Baciamolemani
Baciamolemani, Sicily’s favorite, blends traditional horn-heavy Italian rhythms with Balkan inspired party vibes that take you on a musical journey around the Mediterranean isles.
Bargou08
Bargou 08 is a musical journey through the almost forgotten popular landscapes of north - west Tunisia, an isolated region between the Tunisian mountains and the Algerian border. Singer Nidhal Yahyaoui and musical producer Sofyann Ben Youssef take the listener for a dive into this musical heritage, so close to extinction, and perpetuate it through a celebration of authentic lyrics, melodies and dance, combined with modern beats and electronic sounds. An invitation to a trance that balances the spirits and lightens up the hearts, BARGOU 08 has become a front, Front Musical Populaire !
Conjunto Papa Upa
A mind-blowing yet joyous-sounding assault takes you on a psychedelic journey with a possessed voodoo priest piloting a half-broken 1970’s Caribbean space ship, departing from the hot Venezuelan beach of Camuri Chico in order to land somewhere on the African continent along the borders between Angola and the Congo.
Eliades Ochoa
Buena Vista Social Club® presents Eliades Ochoa. He is the voice of ‘Chan Chan’ and without competition THE voice of the traditional Cuban son.
Emel Mathlouthi
Her music has electro and trip hop rhythms and a modern sound – a new way forward for Tunisian music.
Idiotape
South Korean electronic trio Idiotape formed in 2008 in Seoul. Producer and synthesizer player Dguru, who is also a highly-respected DJ in Korea, and synthesizer player Zeze teamed up with the simple goal of making “fun and enjoyable music”. Drummer DR (formerly of Seoul pop-punk / pop-rock act Sugar Donut) was brought on board in early 2010.
La 33
Within Bogotá's fiery music scene, LA-33 has emerged as Colombia’s most famous touring salsa orchestras. The sound is modern yet authentic, embracing retro salsa dura (hard salsa), classic cumbria, ska, Latin jazz and old school New York Boogaloo. Significantly, the band is named after Calle 33, their home street in Bogatá, because it captures an essential urban take on salsa, connected directly to the streets.
Ni
We could just say that Ni is an instrumental rock band. We could just tell you to grab a nice coffee and look at their latest album cover while enjoying yourself on a balcony. We could just be happy that spring is on it's way and that we can hear the birds sing all afternoon. We could just tell you that we have waited a long time for this moment.
O Rappa
In 1993, four friends from Rio de Janeiro (Nelson Meirelles, Marcelo Lobato, Alexandre Menezes et Marcelo Yuka) decided to create the reggae group, O Rappa, to expose the social injustices that the country was going trough (cf Minha Alma). Since then, they have recruited a fifth member, Falcão who became the emblematic vocalist of the group.
Orlando Julius
Born in 1943 in Ikole-Ekiti in Ondo State, Nigeria, Orlando Julius Ekemode (“Orlando was really a nickname, taken from the Nigerian actor, Orlando Martins") had started in music from an early age, becoming the school drummer and learning flute, bugle and other instruments at St Peters Anglican School in Ikole-Ekiti.
Roberto Fonseca
Since the beginning of his musical career in the early 1990s, Cuban-born multi-instrumentalist Roberto Fonseca has stated his mission clearly: “I want my music to reach people who don’t know me, and I dream of one day becoming a point of reference for my audience.” Although still very young – by the standards of jazz, hip-hop, world music or any other genre – Fonseca has maintained a sharp focus on his mission that has already garnered him global recognition. Born into a musical family in Havana, Cuba, in 1975, young Roberto originally gravitated to percussion, but started playing the piano at age 8 (the interest in percussion would eventually enhance his piano style). He began composing at age 14, drawing inspiration from Afro-Cuban music. His appearance at Havana’s International Jazz Festival at the tender age of 15 was not only a revelation to audiences, but the launching pad for a musical education that resulted in a degree in musical composition from the Instituto Superior de Arte. But the degree was only the beginning of his education process. He saw every road after college as an opportunity to merge his style with other styles and create something greater than the sum of its parts. At 21, he embarked on a tour through Italy with singer Augusto Enriquez, which included performances on RAI, the state TV channel, which introduced him to audiences well beyond his Cuban origins. Shortly after the Italian tour, Fonseca joined saxophonist Javier Zalba to form Temperamento, a group that became his creative platform for the next 15 years, beginning with the release of En el Comienzo in 1998. The album won the award for Best Jazz Album at the Cubadisco 1999 festival. En el Comienzo was followed by three solo albums in rapid succession – Tiene Que Ver (1999), No Limit (2000) and Elengó (2001). In 2001, he joined the Orquestra de Ibrahim Ferrer for a world tour that logged more than 400 performances throughout Europe, the UK, South America, Australia, Asia and just about every other corner of the globe. Led by Ferrer – an alumni of the Buena Vista Social Club™, the legendary Cuban collective that had taken the world by storm some five years earlier – the tour with the Orquestra positioned Fonseca alongside legendary figures like Cachaíto López, Guajiro Mirabal, Manuel Galbán and many others. The tour marked the beginning of an ongoing and fruitful relationship with various members of BVSC. The intensive touring and multicultural exposure planted the seeds for Zamazu, Fonseca’s monumental 2007 recording that assembled more than 20 musicians and integrated elements of his various influences: Afro-Cuban, jazz, classical and traditional Cuban music. Among the musicians on this diverse and ambitious recording were Portuondo, Zalba, Carlinhos Brown, Vincente Amigo, Ramsés Rodríguez and many others. Following the release of Zamazu, Fonseca showcased generous portions of the recording at some of the most prestigious festivals in the world in front of spellbound audiences. Zamazu was a tough act to follow, but Fonseca found a way to bring the magic and energy of his live show into the studio for his 2009 release, Akokan. The album featured his quartet with guest performances by Cape Verdean vocalist Mayra Andrade and American guitarist Raul Midón. His latest studio effort Yo, was recently nominated for a GRAMMY® in the category of Best Latin Jazz Album. Recorded in Paris, Yo draws its simple but appropriate title from the Spanish word for “I” or “me.” Fonseca is clearly the focal point of the recording, but his multidimensional and multicultural sound exists within an intricate mosaic made up of a total of 15 fifteen musicians from Cuba, Africa, the U.S. and elsewhere. All of these valuable partners help Fonseca down new paths that continue to explore countless directions and ideas. Fonseca and his crew have already toured worldwide in support of Yo, with more than 100 concerts since April 2012. As always with Fonseca, there are new creative worlds to explore, and new artistic bridges to build between the traditional and the modern-day. “This album unveils the beginning of a new phase more than the closure of an old one,” he says. “I want to delve deep into my roots in light of my experiences and show the diversity of my musical universe, all these ideas which I had out aside, unable to use until now.”
Rupa & The April Fishes
Fiery, engaging and wide-reaching, their music is the soundtrack for a world teetering at the edge of itself
Shan Ren
The remote province Yunnan in South Western China is thought to have been the inspiration for James Hilton’s Shangri-la in his classic novel Lost Horizon. Since their formation in this region in 2000, Shan Ren, literally “mountain men”, have become one of China’s top indie folk bands. With members representing some of the smaller ethnic groups, the four-piece aims to promote and preserve the colourful and diverse heritage of Yunnan and Guizhou’s many ethnic tribes through original compositions and re-workings of local folk melodies. Shan Ren fuse indigenous music with modern styles, while showcasing a variety of traditional instruments such as the Xianzi, Qinqin and Dabiya (four-stringed plucked instruments) and Xianggu and Sun drum (percussion). Gaining popularity in Beijing’s small but vibrant folk scene on the strength of their energetic live shows, the band were invited to appear in front of 5,000 people at Cathedral Square for the Barcelona Festival Asia in 2010. In 2011, Shanren also presented showcases at MIDEM in Cannes and Liverpool Sound City, UK.
Socalled
Socalled is a pianist, producer, composer, arranger, rapper, singer, journalist, photographer, film maker, magician, cartoonist and puppet maker based in Montreal, Quebec. His project The Socalled Movie is a feature documentary produced by the National Film Board of Canada in which he has been making records and toured the world for over a decade.
Tal National
Tal National are from Niamey, the capital city of Niger. They’ve had several #1 songs in their home country, are constantly featured on national TV - folks in Niger leave their TVs on and use them as boomboxes . Still, they sell their discs on the street, at roundabouts since there is no centralised distribution system in the country.
