sun | never | sets | on | music​

As Sun Never Sets On Music's World Tour of music continues, we're in Australia to capture the best albums released there in the first half of 2024. It's an impressive output, with more than 40 artists featured. Classy albums came from a few "household-names" - Peter Garrett, Crowded House and Jessica Mauboy - each incrementally refreshing their familiar brands. But the standouts, the most challenging and interesting new releases, came from less famous acts - Hiatus Kaiyote,

SunNeverSetsOnMusic's world tour of music continues to it's 5th destination, as we swing back to Morocco to check on some of the artists scheduled to appear at the Fez Festival of World Sacred Music, which is held within the ancient walls of that mind-blowing city, in late May each year. The festival attracts established and emerging world class artists every year, who play to awed audiences whose musical experience is invariably broadened thanks to by the enlightened organis

This month's stopover on Sun Never Sets On Music's World Tour is to sample the music of Israel & Palestine. May songs of peace be soon heard again across the Holy Land. Direct Link To Albums & Reviews Direct Link to Spotify Playlist Direct Link to YouTube Playlist

This month Sun Never Sets On Music visits Morocco, as we continue our tour of the globe in search of the best music worldwide. Morocco has a special place in SunNeverSetsOnMusic's heart - after all, we spent a few good years living there and we were enchanted by the architecture, the music, the culture and the wonderful people of this timeless land. For this month's playlist, we have collected our favourite music from some of the many musical streams that are heard in Morocco

It's February - the month of Carnival in Brazil! So for the second leg of SunNeverSetsOnMusic's virtual world tour we're off to Brazil, as we continue our search of the best new music from around the world With its roots deep in indigenous heritage, overlaid by centuries of African and Portuguese influence, we find Samba (the pulse of Carnival!)and a vibrant new music scene that is thriving despite its relative linguistic and geographical isolation. Internationally, Brazilian

SunNeverSetsOnMusic welcomes you along on our virtual world tour, in search of the best new music from around the world. Our first destination is Japan, where we find a new generation of Japanese artists who have embraced the century-old Japanese love of jazz and are bringing a fresh approach to everything they do - world-aware and ever-informed by their Japanese heritage. This vibrant, inter-connected music community, includes expatriate artists who have set up bases in Euro

In addition to their "mainstream' careers in pop, jazz and classical music, some of the most prolific and innovative contemporary composers are also hard at work in the parallel universe of computer games. Here are some of our favourite albums in this genre, released in the past year. 2023's Best Game Soundtracks Final Fantasy XVI - 祖堅 正慶, Soken Masayoshi The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - Manaka Kataoka, Maasa Miyoshi, Masato Ohashi, and Tsukasa Usui, with Hajime W

We hear some of our best music at the movies and on TV and they often expose us to music that we'd otherwise never hear. Here is our selection of the most outstanding soundtracks from the past year. 2023 Year's Best Film Soundtracks BEEF - Bobby Krlic Rye Lane - kwes. Saltburn - Anthony Willis, London Contemporary Orchestra Kagami - Ryuichi Sakamoto Killers of the Flower Moon - Robbie Robertson The Boy and the Heron - Joe Hisaishi Oppenheimer - Ludwig Goransson Maestro - Leon

Happy New Year everyone! As we do every year, we've combed our monthly playlists for the past 12 months for all the five star reviews (almost exactly 100, as it turns out) and created our "BEST OF" playlist for 2023. It's an impressive lineup that we're sure we'll come back to throughout the coming year(s). We hope you do too! Click to connect to 2023 YEAR'S BEST ALBUMS playlists Click to connect to 2023 YEAR'S BEST ALBUMS playlists

There's nothing else like it in the social calendar, that attracts artists of all stripes to produce their best (and sometimes worst) in a common cause that encompasses Advent, Christmas, Hanukkah, Yule, Winter Solstace, Boxing Day, New Year and more. So here at sunneversetsonmusic we celebrate with the release of our third annual Christmas Playlist, alongside our Favourite Christmas Albums and Classical Christmas Albums playlists. Highlights this year include new Christmas a

Carla Bley (born Lovella May Borg; May 11, 1936 – October 17, 2023) Carla Bley was an American jazz composer, pianist, organist, and bandleader and an important figure in the free jazz movement of the 1960s. She is perhaps best known for her jazz opera Escalator Over the Hill (released 1971 as a triple LP set), as well as a book of compositions that have been performed by many other artists, including Gary Burton, Jimmy Giuffre, George Russell, Art Farmer, John Scofield, and

Popular musicians have been sounding the alarm for more than 60 years now - since Malvina Reynolds' 1962 satirical "Little Boxes", made popular the following year by folk singer Pete Seeger As world leaders prepared for Cop26 in Glasgow in October 2021, The Guardian's music critic Alexis Petridis published a soundtrack, with music ranging from Gojira’s metal fury to gorgeous environmental paeans by Childish Gambino, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell It's a few years old, but it's

Sixto Rodriguez (July 10, 1942 – August 8, 2023), From Detroit, Sixto Rodriguez (who recorded as simply, Rodriguez), led one of the most remarkable lives and careers of all. A pair of early albums - 1970's Cold Fact and 1971's Coming from Reality - sold few copies in the US, failing to break into a market saturated with white, male, singer-songwriters. Dropped by his label Sussex, Rodriguez withdrew to live modestly, lifestyle, in a derelict house purchased for $50 at a gove

SunNeverSetsOnMusic supports YES23, while celebrating the diverse excellence of Australia's indigenous musicianship. All selections from 2022-2023! Artists represented include Ngulmiya, William Barton, Bumpy, King Stingray, Charlie Needs Braces, Jess Hitchcock, Jem (and Troy) Cassar-Daley, Thelma Plum, Mo'Ju, Miiesha, Aodhan, Robert K Champion, Ziggy Ramo, KIAN, Budjerah, Aachem, Tasman Keith, Yirrmal, Electric Fields, Andrew Gurruwiwi, Izy, Pirritu, Emma Donovan, Aimee Hanna

As he has done so well, so many time before, Paul Kelly captures the essence of the moment. IF NOT NOW It’s a splinter in the mind, a whisper in the heart A feeling something’s missing, some crucial little part It’s business that’s unfinished, a reckoning that’s due If not now, then when? If not us, then who? It’s a simple proposition to join the new and old A chance to make our country larger in its soul It’s an invitation offered to set our course anew If not now, then when

Boston born saxophonist Charlie Mariano (November 12, 1923 – June 16, 2009) is one of those musicians who, although highly prolific and universally revered by all who are exposed to his work, remains almost unknown to the general public. This is a great shame - his music is as interesting and varied as many of his contemporaries and deserves it's place every jazz collection. The Guardian's Obituary is essential reading for those interested in Mariano's pedigree and extensive

YUSSEF DAYES is a tour-de-force behind the drums. Widely recognised as one of the most electrifying live performers of his generation - an exhilarating performer who combines technical prowess, intensity and emotion, leaving audiences in no doubt as to the role of rhythm in channelling spiritual energy. It's over four years since Dayes released his last studio solo album "What Kinda Music", but he's been very busy in the years since then and his new release "Black Classical M

Robbie Robertson (5 July 1943 - 9 August 2023) might not be a household name, but he deserves to be. Whether playing behind Bob Dylan (Blonde On Blonde, The Basement Tapes and The "Electric" Tour of UK), as a founding member of The Band, as a soundtrack composer (The Last Waltz, Raging Bull, The King Of Comedy, The Wolf Of Wall Street and Killers of the Flower Moon) or in his own right as solo artist with few peers, the Canadian-born guitarist and songwriter was one of the gr

SunNeverSetsOnMusic prefers not to wallow in nostalgia but, as an exception, I recall how even in my teens, my musical interests were already broad-based and embracing folk, blues, jazz, "world" and classic rock, and open to more. Influence(r)s at that time included ABC radio's "Room To Move", TV's "GTK" and the vinyl collection at the house of my friends Doc and Jim. Listen to complete Spotify playlist "Banyan Street, 1972"

Shuhada' Sadaqat | Sinéad O'Connor (8 December 1966 – 26 July 2023) fearless | angelic | idealist | provocateur | vulnerable | determined | uncompromising | flawed | spiritual | profane | haunted | inspired | abused | generous | dangerous | poetic | enfant terrible | original | irreplaceable In This Heart from "Universal Mother" Chrysalis Records 1994 In this heart lies for you A lark born only for you Who sings only to you My love My love My love I am waiting for you For onl