WORLD TOUR #20 A WORLD FULL OF FOLK 2026
SunNeverSetsOnMusic's World Tour of music goes all over the globe this time, with our round-up of the worlds top selling folk artists, based on the Transglobal World Music Chart, June 2026
Transglobal World Music Chart (TWMC) was conceived in the Spring of 2015 by Ángel Romero (WorldMusicCentral.org, USA), Araceli Tzigane and Juan Antonio Vázquez (Mundofonías, Spain) with the objective to create a network of music critics, who are working on a regular basis, spreading world, roots, traditional music… in any kind of media. It has a real global approach, including representatives from most regions, with a very inclusive point of view.
TWMC produces a list of albums, a chart, each month and also at the end of the year, selected according to quality.
The panel is envisioned to include any good quality production, recorded in any country, including self-productions and small label releases.
Our World Tour #20 A World Full of Folk 2026 includes album reviews, playlists and youtube videos for most of TWMC's June 2026 top forty.
The Other Side
SEU GEORGE
Released 8 May 2026
Black Service / Amor In Sound
****-
Warm, intimate and sophisticated, this groove-rich collection brings samba, soul and Brazilian MPB together, with a lived-in vocal charisma
Few contemporary Brazilian artists have balanced international visibility and deep musical authenticity as naturally as Seu Jorge. Emerging from Rio de Janeiro’s samba and soul traditions, he became globally recognised through both his solo recordings and his unforgettable Portuguese-language David Bowie interpretations (Starman, Rebel Rebel, Rock N' Roll Suicide, Life On Mars?), for the Wes Anderson film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.
Yet beyond the cult appeal lies a serious songwriter and cultural figure whose work has consistently drawn from samba, MPB, funk and classic soul without reducing any of them to nostalgia. His voice - warm, conversational and humane - has always been his greatest instrument. The Other Side continues that tradition, sounding less like reinvention than a deepening of the elegance and rhythmic ease that define his best work.
The album succeeds because it understands that sophistication does not require distance. There is no need for dramatic reinvention here; instead, he leans further into the qualities that made him singular in the first place: melodic patience, understated charisma and an instinctive command of rhythm that makes even the smallest phrase feel like part of the percussion.
Across the record, samba remains the spiritual centre. The arrangements are rich without becoming ornate: guitars, percussion, bass and soft brass lines move with the kind of confidence that comes from musicians who understand groove as conversation rather than decoration.
This is music built on feel, with Seu Jorge’s vocal performance the true anchor. He sings with the same quality that defines the greatest samba interpreters - an ability to sound emotionally direct without theatrical excess. There is warmth in the phrasing, but also a reflective maturity that gives the album its title real weight.
Like the finest Brazilian records, The Other Side trusts rhythm, space and emotional understatement to do the work.
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Zagate
SOUAD MASSI
Released 6 March 2026
Sony / BackingTrack Productions
****-
From one of North Africa’s most eloquent voices, a bolder, more urgent chapter in which folk's intimacy meets rock's energy, as poetry underpins a resolute act of resistance.
Emerging from Algiers in the late 1990s, Souad Massi forged a style that blended Algerian folk traditions, chaâbi and raï with the songwriting ethos of Western folk icons such as Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. Her early albums like Raoui (2001), Deb (2003) established her as one of the Maghreb’s most recognisable voices - a songwriter whose quiet, acoustic intimacy carried themes of exile, identity and resilience that, and more than two decades, placed her in a singular place in Algerian music.
Often described as the “bitter-sweet voice of exile”, Massi has spent much of her career bridging the cultural space between Algeria and Europe, singing in Arabic and French while reconciling Mediterranean musical traditions with contemporary folk and rock.
With Zagate, Massi pushes her sound further outward than on most of her previous records. Produced once again by guitarist Justin Adams, who also helmed her award-winning 2022 album Sequana, the album introduces a more muscular sonic palette while retaining the lyrical sensitivity that has defined her work.
Where earlier albums often centred acoustic guitar and folk restraint, Zagate explores a broader range of textures: the Afrobeat-lite groove of “Samt”, the rock-driven urgency of “Ana Inssan”, Saharan-tinged folk in “D’ici, de là-bas”, and the bluesy Parisian swing of “Chibani”.
The lyrical focus is more confrontational than ever before. The title itself echoes the phrase “ça se gâte”, “things are getting worse”, and the songs grapple with war, racism, migration and the unsettling turbulence of the contemporary world.
Collaborations widen the album’s reach: appearances from rappers Youssoupha and Gaël Faye introduce spoken-word urgency, while players such as John Baggott (keyboards, Massive Attack) and Billy Fuller (drums, Sensational Shape Shifters, Beak) deepen the groove.
The result is perhaps Massi’s most liberated album to date; still tender, still poetic, but newly sharpened by anger, courage and a refusal to look away from the world’s fractures.
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Hoggar
TINARAWEN
Released 13 March 2026
Wedge
****-
The elder statesmen of desert blues return with a quieter but deeply resonant album, connecting to Tuareg roots and younger collaborators, and emerging with music full of hypnotic rhythm and communal memory.
Few groups have carried the sound and political voice of the Sahara across the world as powerfully as Tinariwen. Formed in the late 1970s among Tuareg musicians displaced by conflict in the desert borderlands of Mali and Algeria, the group’s music emerged from campfires, cassette recordings and the itinerant life of nomadic communities.
Their distinctive “desert blues” sound - electric guitars weaving modal melodies over insistent rhythms - brought international attention to Tuareg culture and political struggles. Over two decades of global touring and award-winning albums have made them ambassadors for this tradition, influencing artists far beyond the Sahara. With Hoggar, the band consciously return to those communal origins while mentoring a younger generation of Tuareg musicians.
Hoggar is not a dramatic reinvention but a recalibration. Earlier Tinariwen albums often emphasised the rock dimension of their sound - guitars driving forward with the swagger of desert-borne blues. Here, the centre of gravity shifts subtly toward something older and deeper.
The grooves feel slower, more circular, closer in spirit to the trance-inducing pulse of North African ritual music. The influence of Gnawa becomes more apparent: rhythms repeat patiently, guitars shimmer rather than blaze, and the music invites immersion rather than propulsion.
Guest appearances add colour without disrupting the atmosphere. José González contributes his characteristically gentle vocal presence, while Sulafa Elyas introduces a subtle melodic contrast.
Yet the album’s true significance lies in its intergenerational spirit. Younger Tuareg musicians weave naturally into the ensemble, reinforcing Tinariwen’s role as cultural custodians rather than simply a touring band.
The result may feel more subdued than some previous releases, but it captures something essential: the hypnotic communal pulse of music born in the desert night.
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Flame Folclòre
COCANHA
Released 15 May 2026
Les Disques Bongo Joe
****-
A stark, compelling reclamation of Occitan vocal traditions, driven by hypnotic stringed tambourines and an expansion into collective studio experimentation.
Hailing from the Occitan region of southern France, the duo Cocanha - vocalists and percussionists Caroline Dufau and Lila Fraysse - has spent years redefining regional folk traditions. Through vocal polyphony and the rhythmic pulse of the tambor de còrdas (stringed tambourines), they strip away centuries of pastoral nostalgia and treat historical memory as a living political landscape.
Following their acclaimed 2020 record Puput, Cocanha has re-positioned the Occitan language as a vibrant vehicle for contemporary resistance, feminism, and communal organizing, firmly anchoring ancient sonic structures into modern independent music spaces.
"Flame Folclòre" translates from Occitan to English as "Flame Folklore" (or "Folklore in Flames" / "Blazing Folklore"), reflecting the album's core themes: of treating traditional folklore as a living, burning fire that actively fuels present-day political struggles and as a vehicle for collective creativity and community cohesion. In doing so, Cocanha masterfully balances historical reverence with contemporary artistry: minimalism in the composition and production and physical urgency in the arrangements and playing. The core of their sound remains beautifully intact: tight, mesmerizing vocal harmonies that lock into the deep, grounding drone of traditional percussion from the six-stringed instrument they play is called the tambor de còrdas (in Occitan) or the tambourin de Béarn (in French), frequently referred to in English as a string drum or Pyrenean string drum.
However, this record marks a courageous shift toward a multi-handed creative model for their "polyphonic songs to dance to". Partnering with producer Raül Refree, Italian producer Walter Laureti and CxK's Paulin Courtial, the duo expands their sonic palette across eleven distinctive collaborations. Rather than muddying the waters, this sprawling assembly introduces subtle shifts in depth and spatial texture, proving that traditional music can be radically decentralized without losing its essence.
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Massa
FATOUMATA DIAWARA
Released 5 June 2026
No Format!
****-
A breathtaking, emotionally raw triumph that seamlessly weaves Western pop architecture with West African grit, reinforcing Diawara's status as global music royalty.
Fatoumata Diawara is a Grammy-nominated Malian singer, songwriter, and virtuoso guitarist whose artistic reach spans continents. Emerging originally as an actress, she revolutionized contemporary Wassoulou folk music with her 2011 debut Fatou. Over the last decade and a half, Diawara has established herself as an elite, borderless collaborator, working alongside legends like Herbie Hancock, Damon Albarn, and Gorillaz, and even becoming the first Black woman to design a signature guitar with Gibson Epiphone. Armed with a striking, sharp vocal register and formidable electric guitar chops, she continuously uses her global platform to confront fierce social issues, from female genital mutilation to the complexities of polygamy.
Massa (“The Eternal”) arrives as Diawara's most profoundly personal and authoritative work to date. Co-produced alongside her long-time creative ally, French pop icon -M- (Mathieu Cheddid), the 12-track record pulls off a miraculous balancing act: it embraces a slick, commercially confident global pop aesthetic without ever diluting the raw, subcontinental West African identity at its core.
Rather than treating traditional Malian instrumentation as static window dressing, Diawara and Cheddid use pentatonic scales and Mandinka rhythms to anchor heavy blues and rock inflections. The stellar single "Sigui" is a perfect example, pairing hypnotic, driving grooves with blistering guitar lines to tackle the quiet corrosion of polygamous family dynamics. Elsewhere, the album dives into deep reservoirs of grief and resilience. On the spare, shattering "Denko," sung in Bambara, Diawara delivers a quiet but devastating social critique regarding the isolating burdens faced by mothers of disabled children.
What places Massa on a higher tier than her previous records is the sheer gravity and patience of her voice, which carries the weight of a lived philosophy. It is a masterfully executed, zero-compromise record that captures an artist at the absolute peak of her powers, effortlessly bridging heritage and modern stadium-ready pop.
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Ranjha
SHYE BEN TZUR, JONNY GREENWOOD AND THE RAJHASTAN EXPRESS
Released 8 May 2026
Junun / World Circuit
****-
A rich, devotional cross-cultural work that combines qawwali, brass band and cinematic arrangement - expansive, spiritual and shaped by remarkable collective generosity.
The collaboration between Shye Ben Tzur, Jonny Greenwood and The Rajasthan Express has always felt less like a side project than a distinct musical world. First introduced through 2015’s Junun, recorded at Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur and later documented by Paul Thomas Anderson, the project brought together Ben Tzur’s Hebrew- and Urdu-language devotional compositions, Greenwood’s textural sensitivity and the extraordinary brass, percussion and vocal traditions of Rajasthan’s local musicians.
Rather than presenting East-West fusion as a spectacle, the music thrived on shared purpose and spiritual openness. Ranjha, their second full-length statement, deepens that language, less ecstatic in surface energy perhaps, but even richer in emotional and compositional depth.
Ranjha succeeds on slightly shifted grounds, as there is no longer any sense of separate traditions being carefully stitched together for effect; instead, the album moves with the confidence of a language already shared. Brass fanfares, hand percussion, harmonium drones, devotional vocals and Greenwood’s subtle harmonic architecture all exist inside the same emotional frame, each element serving the song rather than the concept.
Where Junun gravitated around axes of communal celebration and rhythmic immediacy, Ranjha leans into deeper territory. The title track is emblematic of this shift - spacious, patient and emotionally suspended, allowing Ben Tzur’s vocal lines to carry a sense of spiritual longing without forcing resolution.
The Rajasthan Express remains extraordinary throughout, especially in the brass arrangements, where exuberance and precision coexist without stiffness. Their playing gives the music its physical joy, even in quieter moments.
Greenwood’s role is characteristically understated, but essential to the contemporaneous whole. Rather than dominating arrangements, he shapes atmosphere: guitar textures, harmonic framing and the instinct to leave space for others to fill. This restraint makes the album work. This is not a Jonny Greenwood project featuring world music; it is an ensemble record, built on attentiveness within the ensemble.
However, alongside the musical expression, it is the devotional dimension that gives Ranjha its true centre. These songs are not performed as aesthetic exercises, but as acts of belief and shared attention. The result is music that feels intimate and communal - expansive without becoming grandiose: a rare record where beauty arrives through humility.
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Parallel Universe Vol. 1
NATACHA ATLAS, SAMY BISHAI
Released 5 June 2026
Airfono
*****
A seamless intertwining of East and West, oscillating between dystopian cyberpunk, synth-pop, avant-garde electro, and post-Mahragan Arabic hip-hop.
Natacha Atlas (نتاشا أطلس) is an Egyptian-Belgian singer known for her fusion of Arabic and Western music, particularly hip-hop. Her music, which she once termed "cha'abi moderne" (modern folk music), has been influenced by many styles including chaabi, hip hop, drum and bass and reggae. As the voice of the early releases by UK "world fusion" group Transglobal Underground a couple of decades ago, Atlas has deep roots in cross cultural music. But the release of Diaspora (1995) marked the start of a solo career that has now realised nine albums and collaborations with the likes of Peter Gabriel, Nitin Sawhney, Nigel Kennedy, Jean-Michel Jarre, Ibrahim Maalouf, Omar Sosa, and Paolo Fresu. Life partner and longtime collaborator Samy Bishai is an Egyptian violinist, composer, producer, and musical director trained in both Western and Arabic classical traditions. His collaborations include artists such as Tom Jones, Shakira, Basement Jaxx, Seckou Keita, and Carleen Anderson, alongside extensive work as a composer, arranger, and producer.
Parallel Universe - Volume 1 marks the latest collaboration between the pair and it's a seamless, mesmerising (but too-brief) mix of East and West. The artists write that the album was "conceived as the first chapter in a series of forthcoming volumes, Volume 1 opens a broader sonic narrative, fueled by a shared fascination with alternate timelines."
The atmospheric opening track "Zac12" sets the tone, with Atlas' timeless Arabic vocals soaring, echoed, sampled against rhythmic intermittently-glitchy pulses of electronica. and percussion. Unchanging Game commences in English, to a gently-paced rhythm that will delight fans of classic Portishead and Massive attack, but this music more accurately derives from Mahraganat music, an Egyptian blend of hip-hop and dance music that emerged, notoriously, in the wake of the Tahrir Square uprising in 2011.
And Atlas doesn't dodge such association, the album's highlight (and first single) is the final track "Somoud" which she describes as"a strong anti war statement (that) unfolds as a slow-burning uprising". The song opens with a poem by the Egyptian poet Tuup: "Don't be fooled, Bombs will never be weapons of peace - Bombs are weapons of war.". Atlas describes the piece as "vacillating between classical Arabic melodic lines, quarter-tone distorted violins, and hypnotically pulsing electronic beats. A rising choral chant evokes collective resistance, turning the song into both lament and call to consciousness. More art piece than conventional single, Somoud channels fortitude in the face of violence - a refusal to be silenced, and a reminder that resilience itself can be an act of defiance."
The same might be applied to the album in its entirety. Bring on Volume 2!
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Press Release incl. Lyrics etc.
A Djinn and a Hunter Went Walking (The Complete Sessions)
NEBA SOLO & BENEGO DIAKITÉ
Released 13 February 2026
Nonesuch Records
****-
An enchanting, unprecedented pairing of Malian masters that bridges distinct cultural landscapes through hypnotic, deeply rhythmic acoustic conversations.
Balafon virtuoso Neba Solo (Souleymane Traoré) of Kénédougou heritage and donso n'goni master Benego Diakité of Wassoulou, tradition, are celebrated "musicians' musicians" in Mali. Traditionally, their instruments belong to separate worlds: the marimba-like balafon historically cheered farmers in the agricultural fields, while the four-to-six string donso n'goni harp was reserved for sacred hunters' ceremonies. The pair first sparked a musical connection under the watchful eye of producer Nick Gold, the former CEO of World Circuit Records and the organiser of Buena Vista Social Club, during the sessions for Oumou Sangaré’s landmark album Seya (2009). Decades of mutual respect and distinct lineage culminate here, establishing both instrumentalists as visionary torchbearers of West African music.
A Djinn and a Hunter Went Walking is a dazzling exercise in cross-cultural dialogue - a brilliant tale of two distinct halves. The first disc expands the duo's hypnotic interplay into gorgeous ensemble arrangements, carefully overlaying rich female backing vocals, percussion, and subtle textures of strings, acoustic guitar, and Mellotron. Songs like the title track and the celebratory "Seko" groove with a vibrant, modern brilliance.
However, the true magic reveals itself on the second disc's "Garden Demos." Recorded unadorned under a Bamako mango tree as twilight fell, these tracks highlight the raw, almost telepathic chemistry between Diakité’s deep, rhythmic harp riffs and Solo’s fluid, cascading balafon improvisations. It is a stunning, essential masterclass in Malian acoustic music.
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ASSIKEL
TAMIKREST
Released 15 May 2026
Glitterbeat Records
****-
Glowing with analogue warmth, this hypnotic Saharan rock voyage channels exile and resistance into an urgent, deeply atmospheric masterpiece.
Formed in 2006 near the Mali-Algerian border, Tamikrest- meaning "connection" or "union" - have spent two decades serving as a vital cultural voice for the Kel Tamasheq (Tuareg) people. Initially inspired by the legendary Ishumar guitar pioneers Tinariwen, the core four-piece consists of founders Ousmane Ag Mossa (lead vocals, electric & acoustic guitar) and Cheikh Ag Tiglia (bass, backing vocals, acoustic guitar, djembe, percussion), alongside Paul Salvagnac (electric guitar, lapsteel, dobro, tumba tumba) and percussionist Cédric Maurel(percussion - calabash, dhol, bendhir, tumba tumba, djembe, tube). Their dynamic music translates the ongoing, escalating Turmoil of their homeland into globally resonant art fueled by a profound love of music.
Recorded live to tape over ten days in Haarlem with engineer Jasper Geluk, Assikel ("voyage") is anm energetic, raw triumph of immediacy. Stripping away modern production sheen for a late 1960s, 16-track analogue machine, the band captures their instinctive live synergy with distinctive clarity. The songs navigate the heavy emotional landscape of assouf - nostalgia and displacement - sharpened by the dire political realities currently facing Mali.
From the pulsing slide guitars of opener "Adagh Oyanted" to the distorted, relentless electric onslaught of "Imanin," the instrumentation seamlessly weaves traditional calabash and djembe with floating lap steel and dubby basslines. The album's emotional peak arrives on "Eillal," a stunning, minimalist collaboration featuring Tinariwen's Ibrahim Ag Alhabib.
Urgent, defiant, yet deeply spiritual, Assikel is a magnificent testament to resilience - and Tamikrest's finest hour.
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