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Folk /

"Second Poem To Karmela" Or Gypsies Are Important
2014 Release. Light In The Attic and the legendary folk/blues/roots label Vanguard Records are proud to begin a series of collaborations under the umbrella Vanguard Vault. The series will explore the vaults of Vanguard and see the reissuing of obscure nuggets, psychedelic weirdness and just some good old-fashioned seminal music.Originally released in 1968 on Vanguard Records, Peter Walker’s album “Second Poem To Karmela” Or Gypsies Are Important was a ground breaking blend of folk, raga, psyche…
El Hob Kollo
Souma Records present a vinyl reissue of Om Kalsoum's El Hob Kollo, originally released in 1971. They call her "The Rose of the Nile", "The Queen of the Nile", "The Daughter of the Nile", or even "The 4th Pyramid of Egypt" since she's known as the greatest Egyptian singer of all times. Om Kalsoum's mythical life story of a poor peasant girl who grew up to become the face of Egypt is a 20th-century fairytale. Almost half a decade after her death the power of her music and singing is still moving …
Alf Leila Wa Leila
Souma Records present a vinyl reissue of Om Kalsoum's Alf Leila Wa Leila, originally released in 1969. They call her "The Rose of the Nile", "The Queen of the Nile", "The Daughter of the Nile", or even "The 4th Pyramid of Egypt" since she's known as the greatest Egyptian singer of all times. Om Kalsoum's mythical life story of a poor peasant girl who grew up to become the face of Egypt is a 20th-century fairytale. Almost half a decade after her death the power of her music and singing is still m…
Nuova Compagnia di Canto Popolare
More than a band, the Nuova Compagnia di Canto Popolare was a collective dedicated to the study and revaluation of Neapolitan and Mediterranean musical traditions, with multi-vocal parts and acoustic guitars, flutes, percussions and all kinds of ancient folk instruments. Their founder, spiritual guide and executive producer was Roberto De Simone, main author of musical research and arrangements. The foundation dates back to the second half of the '60s, but it was only in 1971 that the first  hom…
The Big Huge
Recorded in 1968, as the Incredible String Band popularity was peaking, the band by this point had more or less stabilized to quartet form with Williamson, Heron and Licorice being joined by Heron’s then-girlfriend, Rose Simpson, on violin and percussion. They were touring a lot at this point throughout Europe and the U.S., which I assume is how they fell in with the Scientologists, but that particular tragedy doesn’t have any noticeable effect on this album (!)Along with having very developed a…
Wee Tam
Wee Tam and The Big Huge were originally released in 1968 as both a double LP in the UK, and individually as two separate albums in the US. They mark a creative high point for the Incredible String Band that is only matched by their other 1968 masterpiece, The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter. Produced, as always, by the legendary Joe Boyd, these albums feature some of the band’s best, and most accessible song writing. While Hangman’s and The 5000 Spirits… may have been considered more revolutionary…
Incredible String band
Beginning as a duo in Edinburg, Scotland, acoustic musicians Robin Williamson and Clive Palmer sought to stretch the boundaries of contemporary folk music from the start. Composing much of their own material rather than relying solely on the hidebound traditional repertoire, they were spotted by Elektra Records' Joe Boyd while playing in the Crown Bar and, duly impressed, he signed them to the label. After adding additional guitarist Mike Heron, they traveled to London's Sound Techniques Studio …
Antologia De Musica Atipica Portuguesa Vol. 2: Regioes
In 1959, Michel Giacometti moved to Portugal and dedicated the following thirty years of his life recording traditional music all over the country. In the present decade, Portuguese music has been thriving and finally travelling abroad, long gone are the days those hidden gems were kept in secret in this distant corner of Europe. The discovery of current Portuguese music sparked an interest to Portuguese music, past and present. With both of those ideas in mind, Giacometti and the interest in Po…
Salm: Gaelic Psalms from the Hebrides of Scotland, v. 2
Following a sold-out run of Salm, Vol. 1 (ALE 007LP, 2018) Arc Light Editions closes the year with a second volume of Gaelic psalm singing. The recordings documented here are from the same psalm singing sessions as the first, and both together represent a complete collection. This is music that is transcendent and together, about the individual and the earth, movingly spiritual with or without belief. The sound comes in great waves, swells of sound that break and roll around the space. The textu…
Japon (Japan)
Double LP-version. 180 gram vinyl; Gatefold sleeve; Includes booklet and download. Ambient/traditional flute music from Japanese shakuhachi Master, Teruhisa Fukuda. The shakuhachi is an end-blown bamboo flute with one dorsal and four frontal holes and a beveled notch as mouthpiece. There are two elements in the name of the instrument: shaku refers to an ancient measurement which is the equivalent of 30,3 cm; hachi means eight. Originally, shakuhachi thus refers to a flute that measures 1,8 shaku…
Oyiwane
Sweet and sublime recordings from Elementary school group in Northern Niger from the 1980s. All-girl group accompanied by their instructor on the acoustic guitar, recalling Guinean folk and early Ali Farka Touré.  Troupe École Tudu takes their name from a small neighborhood of Agadez, Niger. In 1985, the city hosted a musical competition between various schools. École Tudu, lacking a choir, sought out a young Tuareg guitarist Kader “Barmo” Balla to create a new style of music. The guitar was new…
Niko Karlsson & Topias Tiheäsalo
After a long hibernation, Anoema Recordings is back with a fantastic split LP of fresh Finnish music. This time we bring joy to the world via six beautiful acoustic six string exercises by two Turku-based masters of guitar: Niko Karlsson and Topias Tiheäsalo. Niko plays both guitar and banjo and has a background in pop, folk and various types of experimental music. He is probably best known for his 2017 solo album Valosta valoon on American Feeding Tube Records. Topias has studied classic…
A Scarlet Fail
Awash in color and texture, Arian Shafiee's debut album, A Scarlet Fail, brings to light a guitarist whose sound and mastery are in full bloom. Best known for his work in the East Coast dance/punk group Guerilla Toss, Shafiee has spent years warping the idea of what a guitar can sound like. In a group setting, Shafiee does what's best for the composition, often blending seamlessly into the electronics and rhythmic grooves of his peers. A Scarlet Fail gives him a revelatory solo spotlight in a se…
Torrent
Torrent is the first recording of Alex Mincek’s music since his 2011 self-titled debut on Carrier Records and launches Sound American’s Young Composer Portrait (YCP) series, which introduces emerging artists by releasing music from the span of their career alongside a series of interviews and essays that contextualize the ways in which their history, aesthetic, and sound thinking have informed their work to date.     Torrent is being released as a deluxe art object meant to give the listener a m…
Take A Knife And Open My Heart
Sound Miracle Recordings presents a collection of thirteen ancient pieces of primitive flamenco music from the 1930s onwards. Flamenco music has been admired throughout the world for centuries. Fascinating unique, esoteric and mysterious, alloy of fire and witchcraft. Flamenco is much more than that. It has something of folk, something of sacred music, something of "blues": it is a unique music in the world, born of many factors and opposite and antagonistic elements, like its country of …
Tizi Inzit
Recorded by Lucien in March 2018 in Tamlalt, Moroccan High Atlas, in the blue room at the Bibliotatlas collective. Lahcen perfroms his songs on a lothar, an instrument that he made himself, with a wooden handle, a palm soundboard and goatskin. He is accompanied by El Hussain Safir on bendir and vocals, Lahcen Bouri on bendir, Tarik Boughfyani on tamtam and vocals,Idir Ben Hakim on tamtam and vocals and El Houssain Oumaa on bendir, tamtam and vocals.
Voices of Mississippi
This watershed release represents the life's work of William Ferris, an audio recordist, filmmaker, folklorist, and teacher with an unwavering commitment to establish and to expand the study of the American South. William Ferris was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1942. Growing up on a working farm, Ferris began at a young age documenting the artwork, music, and lives of the people on the farm and in his local community. The archive of recordings that he created and the documentary films that …
The Early Films of William Ferris 1968-75
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, folklorist William Ferris toured his home state of Mississippi, documenting the voices of African Americans as they spoke about and performed the diverse musical traditions that form the roots of the blues. This DVD features seven films made by Ferris between 1968 and 1975. In addition to being a groundbreaking documentarian of the American South, Ferris is Joel R. Williamson Eminent Professor of History and senior associate director of the Center for the Study of…
Venus in Cancer
Though frequently overshadowed by his contemporary and Takoma Records labelmate John Fahey, the compositions and performances of Daniel R. Robinson Jr., best known by the stage name Robbie Basho, were integral in the development of the American primitive guitar style. Along with Fahey, and songwriter/composers such as Max Ochs, Leo Kottke, and others, Basho helped bring to the masses the distinct form of guitar finger-picking, which blended folk and country-blues with neo-classical composition t…
Ajanma
Hariprasad became 80 the this year. A good moment for this unique solo album of the world legend bansuri master form India. Hariprasad Chaurasia is an Indian virtuoso flautist in the Hindustani tradition, born 1 July 1938 in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. 'Ajanma' takes a unique place in the discography of the North Indian flute legend. The recording was captured in a small 16th century Church in Rhoon, Netherlands in June 2014, which is well known for the character and quality of it's acousti…