Sona Jobarteh, who was born in London, is a member of one of the five principal kora-playing (griot) families from West Africa, and the first female member of such a family to rise to prominence on this instrument. The playing of this 21-stringed harp-like instrument was exclusively passed down from father to son. The instrument […]
Oblivion
Oblivion is an instrumental work by Astor Piazzolla. He spent many of his formative years in the Italian neighbourhoods of New York City, where he learned to play the bandoneón (a button accordion of Italian origin, now associated most often with the Argentine tango). After moving to Buenos Aires and receiving a formal music education, […]
Jalousie
Jalousie is a tango written by Danish composer Jacob Gade in 1925. Its full title is Jalousie “Tango Tzigane” (Jealousy “Gypsy Tango”). It soon became popular around the world and is today a classic in the modern songbook. The work consists of two themes – the first “a temperamental theme in D minor”, followed by […]
Julee Cruise
Julee Cruise was an American singer and actress, known for her collaborations with composer Angelo Badalamenti and film director David Lynch in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In 1985, Badalamenti was composing the score for David Lynch’s Blue Velvet, as well as serving as the vocal coach for the film’s star, Isabella Rossellini. When […]
The Flying Lizards
The Flying Lizards were an experimental English new wave band, formed in 1976. Formed and led by record producer David Cunningham, the group were a loose collective of avant-garde and free-improvising musicians, including David Toop and Steve Beresford as instrumentalists, with Deborah Evans-Stickland, Patti Palladin and Vivien Goldman as main vocalists. In August 1979 the […]
Huun-Huur-Tu
Huun-Huur-Tu are a music group from Tuva, a Russian federative republic situated on the Mongolia-Russia border. Their music includes throat singing, in which the singers sing both a note and its overtones, thus producing two or three notes simultaneously. The overtone may sound like a flute, whistle or bird, but is solely a product of […]
Pomme
Claire Pommet, known professionally as Pomme, is a French singer, songwriter, and musician. Born and raised near Lyon, she learned to play several instruments at a young age. Pommet’s stage name “Pomme”, which derives from her last name, was a nickname used by her friends at university. In early 2015, Pomme was signed to Polydor […]
The Carioca
“The Carioca” is a 1933 popular song with music by Vincent Youmans and lyrics by Edward Eliscu and Gus Kahn, as well as being the name of the dance, it was choreographed for the 1933 film Flying Down to Rio. The word “Carioca” refers to inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro. The number was sung in […]
Laufey
Laufey Lín Jónsdóttir, known by the mononym Laufey, is an Icelandic singer-songwriter. She achieved notability in the early 2020s, and describes her musical style, a mixture of jazz pop and bedroom pop, as “modern jazz”. Her father is Icelandic and her mother is Chinese. The maternal side of her family is from Guangzhou. Her mother […]
the_miracle_aligner
Ja Khole Thaisii, more commonly known as the_miracle_aligner, is a singer and songwriter of Poumai Naga ancestry who started his musical journey and gianed popularity during the height of the Covid19 pandemic in 2020. After many failed attempts at finding his direction in life, he found a way to channel his good ear for sounds […]