In the 1990s, Piraha recording artist Mario Lucio and his band Simentera used electronics and acoustic guitar to expand musical forms like traditional Cape Verdean morna, the Brazilian, Latin American and Haitian-inspired coladeira, or the funaná sound that was the soundtrack of the former Portuguese colony’s independence.

Also active as a painter and writer, lawyer and politician, the composer thus brought about a paradigm shift in the regional music scene that also created international ripples. Before their breakup in 2005, Simentera recorded four albums and also worked behind the scenes for the local culture.

After Lucio recently revealed the transcontinental links of funaná to Cuba and Haiti and explored the socio-political dimension of the genre with his solo album Funanight...

#piranhapublishing

The KutiMangoes are hittin' the road again.

We got some their September, German dates for ya!
#noteyourcalendars

05.09 Berlin, Kulturbrauerei, Maschinenhaus >> FB event here
06.09 Osnabrück, Lagerhalle
07.09 Rotenburg, Bildnerische Werkstatt
08.09 Kiel/Lutterbek, Lutterbeker
11.09 Hamburg, Mojo
13.09 München, Milla
14.09 Erlangen, e-werk
15.09 Leipzig, NaTo

Each month we present to you the top world music album releases, as seen through the eyes of the World Music Charts Europe and Transglobal World Music Chart. At the end of each year, both monthly listings add up to the winner of the WOMEX Label Award and its runner-ups.

For the World Music Charts Europe (WMCE), the world's first association of its kind, Radio DJs and programmers from 24 European countries collect their top albums of the month - usually presented in the DJs' programmes and the channels that present them. EURORADIO offers the opportunity to syndicate these programmes to members of the exchange system.

Transglobal World Music Chart (TWMC) was conceived in 2015 as an open network of music activists spreading world, roots and traditional music. It is open to makers and...

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Los Wembler’s de Iquitos — who helped pioneer Peru's psychedelic cumbia sound in the '60s and '70s — have recorded their first new record in 25 years and are now going on a summer tour in Europe.

We are excited to support their concert in Berlin on July 13! at Säälchen, Holzmarkt25.

If you listen to the first notes of a few of their track, you will need no more explanation! This legendary band from Iquitos founded the Cumbia Chicha, a 1970’s psychedelic cocktail. The five brothers conquered the quarters of Lima, and soon became the soundtrack of a generation in Latin America. Recently rediscovered, they are now an inspiration for many musician and producers.



The after-party for the night, will get down with Dengue Dengue Dengue Feat Afroperuvian Drums.

<Dengue>...

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Abdullah Ibrahim is South Africa’s most distinguished pianist, a global jazz icon. His music inspired a generation and his most famous song, Mannenberg, became a theme song of the struggle against Apartheid.

Ibrahim was born in 1934 in Cape Town and baptized Adolph Johannes Brand. His early musical memories were of traditional African Khoi-san songs and the Christian hymns, gospel tunes and spirituals that he heard from his grandmother, who was pianist for the local African Methodist Episcopalian church, and his mother, who led the choir. The Cape Town of his childhood was a melting-pot of cultural influences, and the young Dollar Brand, as he became known, was exposed to American jazz, township jive, CapeMalay music, as well as to classical music. Out of this blend of...