Add this topic to your myFT Digest for news straight to your inbox
The live performance of ‘Ghost Gamelan’ finally allowed the album’s songs to breathe
The title track starts as a meditation on chance, coincidence and roads not taken, and ends up as a contemplation of death
The artist’s collaborators provide a shimmering timbre of xylophone and metallic gongs to sit with her meditations on mortality
The best songs tell a story, give voice to a character or explore a conceit
Cover versions by male artists often amp up the hysteria, while women are more sympathetic to the original
The album features lyrics that are elliptical, rooted in the personal but hinting at the political
Songs start with distorted guitar and drumming that measures phrases rather than rhythms, then the vocalist begins to weave stories
The collection features electronic rhythms and textures, with acoustic instruments and unexpected funkiness
Inspired by a close succession of birth and death, the album features lullaby, folk songs and a version of John Lennon’s ‘Mother’
The band’s sophomore album is built around electronic textures that huff and glitch like analogue synths
The singer has emerged from retirement with a tour featuring her own material and poems set to music
South Africa’s BCUC were the highlight of a fertile and sometimes rainy festival
A blend of vodou and Creole folk music trace the country’s history back to Africa
The Dorset/Wiltshire event returned with a line-up that ranged from west African blues to Swedish country and western
The collection features a smouldering clarinet section and the artist’s oneiric vocalisation
The pop veteran bowed out with justifiable confidence, playing cherished classics alongside strong newer songs
The collection comprises two surviving reels of radio sessions, the music a mix of folk, soul, funk and Afrobeat
A dash of everything from rembetika to kezmer, with a side helping of electronic jazz
Tracks include a condemnation of ego and materialism and an incantation that unites even as it distinguishes
The songs deal with the domestic and the personal, the kora weaving through the melancholy melodies with focus
A wide-ranging concert by Master Musicians from the Aga Khan’s Music Initative
Miriam Tamar and GNL Zamba’s singing and rapping, respectively, are a perfect mix of soulful and direct
The Beninese singer performed her reimagined version of a classic Talking Heads album
The soundscape combines the deep rumble of the TR-808, laden with distortion and filters, with organic instruments
Laura Marling’s words nod to Victorian Gothic as Mike Lindsay’s keyboard sounds shimmer like the Aurora Borealis
