, Fatoumata Diawara continues to reinvent traditional African music, uniting his Mandinka roots with Afrobeat, jazz, pop, electronic and hip hop influences. A synthesis that is also reflected in the title of the album, which combines the names of a western metropolis like London with that of the Malian capital Bamako. In London Ko, the African artist, among the most intense voices in the international world music scene, joins forces with Damon Albarn (Gorillaz, Blur), who co-produces some songs of the album and appears in six tracks, including the first single, Nsera, released with critical acclaim from Pitchfork, Stereogum, okayafrica, WNYC,…
Kyle Eastwood
Kyle Eastwood grew up in Carmel, California, the eldest son of director Clint Eastwood. Immersed in music since childhood thanks to his parents’ passion, Kyle grew up listening to jazz greats, from Miles Davis to Duke Ellington and Count Basie. “When I told my father I wanted to be a musician, he was really happy. Music has always been important in my family”. Encouraged and supported by his father, Kyle Eastwood began playing double bass and electric bass and after studying he started playing in the United States. It’s with the release of his first album in the late 90s that he begins his recording production, while simultaneously realizing the soundtracks of his father’s films: Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby,…
Private: AFROTRONIX
AfrotroniX, mixes Africa and Western cultures between dance and digital arts, fusing electronic music with African rhythms and blues of Touareg going towards a futuristic musical world. Discovered in Paris, he worked with international artists such as Lorenzo Jovanotti, Baaba Maal, Youssou N’dour, Salatiel, Mbongwana Star, Brian Kennedy ( Rihanna, Chris Brown) and many others..
ANA MOURA
But what differentiates her is not only the depth and sensuality of the timbre of voice, which few other singers possess, but her ability to transform into fado every melody to which she lends her voice. There is no other fado voice like Ana Moura’s. Ana began to cultivate a passion for music as a child, helped in this by a family of singers. Although he had been able to perform in any musical genre, he soon realized he had a particular inclination for fado: at the age of six he sang his first fado song Cavalo Ruço, but during his adolescence he decided to put this music aside for a while. In this period, despite singing songs of other…
AYOM
International awards are not lacking, from the Best Group for Songlines 2021, to the Best Album World Music 2021 for Mojo: Le Monde praised their concert at the Trans Musicales in Rennes (the historic festival that for 43 years announces tomorrow’s music trends) defining this edition as “marked by the carnival joy of the Ayom group”. Their name Ayom, is the “Lord of Music“, which in Afro-Brazilian mythology (Candomblè), is the deity who lives inside the drum and who taught humans to make music and sing. Mixing numerous musical and rhythmic traditions, Ayom embarks on an exciting and intimate journey on the routes of the African diaspora. Thus flourishes their nomadic and deep musicality, provocative and dancing, where tradition and…
MAGALÍ SARE & MANEL FORTIÀ
On Tour
The engaging encounter between two eclectic talents, the Catalan singer Magalí Sare and the multifaceted musician Manel Fortià. This collaboration combines the sweet and versatile voice of Magalí with the instrumental richness of Manel, creating a unique sound experience that crosses stylistic and linguistic boundaries. Magalí Sare, born into a family of musicians, began her career in the choir directed by her sister during her childhood, then evolving to projects such as Quartet Mèlt. Her delicate voice and dedication to jazz have shaped an impressive career, including collaborating with artists such as Clara Peya. Manel Fortià, graduated in Computer Science, has abandoned that road to dedicate himself to his true passion: music. His experience in New York has enriched his…
SHANTEL
Shantel interacts with the audience and the audience adores him for this: “When he crosses the barriers and almost drowns in the crowd, even the most experienced festival goers appear surprised. Shantel puts his finger on his mouth and invites the audience to sit, he among thousands of people, caught by the spotlight. And then he begins to sing lightly in his microphone “Anarchy and Romance, we do not need any guidance…” until the musicians on stage attack with a powerful storm of bass and brass. This is the moment when the crowd starts dancing again, with Shantel still among them”. (FAZ) In conclusion: “Who has ever seen a Shantel concert, knows: everyone will dance in an ecstatic and euphoric…
OUMOU SANGARE
Oumou Sangaré is famous all over the world for its vibrant and powerful music, which often contains revolutionary messages on topics such as women’s rights, tradition and poverty. Since the release of her debut album Moussoulou in 1989, the career of the Malian singer has not had any stops. Among the most important stages of his rich and fruitful journey are some of the most important recordings in the history of contemporary African music: Ko Sira (1993), Worotan (1996) and Seya (2009), the latter nominated for a Grammy Award. Counting among her fans the likes of Alicia Keys and Beyoncé (who sampled the classic Diaraby Nene for the soundtrack of the 2019 film The Lion King), Sangaré has long broken…
BAB L’BLUZ
Bab L’Bluz (literally “The Door of the Blues“) is a Franco-Moroccan group formed in 2018 in Marrakech. The band is inspired by traditional music Gnawa and Hassani to which combines rock, psychedelic sounds and blues. The project was born from the meeting of the charismatic Yousra Mansour (voice, awisha, percussion and guembri), who grew up in the city of El Jadida on the Atlantic coast of Marcocco listening to the Lebanese diva Fairouz, the Gnawa music of nearby Essaouira, but also Janis Joplin, Oumou Sangaré and Erykah Badu, and the French Brice Bottin (guembri, guitar, percussion and choirs) in Marrakech in early 2017. Both fans of Gnawa music, decided to learn together to play the Guembri, a plucked string instrument…
ELIADES OCHOA
On Tour
We all know the parable of the Buena Vista Social Club project because it has entered the collective imagination like few other events. In 1996 the American guitarist Ry Cooder and the conductor Juan de Marcos Gonzalez gather a group of musicians, famous in the ’40s-’50s and mostly forgotten, who practiced the traditional sounds of Isla Grande: son, bolero, danzon, at the time crushed by the empire of salsa. Eliades Ochoa was the child – «el nieto», the grandson – (before the arrival some years later, of the “little” Roberto Fonseca) in that cheerful gang of octogenarians who stunned the whole world. Yet Eliades Ochoa, in 1996, was not exactly of first hair: he was already fifty years old and…
VOILAAA
After the great success of On Te L’Avait Dit (2015) and Des Promesser (2017), the insatiable French producer returns to his first love, disco music, looking at his African and Caribbean influences. In 2021 the new album Voiciii for Voilaaa, signed Favorite Recordings, was released. As an immersive dive into his Afro-disco universe expressed in 14 tracks, it goes without saying that in this LP you can find all the ingredients that made him famous: convincing and dancefloor-friendly festive pieces, irresistible funky arrangements and an undeniable sense of humor and irony. No doubt, as everywhere in the 70s and 80s, funky and disco movements were extremely influential in these places, and in most cases, the combination of the festive, but…
Acid Arab
Hence the idea of creating something new, in which the intense and sharp sounds of techno and house met with the melodies, harmonies and songs of the Arab world. After the first experiments, they shared their findings with producers and musicians, inviting them to take part in the project. So the first single and the next compilation album, Acid Arab Collections came out, which includes collaborations with Crackboy, Pilooski, Etienne Jaumet and I:Cube. Acid Arab have thus created a new form of world music, appropriating the codes of Middle Eastern music and transforming them with the typical analog instruments of techno, such as the beatbox and the bassline machine. Acid Arab, who live expanded into a trio with the addition…
ETRAN DE L’AÏR
On Tour
The city is Agadez, famous Tuareg city and nerve center of desert blues and the founder of this story is Aghaly Migi. It is he who founded the group in 1995 and over the years to teach his brothers how to hold the guitar, the most common weapon in the dusty streets of Agadez and who handed to the world musical legends like Bombino. Unlike the most famous colleagues, the Etran de l’Aïr have always maintained a more familiar and perhaps more authentic dimension. In fact, one of the peculiarities of the desert blues of Agadez is to be a ceremonial music played at weddings, baptisms, political events. Even the rhythms were more rudimentary at the beginning of their history…
ROBERTO FONSECA
A cultured and creative artist, with a great jazz sensibility and a precious cultural background rooted in the Afro-Cuban tradition. His latest album YESUN (Wagram / Audioglobe) has just been released: 12 original compositions, numerous guests including the saxophonist, winner of a Grammy Award, Joe Lovano and the famous Franco-Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf. A record suspended between tradition and modernity, where Cuban rhythms intertwine beats, retro keyboards and vocal acrobatics. “Yesun is the record I’ve always aspired to. All my influences are here, all the sounds and vibrations that belong to me and define me“. Roberto Fonseca will be accompanied by drummer Raul Herrera and bassist Yandy Mantinez-Rodriguez.
FATOUMATA DIAWARA
London Ko, the new album by Fatoumata Diawara co-produced by Damon Albarn, was released on May 12. With this new album, Fatoumata Diawara continues to reinvent traditional African music, uniting his Mandinka roots with Afrobeat, jazz, pop, electronic and hip hop influences. A synthesis that is also reflected in the title of the album, which combines the names of a western metropolis like London with that of the Malian capital Bamako. In London Ko, the African artist, among the most intense voices in the international world music scene, joins forces with Damon Albarn (Gorillaz, Blur), who co-produces some songs of the album and appears in six tracks, including the first single, Nsera, released with critical acclaim from Pitchfork, Stereogum, okayafrica, WNYC,…
Kyle Eastwood
Kyle Eastwood grew up in Carmel, California, the eldest son of director Clint Eastwood. Immersed in music since childhood thanks to his parents’ passion, Kyle grew up listening to jazz greats, from Miles Davis to Duke Ellington and Count Basie. “When I told my father I wanted to be a musician, he was really happy. Music has always been important in my family”. Encouraged and supported by his father, Kyle Eastwood began playing double bass and electric bass and after studying he started playing in the United States. It’s with the release of his first album in the late 90s that he begins his recording production, while simultaneously realizing the soundtracks of his father’s films: Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby,…
Private: AFROTRONIX
AfrotroniX, mixes Africa and Western cultures between dance and digital arts, fusing electronic music with African rhythms and blues of Touareg going towards a futuristic musical world. Discovered in Paris, he worked with international artists such as Lorenzo Jovanotti, Baaba Maal, Youssou N’dour, Salatiel, Mbongwana Star, Brian Kennedy ( Rihanna, Chris Brown) and many others..
ANA MOURA
But what differentiates her is not only the depth and sensuality of the timbre of voice, which few other singers possess, but her ability to transform into fado every melody to which she lends her voice. There is no other fado voice like Ana Moura’s. Ana began to cultivate a passion for music as a child, helped in this by a family of singers. Although he had been able to perform in any musical genre, he soon realized he had a particular inclination for fado: at the age of six he sang his first fado song Cavalo Ruço, but during his adolescence he decided to put this music aside for a while. In this period, despite singing songs of other…
AYOM
International awards are not lacking, from the Best Group for Songlines 2021, to the Best Album World Music 2021 for Mojo: Le Monde praised their concert at the Trans Musicales in Rennes (the historic festival that for 43 years announces tomorrow’s music trends) defining this edition as “marked by the carnival joy of the Ayom group”. Their name Ayom, is the “Lord of Music“, which in Afro-Brazilian mythology (Candomblè), is the deity who lives inside the drum and who taught humans to make music and sing. Mixing numerous musical and rhythmic traditions, Ayom embarks on an exciting and intimate journey on the routes of the African diaspora. Thus flourishes their nomadic and deep musicality, provocative and dancing, where tradition and…
MAGALÍ SARE & MANEL FORTIÀ
On Tour
The engaging encounter between two eclectic talents, the Catalan singer Magalí Sare and the multifaceted musician Manel Fortià. This collaboration combines the sweet and versatile voice of Magalí with the instrumental richness of Manel, creating a unique sound experience that crosses stylistic and linguistic boundaries. Magalí Sare, born into a family of musicians, began her career in the choir directed by her sister during her childhood, then evolving to projects such as Quartet Mèlt. Her delicate voice and dedication to jazz have shaped an impressive career, including collaborating with artists such as Clara Peya. Manel Fortià, graduated in Computer Science, has abandoned that road to dedicate himself to his true passion: music. His experience in New York has enriched his…
SHANTEL
Shantel interacts with the audience and the audience adores him for this: “When he crosses the barriers and almost drowns in the crowd, even the most experienced festival goers appear surprised. Shantel puts his finger on his mouth and invites the audience to sit, he among thousands of people, caught by the spotlight. And then he begins to sing lightly in his microphone “Anarchy and Romance, we do not need any guidance…” until the musicians on stage attack with a powerful storm of bass and brass. This is the moment when the crowd starts dancing again, with Shantel still among them”. (FAZ) In conclusion: “Who has ever seen a Shantel concert, knows: everyone will dance in an ecstatic and euphoric…
OUMOU SANGARE
Oumou Sangaré is famous all over the world for its vibrant and powerful music, which often contains revolutionary messages on topics such as women’s rights, tradition and poverty. Since the release of her debut album Moussoulou in 1989, the career of the Malian singer has not had any stops. Among the most important stages of his rich and fruitful journey are some of the most important recordings in the history of contemporary African music: Ko Sira (1993), Worotan (1996) and Seya (2009), the latter nominated for a Grammy Award. Counting among her fans the likes of Alicia Keys and Beyoncé (who sampled the classic Diaraby Nene for the soundtrack of the 2019 film The Lion King), Sangaré has long broken…
BAB L’BLUZ
Bab L’Bluz (literally “The Door of the Blues“) is a Franco-Moroccan group formed in 2018 in Marrakech. The band is inspired by traditional music Gnawa and Hassani to which combines rock, psychedelic sounds and blues. The project was born from the meeting of the charismatic Yousra Mansour (voice, awisha, percussion and guembri), who grew up in the city of El Jadida on the Atlantic coast of Marcocco listening to the Lebanese diva Fairouz, the Gnawa music of nearby Essaouira, but also Janis Joplin, Oumou Sangaré and Erykah Badu, and the French Brice Bottin (guembri, guitar, percussion and choirs) in Marrakech in early 2017. Both fans of Gnawa music, decided to learn together to play the Guembri, a plucked string instrument…
ELIADES OCHOA
On Tour
We all know the parable of the Buena Vista Social Club project because it has entered the collective imagination like few other events. In 1996 the American guitarist Ry Cooder and the conductor Juan de Marcos Gonzalez gather a group of musicians, famous in the ’40s-’50s and mostly forgotten, who practiced the traditional sounds of Isla Grande: son, bolero, danzon, at the time crushed by the empire of salsa. Eliades Ochoa was the child – «el nieto», the grandson – (before the arrival some years later, of the “little” Roberto Fonseca) in that cheerful gang of octogenarians who stunned the whole world. Yet Eliades Ochoa, in 1996, was not exactly of first hair: he was already fifty years old and…
VOILAAA
After the great success of On Te L’Avait Dit (2015) and Des Promesser (2017), the insatiable French producer returns to his first love, disco music, looking at his African and Caribbean influences. In 2021 the new album Voiciii for Voilaaa, signed Favorite Recordings, was released. As an immersive dive into his Afro-disco universe expressed in 14 tracks, it goes without saying that in this LP you can find all the ingredients that made him famous: convincing and dancefloor-friendly festive pieces, irresistible funky arrangements and an undeniable sense of humor and irony. No doubt, as everywhere in the 70s and 80s, funky and disco movements were extremely influential in these places, and in most cases, the combination of the festive, but…
Acid Arab
Hence the idea of creating something new, in which the intense and sharp sounds of techno and house met with the melodies, harmonies and songs of the Arab world. After the first experiments, they shared their findings with producers and musicians, inviting them to take part in the project. So the first single and the next compilation album, Acid Arab Collections came out, which includes collaborations with Crackboy, Pilooski, Etienne Jaumet and I:Cube. Acid Arab have thus created a new form of world music, appropriating the codes of Middle Eastern music and transforming them with the typical analog instruments of techno, such as the beatbox and the bassline machine. Acid Arab, who live expanded into a trio with the addition…
ETRAN DE L’AÏR
On Tour
The city is Agadez, famous Tuareg city and nerve center of desert blues and the founder of this story is Aghaly Migi. It is he who founded the group in 1995 and over the years to teach his brothers how to hold the guitar, the most common weapon in the dusty streets of Agadez and who handed to the world musical legends like Bombino. Unlike the most famous colleagues, the Etran de l’Aïr have always maintained a more familiar and perhaps more authentic dimension. In fact, one of the peculiarities of the desert blues of Agadez is to be a ceremonial music played at weddings, baptisms, political events. Even the rhythms were more rudimentary at the beginning of their history…
ROBERTO FONSECA
A cultured and creative artist, with a great jazz sensibility and a precious cultural background rooted in the Afro-Cuban tradition. His latest album YESUN (Wagram / Audioglobe) has just been released: 12 original compositions, numerous guests including the saxophonist, winner of a Grammy Award, Joe Lovano and the famous Franco-Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf. A record suspended between tradition and modernity, where Cuban rhythms intertwine beats, retro keyboards and vocal acrobatics. “Yesun is the record I’ve always aspired to. All my influences are here, all the sounds and vibrations that belong to me and define me“. Roberto Fonseca will be accompanied by drummer Raul Herrera and bassist Yandy Mantinez-Rodriguez.
FATOUMATA DIAWARA
London Ko, the new album by Fatoumata Diawara co-produced by Damon Albarn, was released on May 12. With this new album, Fatoumata Diawara continues to reinvent traditional African music, uniting his Mandinka roots with Afrobeat, jazz, pop, electronic and hip hop influences. A synthesis that is also reflected in the title of the album, which combines the names of a western metropolis like London with that of the Malian capital Bamako. In London Ko, the African artist, among the most intense voices in the international world music scene, joins forces with Damon Albarn (Gorillaz, Blur), who co-produces some songs of the album and appears in six tracks, including the first single, Nsera, released with critical acclaim from Pitchfork, Stereogum, okayafrica, WNYC,…
Kyle Eastwood
Kyle Eastwood grew up in Carmel, California, the eldest son of director Clint Eastwood. Immersed in music since childhood thanks to his parents’ passion, Kyle grew up listening to jazz greats, from Miles Davis to Duke Ellington and Count Basie. “When I told my father I wanted to be a musician, he was really happy. Music has always been important in my family”. Encouraged and supported by his father, Kyle Eastwood began playing double bass and electric bass and after studying he started playing in the United States. It’s with the release of his first album in the late 90s that he begins his recording production, while simultaneously realizing the soundtracks of his father’s films: Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby,…
Private: AFROTRONIX
AfrotroniX, mixes Africa and Western cultures between dance and digital arts, fusing electronic music with African rhythms and blues of Touareg going towards a futuristic musical world. Discovered in Paris, he worked with international artists such as Lorenzo Jovanotti, Baaba Maal, Youssou N’dour, Salatiel, Mbongwana Star, Brian Kennedy ( Rihanna, Chris Brown) and many others..
ANA MOURA
But what differentiates her is not only the depth and sensuality of the timbre of voice, which few other singers possess, but her ability to transform into fado every melody to which she lends her voice. There is no other fado voice like Ana Moura’s. Ana began to cultivate a passion for music as a child, helped in this by a family of singers. Although he had been able to perform in any musical genre, he soon realized he had a particular inclination for fado: at the age of six he sang his first fado song Cavalo Ruço, but during his adolescence he decided to put this music aside for a while. In this period, despite singing songs of other…
AYOM
International awards are not lacking, from the Best Group for Songlines 2021, to the Best Album World Music 2021 for Mojo: Le Monde praised their concert at the Trans Musicales in Rennes (the historic festival that for 43 years announces tomorrow’s music trends) defining this edition as “marked by the carnival joy of the Ayom group”. Their name Ayom, is the “Lord of Music“, which in Afro-Brazilian mythology (Candomblè), is the deity who lives inside the drum and who taught humans to make music and sing. Mixing numerous musical and rhythmic traditions, Ayom embarks on an exciting and intimate journey on the routes of the African diaspora. Thus flourishes their nomadic and deep musicality, provocative and dancing, where tradition and…
MAGALÍ SARE & MANEL FORTIÀ
On Tour
The engaging encounter between two eclectic talents, the Catalan singer Magalí Sare and the multifaceted musician Manel Fortià. This collaboration combines the sweet and versatile voice of Magalí with the instrumental richness of Manel, creating a unique sound experience that crosses stylistic and linguistic boundaries. Magalí Sare, born into a family of musicians, began her career in the choir directed by her sister during her childhood, then evolving to projects such as Quartet Mèlt. Her delicate voice and dedication to jazz have shaped an impressive career, including collaborating with artists such as Clara Peya. Manel Fortià, graduated in Computer Science, has abandoned that road to dedicate himself to his true passion: music. His experience in New York has enriched his…
SHANTEL
Shantel interacts with the audience and the audience adores him for this: “When he crosses the barriers and almost drowns in the crowd, even the most experienced festival goers appear surprised. Shantel puts his finger on his mouth and invites the audience to sit, he among thousands of people, caught by the spotlight. And then he begins to sing lightly in his microphone “Anarchy and Romance, we do not need any guidance…” until the musicians on stage attack with a powerful storm of bass and brass. This is the moment when the crowd starts dancing again, with Shantel still among them”. (FAZ) In conclusion: “Who has ever seen a Shantel concert, knows: everyone will dance in an ecstatic and euphoric…
OUMOU SANGARE
Oumou Sangaré is famous all over the world for its vibrant and powerful music, which often contains revolutionary messages on topics such as women’s rights, tradition and poverty. Since the release of her debut album Moussoulou in 1989, the career of the Malian singer has not had any stops. Among the most important stages of his rich and fruitful journey are some of the most important recordings in the history of contemporary African music: Ko Sira (1993), Worotan (1996) and Seya (2009), the latter nominated for a Grammy Award. Counting among her fans the likes of Alicia Keys and Beyoncé (who sampled the classic Diaraby Nene for the soundtrack of the 2019 film The Lion King), Sangaré has long broken…
