Seun Kuti set to release highly anticipated album ‘Heavier Yet (Lays The Crownless Head)’, executive produced by Lenny Kravitz on October 4th.

In his heyday, Justo Betancourt’s lyrical spontaneity and creativity, plus his ability to sing in a variety of styles with equal expertise, earned him the reputation of being a “singers’ singer”. He punctuates his vocals with catchphrases like “Distinto y Diferente” (Distinctive and Different), which was also the title of his 1977 album on Fania Records.

For years, Manu Chao has been travelling the world to meet his fans in unusual venues, villages and small festivals. Elusive, but always accessible to those who cross his path, Manu presents 'Viva Tu', a collection of songs written at the heart of daily lives and struggles, and a fresh take on the state of the world, singing sunny, universal songs in Spanish, French, English and Portuguese, painting an unforgiving picture of social imbalances.

It all starts with the voice. At turns heavy and hulkingly powerful, yet agile and pointedly precise, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s vocal not only embodies the tradition of the Sufi qawwali but it is the emotive essence of singing itself.

From the first notes of symbiont, the radical new collaborative album and document of Black and Indigenous futurism from Jake Blount and Mali Obomsawin, the listener is met with rising tidewaters, massive droughts, and the appearance of an iconoclastic uprising amidst the world’s indifference. Questions of future or present tense swirl around the music as the duo unspools the intertwined threads of racial and climate justice. Amid rumbling synthesizer drones, the thrum of banjo, and the thwack of drum machines, a whisper of truth can be heard: this crisis has been unfolding for centuries.

For over 15 years, I have been devoting myself more and more to music from my homeland, Armenia. An infinitely vast world of music has opened up to me as a universe of its own. Sacred music (or spiritual music) has the oldest orally transmitted chants which are purely monodic in origin and are based on eight church modes with the liturgical year defining their function. Secular music is the largest field and includes folk music from towns and villages as well as music by gusans and ashughs (minstrels) – a tradition since the Early Middle Ages of singer-poets who either wandered or served at court, similar to troubadours and bards. The most famous among them was Sayat Nova (tracks 5 & 10), who was well-known and celebrated all over the Caucasus. Sacred and secular music are to some extent very closely related and have strongly influenced each other for centuries.

New Moon Suite is a 4-part work reflecting on the inspiration of ancestors, family and tradition - and how we navigate the world as multicultural beings. When given the opportunity to create this piece, I thought first of one of the most influential people in my life: my maternal grandmother, Aaji.

Vesvese Records debut with Gaye Su Akyol’s long-awaited remix album, in collaboration with electronic music artists all around the world. The project will feature 18 tracks and will be released every three months as an EP.

New York salsa hasn't changed, and that's where Yuri Buenaventura comes from, the angular, sensual, romantic and fierce salsa of the historic Fania All Stars albums.

Maurizio Fiore Salas and Ethan Setiawan are a duo combining elements of jazz with North and South American traditional music. Ethan Setiawan has a command of the mandolin far beyond his twenty-some-odd years, and has won both the National Mandolin Championship at Winfield, KS and the Rockygrass Mandolin Championship. Named “creative and virtuosic” by WBUR, his path has wended its way through traditional bluegrass, to Bach partitas, to free jazz. Maurizio Fiore Salas is an accomplished performer, composer and arranger based in Cambridge, MA. His unique style is born of the combination of elements from Latin American folklore, Jazz improvisation and Western Classical technique. Both musicians also appear with Boston based collective Acoustic Nomads as well.

Etran de L’Aïr the STARS OF THE AÏR, the longest running wedding band in AGADEZ, capital of Tuareg guitar, return with a new album of sun-schlazed desert sound! Their first album, No.1, brought their music to critics and fans. Their second album, Agadez, sent them into the international touring circuit. And now they're back with 100% SAHARA GUITAR, ready to take on the world, with those swinging melodies, like a sandstorm blowing in from across the sea.

This album's big hit was the timeless "Cuestiones Del Amor" and is a near-perfect set of swinging and superbly performed "Salsa Dura" from this legendary band. Not quite as good as its predecessors "La Orquesta De Mi Tierra" and "New Heights" but still a classic of its time.

"El Khat make joyful clatter…everything is recycled metal, plastic or wood, all coming together in a funereal march that sounds like a huge, disgruntled anima shaking itself into life." – The Financial Times

Sing to emancipate the African woman. A unique encounter between the Bantu lullabies of the Congo, electronic music and hip-hop. A hybrid project which gives pride of place to dance and which highlights the daily life of Congolese women in a daring way and above all connected with the times. Gladys Samba, renowned singer and percussionist, had for years wanted to revive and popularize the lullabies of the Republic of Congo, considered as a true cultural heritage of his region. In 2018, with the help of the Institut Francais du Congo, she succeeded in doing this with the show "Les Mamans du Congo".

Featuring 20+ groundbreaking artists from Rio’s resurgent music scene, intent on bringing an avant-garde edge to bossa nova, samba, jazz and funk.