WORLD TOUR #22 WORLD MUSIC CHART 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, July 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 #22 World Music Chart 2026 includes album reviews, Spotify playlists and YouTube videos for most of TWMC's July 2026 top forty.
World Tour #22 - World Music Chart 2026
THE JULY 2026 TWMC TOP 20
SUN NEVER SETS ON MUSIC REVIEWS
Massa
FATOUMATA DIAWARA
Released 5 June 2026
No Format!
****-
MALI
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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The Other Side
SEU JORGE
Released 8 May 2026
Black Service / Amor In Sound
****-
BRAZIL
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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ASSIKEL
TAMIKREST
Released 15 May 2026
Glitterbeat Records
****-
SAHARA | MALI | ALGERIA
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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Glitterbeat Records
Flame Folclòre
COCANHA
Released 15 May 2026
Les Disques Bongo Joe
****-
FRANCE
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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Ranjha
SHYE BEN TZUR, JONNY GREENWOOD AND THE RAJHASTAN EXPRESS
Released 8 May 2026
Junun / World Circuit
****-
INDIA
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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Zagate
SOUAD MASSI
Released 6 March 2026
Sony / BackingTrack Productions
****-
ALGERIA
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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Parallel Universe Vol. 1
NATACHA ATLAS, SAMY BISHAI
Released 5 June 2026
Airfono
*****
EGYPT | BELGIUM
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.
Hoggar
TINARAWEN
Released 13 March 2026
Wedge
****-
SAHARA | MALI | ALGERIA
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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Ruido Tovar
MEXICAN INSTITUTE OF SOUND, MERIDIAN BROTHERS
Released 22 May 2026
Ansonia Records
****-
MEXICO | COLUMBIA
A cross-border collaboration that reimagines the tropical traditions linking Mexico and Colombia.
This powerhouse collaboration unites Camilo Lara’s genre-bending project, Mexican Institute of Sound, with Eblis Álvarez’s avant-garde Colombian ensemble, Meridian Brothers. Lara is celebrated for fusing traditional Mexican sounds with modern electronic beats, hip-hop, and sampling. Álvarez is renowned for his eccentric, experimental approach to tropical music and psychedelic cumbia. Together, they represent the vanguard of modern Latin alternative music. By combining Lara's sharp production instincts with Álvarez’s masterful instrumentation and surrealist arrangements, the duo creates a sonic bridge between Mexico City and Bogotá, honorably disrupting and redefining the boundaries of Latin folklore.
Ruido Tovar functions as a thrilling, hallucinatory conceptual narrative honoring the legendary Mexican icon Rigo Tovar, who pioneered the fusion of cumbia with rock and synth-pop. Rather than delivering straight covers, Lara and Álvarez construct a sonic timeline tracking the mutation of tropical music from its analog foundations into a tech-centric future.
The record's narrative arc moves from organic roots to dizzying cybernetic experimentation, anchored by three representative tracks:
"Cumbia del lobo": The opener establishes the classic cumbia framework but immediately distorts it with Álvarez’s signature pitch-shifted guitars and unsettling textures, signaling a departure from standard nostalgia into a strange, dreamlike wilderness.
"Ritmo Babilonia" (feat. Beck): Representing the album’s peak cross-cultural collision, this track injects an urban, mid-tempo groove and eccentric vocal cameos, seamlessly marrying retro dancefloor instincts with modern global indie-pop production.
"Danzón 8bits": This track pushes the narrative into full-blown retro-futurism, completely dismantling traditional Afro-Caribbean ballroom arrangements and rebuilding them with chirping chiptune synthesizers and video-game bleeps.
Packed with analog warmth, distorted keys, and playful subversion, Ruido Tovar captures the camp and charisma of Tovar's original era while proving heritage is best honored through bold, tech-driven reinvention.
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Mexican Institute of Sound Official
We Were Made For These Times
THE KLEZMATICS
Released 1 May 2026
Asphalt Tango Records, Germany
****-
USA | JEWISH
An awe-inspiring 40th-anniversary masterpiece that unites global solidarity, Jewish tradition, and fierce radical joy against a turbulent world.
Marking their 40th anniversary, We Were Made For These Times presents a triumphant, globally minded narrative of resilience. Rather than offering a nostalgic retrospective, the record uses bold, cross-cultural collaborations to track a conceptual arc from historical labor struggles to modern spiritual survival. The journey ignites with "Un Du Akerst," a fiery adaptation of a traditional Yiddish worker's poem. Supercharged by the Colombian percussion ensemble La Manga and the Lavender Light Gospel Choir, the track instantly transforms old-world protest into a universal, modern anthem.
As the album transitions from collective political defiance into intimate spaces of processing grief, it plunges into the haunting "Elegy for the Innocents." Here, a devastating jazz-klezmer hybrid featuring saxophonist James Brandon Lewis and bassist William Parker processes tragedy through avant-garde mourning.
Ultimately, this heavy introspection resolves into a transcendent finale with the title track "Di tsukunft (El Futuro)". Driven by Joshua Nelson’s soaring vocals, the closer fuses traditional klezmer with ecstatic Black gospel to deliver a defiant, healing message of hope.
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Kolo
KITKA
Released 25 June 2026
Kitka
****-
USA | E.EUROPE
An exquisitely immersive presentation of the primal power and intricate polyphony of Eastern European women's vocal traditions.
With Kolo, Kitka delivers a breathtakingly curated seasonal cycle of song that feels both ancient and refreshingly modern. Translated as a circular folk dance common across south Slavic regions, the title Kolo underscores the record’s thematic centering around community, celestial alignment, and cyclical rebirth. Recorded and mixed in panoramic Dolby Atmos, the album uses spatial engineering to position the listener directly in the center of their dense, interlocking vocal arrangements.
The record opens with a brilliant showcase of raw communal energy, relying on piercing close harmonies and microtonal frictions that mimic the landscape of the rural villages where these songs originated. The sonic landscape organically shifts as the ensemble guides the listener from festive, rhythmic wedding dances to hauntingly austere winter ritual songs. A stunning highlight arrives with "Gelino," a wedding song from the Shavsheti region, where intricate ornamentation and interlocking vocal lines create a dizzying, hypnotic trance. Later, the mesmerizing "Ruotā, Ruotā" moves the journey toward Baltic traditions, utilizing driving, incantatory repetitions that evoke the timeless mystery of the summer solstice.
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Journey To The Unknown
NANA OSEI TWUM BARIMA
Released 12 June 2026
Zephyrus Records
****-
GHANA / W.AFRICA
A deeply personal, cross-continental Afro-folk odyssey that weaves ancestral Ghanaian storytelling with the melancholic rains of European displacement.
On this profound debut, Journey To The Unknown, Nana Osei Twum Barima processes personal trauma and cultural migration through a beautifully fluid, cinematic narrative arc. The record tracks an emotional and literal migration, shifting from the ancestral lands of Ghana to the unfamiliar, damp streets of Western Europe.
The album's spiritual foundation is laid early with "Message to My Ancestors," where the hypnotic plucking of the seperewa merges with Nicolas Mortelmans' sitar textures, establishing a sacred dialogue with the past while coping with sudden grief.
As the physical migration unfolds, the sonic palette expands into a jazz-infused urban reality on "Moni," a track bolstered by bassist Lara Rosseel that addresses the harsh socio-economic realities and survival instincts required in a new environment. This sense of displacement fully crystallizes on the haunting "Belgium and Rain," featuring Belgian blues icon Roland Van Campenhout.
Here, the traditional West African rhythms intertwine with melancholic Western strings and rain-soaked acoustic blues, perfectly mirroring the psychological transition of stepping into an unwritten future.
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Nana Osei Twum Barima Official
Kolo
KITKA
Released 25 June 2026
Kitka
****-
IRAN | PERSIA
A unique and beguiling project with great reverence for the ancient radif tradition and in resourceful defiance of Iran's restrictions on female singers in public.
Together Yet Alone is a deeply moving, beautifully sequenced exploration of exile, identity, and the enduring pull of homeland. Composed by Tehran-based maestro Navid Dehghan and performed alongside the Ghamar Ensemble, the record is structured around Rast-Panjgah - widely regarded as the most intricate, technically demanding modal system (dastgah) in Persian classical music. Rather than a rigid academic exercise, the album’s structural choices mirror a profound psychological trajectory.
The record opens with "Early Spring," a concise, evocative prelude that sets a tone of patience and fragile hope. This brief awakening immediately surrenders to the massive, multi-part centerpiece of the album - a nearly 30-minute suite comprising "In Grace of Flight" (Parts I and II), interwoven with "Crack of Dawn." Movahed truly lays bare the emotional weight of her exile across this sprawling piece, her voice shifting from long, delicate phrases of quiet endurance to soaring, microtonal ascents that navigate the intricate modal modulations of Rast-Panjgah.
Dehghan’s composition anchors this massive centerpiece, letting Movahed’s crystalline vocals completely transcend physical instrumentation to embody a sense of unchained liberation.
The brilliant architectural symmetry of the album becomes clear as its second half unfolds, mirroring the first by introducing another triptych suite: the fiery title track, "Together Yet Alone," flanked on either side by "Your Lips" (Parts I and II). This deliberate structural pairing serves a deep thematic purpose. Where the first suite focuses on the internal, spiritual flight of the individual soul in exile, the second suite grounds itself in the physical, earthly reality of voice and love. By bookending the thunderous, driving rhythms of the title track with the intimate poetry of "Your Lips," Dehghan and Movahed emphasize that the act of expression - itself, the literal movement of the lips - is both a deeply personal vulnerability and an act of radical collective solidarity.
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NEKED
NAKED, LAKATOS MONIKA FOLKTRIO
Released 2 June 2026
Adriaatica
****-
HUNGARY
An incandescent, deeply emotional fusion that intertwines fiery Vlach Roma vocal traditions with the hallucinatory, trippy dub-jazz of Belgrade's underground.
This groundbreaking international project brings together Belgrade-based ensemble Naked, known for their cross-genre alchemy of Balkan folk, urban jazz, funk, and psychedelic dub, with Hungary's legendary Lakatos Mónika FolkTrió. Fronted by Mónika Lakatos - the spellbinding vocalist who holds the distinction of being the first artist of Roma origin to win the prestigious WOMEX Lifetime Achievement Award - the collaboration represents a monumental meeting of cultural forces. Supported by her husband, guitarist/vocalist Mihály "Mazsi" Rostás, Lakatos’s dramatic, raw vibrato acts as a lightning rod. Together with Naked’s modern instrumental exploration, they forge a bold, third musical world rooted in mutual respect and creative fearlessness.
Born out of an artistic friendship tracing back to a chance encounter at a Hungarian festival in 2011, Neked is a striking meditation on memory, the transience of youth, and the people we lose along the way. The title itself operates as a beautiful bilingual play on words - mirroring the name of the Serbian band while simultaneously translating to "To You" in Hungarian. Rather than a straightforward collision of styles, the album's structure flows like a seamless, elegiac dreamscape that gives traditional Oláh Gypsy song a sprawling, contemporary canvas.
The record opens with the fierce, magnetic energy of "Csábítós." Here, Lakatos’s ancestral vocal lines are immediately caught in a swirling eddy of Rastko Uzunović’s smoky clarinet and Đorđe Mijušković’s agile violin, establishing a groove that balances Vlach Roma precision with heavy, urban psych-jazz rhythms. The album smoothly deepens this cross-cultural dialogue through the traditional cadence of "Botoló," allowing the acoustic thrum of the rhythm section to build a bridge toward the record's devastatingly beautiful emotional core, "Vrati Se" (Return). Set against the slow, rolling melancholy of the Pannonian plain, this brilliant single allows the instrumentation to ease into a wistful, dub-reverberating space, mirroring the ache of unfulfilled dreams. Throughout the entire tracking, Lakatos's voice never feels merely superimposed; instead, Naked provides a deeply intuitive, fluid backdrop that lets her signature trills and emotional gravitas hit the listener straight in the heart
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Lakatos Mónika FolkTrió Official
Taabolo Koura
MAH DAMBA
Released 22 May 2026
One World Records
****-
MALI
An exquisite acoustic masterwork that translates old-world Malian epic folklore into a timeless, intimate statement of modern cultural endurance.
Born into one of Bamako’s most revered griot lineages, Mah Damba carries the profound privilege and ancestral weight of djeliya - the sacred West African art of oral history and praise singing. Her late father, Djeli Baba Sissoko, was a legendary figure who broadcast Mandingue empire epics on Malian national radio, while her aunt, Fanta Damba, remains a cornerstone of traditional Malian music. Since relocating to France in the 1980s, Damba has functioned as an essential cultural anchor for the Malian diaspora. Armed with a deep, resonant voice that carries six decades of lived history, she gracefully translates ancient epic values into modern contexts.
On the magnificent Taabolo Koura - which translates from Bambara as "A New Journey" - Mah Damba constructs an intimate acoustic space that redefines traditional Malian folklore. Rather than leaning into the bombastic, electric-pop production common in contemporary West African music, Damba and her long-term collaborator, guitarist and arranger Thierry Fournel, craft a raw, minimal architecture of strings, accordion, and percussion that allows the narrative intent of her poetry to breathe completely.
The album's journey opens with "Denkadi" ("The Joy of Children"), a warm and celebratory piece where the steady pulse of the calabash and bright flourishes of the djeli ngoni (lute) frame an exploration of ancestral legacy, framing family continuity as the true foundation of life. This celebratory mood deepens into an exploration of epic history on "Bakary Djan," an evocative track named after a legendary 19th-century warrior from the Bambara Empire. Here, Fournel's delicate guitar work gently complements Damba’s commanding vocals, translating a historical tale of courage and political strategy into a universal meditation on inner strength. The emotional arc of the record reaches its peak on "Mougnousso" ("The House of Patience"). Wrapped in a melancholic, unhurried arrangement of strings and subtle acoustic textures, Damba delivers her most vulnerable performance, elevating the traditional concept of sabali (patience and moral endurance) to help navigate the anxieties of the modern world. It is a stunning, deeply human masterpiece.
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Vinti'e Maju
PAOLO ANGELI, TENORE MURALES DE ORGOSOLO
Released 20 May 2026
ANMA RER
****-
SARDINIA
A monumental, deeply political union where avant-garde prepared guitar meets the ancient, guttural polyphonies of Sardinia’s most defiant choral lineage.
Paolo Angeli is an internationally acclaimed virtuoso who has spent three decades expanding the acoustic possibilities of the guitar. His primary instrument is a highly customized, 18-string modified Sardinian guitar equipped with small hammers, pedals, and electronic pick-ups, allowing him to perform as a solo orchestra blending jazz, minimal noise, and traditional folk. For this striking document, Angeli joins forces with the Tenore Murales de Orgosolo, one of the most respected standard-bearers of canto a tenore - an ancient, guttural polyphonic vocal style native to Sardinia. Hailing from the historic mountain town of Orgosolo, known for its radical murals and social resistance, this vocal ensemble grounds Angeli’s restless experimentation in powerful, communal soil.
The album title Vinti 'e Maju ("The Twentieth of May") references the seasonal spring return of Sardinian shepherds to communal grazing lands. However, the record uses this pastoral framework to track a profound social and political narrative arc, directly connecting ancestral traditions to the anti-colonial, anti-military protests that shook the village of Orgosolo in the late 1960s. Rather than keeping the experimental guitar and ancestral voices separated, the album's structural choices blend them into an organic, cinematic suite.
The journey opens into the high heat of late summer with "Mesaustu" ("Mid-August"), a brief, atmospheric prelude that sets a scene of rural heat and anticipation. The sonic landscape quickly deepens with "Meriare (Vardeina)" ("Taking Shelter in the Shade"), where Angeli’s bowing mimics traditional strings while the Tenore's guttural undertones evoke a striking sense of community and place. The emotional heart of the record surges during the title track, "Vinti 'e Maju" ("The Twentieth of May"), a festive dance piece (ballu hantau) that utilizes driving, rhythmic momentum to capture the euphoria of collective rebirth. This energy directly ignites the album's political climax, "Sa lota 'e Pratobello" ("The Pratobello Struggle"), a stirring, rhythm-driven anthem (passu torrau) documenting Orgosolo's historic 1969 peaceful uprising against an unwanted military base. The album ultimately resolves into a beautiful act of healing with "Paradura" ("Shepherd’s Solidarity"), a track named after the regional custom where shepherds donate sheep to a neighbor who has lost his flock.
THis is an album that proves heritage is not a static relic, but a living weapon of solidarity.
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Asi pues... (And so...)
ELIF SANCHEZ, OKWARTETO...
Released 5 June 2026
SVH Muzikve Film (Pasion Turca)
****-
TURKEY | BRAZIL
A beautifully sophisticated cross-cultural romance that masterfully intertwines Turkish folk melancholy with the elegant, string-led cadences of Brazilian choro and tango.
Istanbul-born vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Elif Sanchez is a brilliant musical nomad, whose training spans classical oboe at the Istanbul University State Conservatory to jazz performance at the Berklee College of Music. Renowned for her ability to weave Anatolian and Azerbaijani folklore seamlessly into Western jazz and Mediterranean styles, she has captured the ears of the global world music community. On this record, she finds her ultimate sonic foil in O Kwarteto, an exceptional string ensemble renowned for their chamber-like precision and deep understanding of South American rhythms. Together, they dissolve the geographical distance between the Bosphorus and South America, creating an entirely original, transnational idiom.
With Así pues..., Elif Sanchez and O Kwarteto map a fluid emotional architecture where geographical boundaries mean absolutely nothing. Composed of nine exquisitely arranged tracks, the album functions as a cinematic conversation, charting an organic narrative arc that flows from the sun-dappled courtyards of Brazil directly into the haunting landscapes of Turkish and Greek acoustic folklore.
The record introduces its multi-cultural dialogue with the opening track, "Choro Pro Zé" ("Choro for Zé"). Here, O Kwarteto’s intricate, sweeping string arrangements establish a classic, lively Brazilian groove, providing a buoyant foundation for Sanchez’s elegant vocals. The journey takes a decidedly melancholic, dramatic turn on the stunning "Son Veda" ("The Last Farewell"). Featuring a gorgeous guest appearance by Turkish guitarist Cenk Erdoğan, this poignant centerpiece allows Sanchez to draw directly from her Anatolian roots, delivering a heartbreaking, slow-burning vocal performance that hangs suspended over a delicate bed of strings. This cross-continental journey ultimately reaches its peak with "Baxe Tsifliki" ("The Orchard of Tsifliki"). Rearranging the classic Greek rebetiko piece by Vassilis Tsitsanis, the ensemble injects a sophisticated, tango-infused jazz cadence that transforms old-world Mediterranean nostalgia into a vibrant, modern dancefloor piece. It is a masterfully executed, beautifully cohesive album that proves longing and celebration are universal languages.
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Palagoma
ODD OKODDO, OGOYA NENGO
Released 5 June 2026
From Cool Waters
****-
KENYA | GERMANY
An arresting electroacoustic collaboration that seamlessly weaves the raw power of Kenyan folk music and dark, hypnotic modular synth soundscapes.
ODD OKODDO is an adventurous cross-continental partnership comprising Kenyan singer, songwriter, and luthier Olith Ratego and German avant-garde percussionist and electronic producer Sven Kacirek. First uniting in 2018, the duo built a reputation for pioneering "dodo blues"- a modern extension of the expressive singing and dance traditions native to the Luo community of Western Kenya. For their groundbreaking 2026 LP, they have expanded into a stellar trio by recruiting the legendary 83-year-old folk icon Ogoya Nengo (Anastasia Oluoch). As one of the last living masters of traditional dodo songlines, Nengo’s gravelly, ancient tone anchors Kacirek's restless electronic experiments in profound ancestral memory.
Palagoma, which translates from Luo as a title of deep reverence for "someone who fights for their people"- is an engaging study in electroacoustic friction. Rather than keeping East African heritage isolated as a fragile museum piece, the trio sets up a fluid dialogue, letting traditional acoustic elements meet a Buchla modular synthesizer and automated techno loops.
The narrative arc functions as an intriguing conversation between historical weight and technological abstraction. The journey opens with the title track, "Palagoma," where Nengo and Ratego trade sharp, urgent call-and-response vocal patterns over Kacirek’s meditative marimba.
The true centerpiece of the record is the sprawling, eight-minute epic "Ji Kiyiere." Here, standard pop and dance forms are cast aside for a slow-burning ritual arrangement. The track allows Nengo’s mesmerizing, weathered voice to hang suspended over a dark, shifting sea of minimalist analog synth patches and sparse hand percussion.
The album's most accessible moment arrives in the form of "Bara", which locks a driving, mid-tempo electronic pulse with a deeply melodic Luo vocal delivery, mapping out a very natural, modern groove.
While this fusion doesn't rise to the truly transcendent levels of a seamless evolution of either genre, it remains a thoroughly compelling and distinctive listen.
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Beleza
MUCA, ROBERTO MENECAL
Released 12 June 2026
The Secret Warehouse Of Sound
****-
GHANA
An elegant, cross-generational bossa nova tapestry that beautifully bridges traditional Brazilian warmth with modern indie-folk sensibilities.
London-based multi-instrumentalist and producer Murillo "Muca" Sguillaro collaborates with legendary 88-year-old guitarist and composer Roberto Menescal, a founding pioneer of the 1960s bossa nova movement. Muca, a São Paulo native, brings a contemporary indie-folk and jazz-fusion edge to the partnership, while Menescal provides timeless rhythmic mastery and historical weight. Together, they form an artistic bridge across generations, recording at London's Secret Warehouse of Sound. For this expansive project, they assembled a global choir of twelve distinct female vocalists, blending classic Música Popular Brasileira (MPB) with modern international perspectives to reinvent the "new wave" for a global audience.
Beleza - meaning "beauty" or a casual Brazilian "it's all good" - vibrates with an effortless, sun-drenched euphoria. The twelve-track collection functions as a masterclass in atmospheric fusion, anchored by Menescal’s delicate, signature acoustic strumming and Muca’s lush, cinematic production. Instead of a single narrator, the album utilizes a brilliant rotation of diverse global vocalists. The standout track "Midnight Lullaby," featuring British-Brazilian rising star Liana Flores, seamlessly marries traditional bossa rhythms with dream-folk textures over velvety strings, punctuated by Muca's surf-guitar inflections. Meanwhile, opening track "A Beleza de Ser" features Brazilian singer Ilessi conjuring fluid, breezy melodies that feel inherently nostalgic yet entirely fresh.
By incorporating English and Portuguese lyrics alongside subtle jazz and soul inflections, Beleza honors bossa nova's historic "new wave" moniker. It avoids the trap of museum-piece revivalism, delivering a gorgeous, living evolution of Brazilian music that acts as a soothing balm for modern times. It is an unmitigated triumph of global collaboration.
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Rhythms of Love
BERIMA AMO
Released 22 May 2026
ARC Music
****-
GHANA
A bright, impeccably arranged celebration that draws modern Afropop and jazz into the vibrant embrace of vintage guitar-driven Ghanaian highlife.
Berima Amo is an Amsterdam-based Ghanaian trumpeter, composer, vocalist, and bandleader who stands as one of the key contemporary ambassadors of West African brass music. Steeped deeply in the heritage of highlife, Afrobeat, and soul, Amo has spent years bridging continental traditions with Western European jazz sensibilities. Heavily inspired by pioneering legends like Ebo Taylor and Fela Kuti, his music is characterized by infectious brass fanfares, complex rhythmic syncopation, and sharp lyrical optimism. Backed by his exceptional studio ensemble, Amo utilizes his brilliant horn work to present African heritage as a joyous, globally outward-looking conversation.
On the vibrant Rhythms of Love, Berima Amo crafts an elegant, multi-layered tribute to the foundational rhythms and legendary figures that shaped his musical upbringing. Across an 11-track narrative, the album moves effortlessly from the smoky atmosphere of mid-century Accra dance halls directly into the polished space of contemporary European jazz clubs, all while remaining grounded in themes of romance, resilience, and cultural pride.
The album opens with the atmospheric prelude "In the Beginning" before diving into the buoyant, guitar-led bounce of "Love Be Sweet." Here, clean interlocking horn sections and infectious vocal hooks instantly capture the pure celebration of classic highlife. Amo's astute historical awareness shapes the album's arrangements; on the gorgeous "Ahuofe" (meaning "Beautiful One"), his ensemble incorporates the distinctive "Kwao" picking styles popularized by old-school guitar heroes like Akompi, layering the ancestral technique beneath crisp, modern trumpet lines
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As it nears conclusion,the record's emotional narrative deepens significantly on standout "Yaba (We Are Here)." Featuring an inspired guest vocal from Amsterdam-based, Scottish soul singer Tallulah Rose, the track functions as a resilient, slow-burning anthem that balances heavy Afrobeat syncopation with smooth, late-night jazz textures.
While the sonic palette focuses strictly on uplifting, highly accessible grooves, the tight musician-led arrangements ensure the music feels thoroughly organic and grounded. It is a wonderfully executed, sophisticated album that radiates community spirit and warmth.
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