Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

February 2012

4 February

Mavra Froudia – Stelios Petrakis, Efrèn López, Bijan Chemirani

Mavra Froudia (Black Eyebrows) is a collaboration between lyra virtuoso Stelios Petrakis (whose eyebrows provided the inspiration for the title track), Efrèn López (guitar) and percussionist Bijan Chemirani. It’s an album of original compositions which draw on the performers’ musical heritages: Cretan, Spanish and Iranian respectively (Musièpoca MEPCD003)

11 February

Szczera Mowa - Čači Vorba

Čači Vorba means ‘true speech’ in Romani – it’s a term used by gypsies to describe their music. The band’s based in Poland and plays a mix of Romanian and Bulgarian gypsy music. Szczera Mowa is their debut album, winning a German Record Critics’ Award in 2011 (Oriente Musik RIEN CD75)

18 February

Wayside Courtesies - Pilgrims’ Way

Wayside Courtesies is the debut album from Pilgrims’ Way. The trio’s from Stockport in northern England, describing their style as ‘no-frills’ contemporary folk – a reflection, they say, of their musical apprenticeship in the industrial North West (Fellside Recordings FECD239)

25 February

Folkelarm – Traditional music from Norway

Folkelarm is an annual festival showcasing Norway’s traditional music. Today in Global Sounds, we’ve music from some of the artists who have played at recent festivals (Arts Council Norway)

January 2012

7 January

Highlights from 2011

The first of two programmes of highlights from Global Sounds 2011

Music details:

In the blink of an eye – Mundi (Monkey MON035)

The very best of Hugh Tracey (SWP Records SWP 034)

Ancestors Call – Huun Huur Tu (World Village 468107)

Latår II – Johan Hedin and Gunnar Idenstam (Caprice CAP 21807)

14 January

Highlights from 2011

The second of two programmes of highlights from last year’s Global Sounds

Music details:

Afrocubism (World Circuit WCD085)

Hedonism – Bellowhead (Navigator 042)

Canaich – Duncan Chisholm (Copperfish CPFCD004)

Vilda Rosor – Maria Kalaniemi (Aito Records AICD015)

21 January

Chinese New Year

2012 is the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese calendar, and to mark the New Year celebrations we feature music for qin zither and xiao flute. We’ll also hear from Anda Union, a folk band from Inner Mongolia (Caprice CAP 21818; Hohhot Records)

28 January

Recent world music releases

Music from some of the best new releases from the end of last year, as selected by world music magazine Songlines. Artists include singer Azam Ali, traditional Quebec trio Genticorum, and Cimarrón, the nine-piece folk ensemble from Colombia (Songlines #78, #79 and #80 Top of the World compilation discs)

Music details:

“Musst Musst”, from Aam Zameen: Common Ground – Kiran Ahluwalia

“Bè Bé Bori I No Fè”, from Sidiba – Bako Dagnon

“Tangos Del Nilo”, from Al-Zarqa – Ali Khattab

“Casi Uno”, from Traveller – Anoushka Shankar

“Meadows of Dan”, from The Cecil Sharp Project – Cecil Sharp Project

“Tout le Long du Voyage”, from Nagez Rameur – Genticorum

“Lai Lai”, from From Night to the Edge of Day – Azam Ali

“Zemi Me Zemi”, from Amulette – Amira

“Caucasian Dance”, from Music of Georges I Gurdjieff – The Gurdjieff Folk Instruments Ensemble

“Joropo Quitapesares”, from Joropo Music from the Plains of Colombia – Cimarrón