DoYeon Kim and the Lives of the Gayageum
Korean gayageum player DoYeon Kim discusses how her apprenticeship in traditional music led her to improvisation, her instrument-damaging technique, and why she occasionally screams at her audience.
Cross-Cultural
Servants of Music — The Folk Theater of YAGÓDY
Ukrainian folk ensemble YAGÓDY discuss songs handed down across generations, lyrics using invented phonetic samples, and the theatrical instincts behind their performance at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville.
'Chasing Shadows' and the Ancestral Frequencies of Nubiyan Twist
Tom Excell talks through the making of Nubiyan Twist's fifth record, 'Chasing Shadows,' a collision of Afrobeat, jazz, dub, and hip-hop fueled by a rotating cast of collaborators and a growing unease with the forces pulling music away from the people who make it.
Nearly Broken, Nearly Beautiful — Fågelle's 'Bränn min jord'
Swedish artist Fågelle spent three years making 'Bränn min jord' in the forests, community halls, and village gatherings of rural Halland, arriving at a record about what distance reveals and what returning demands.
Digitizing Benga's King — KMRU on the Archival Weight of Joseph Kamaru
For 'Heavy Combination (1966–2007)', KMRU digitized five decades of his grandfather's music, discovering how Joseph Kamaru's political songs diagnose today's Kenya and how the archive became a grounding for an artist constantly in motion.
Drinking from Tradition — Fabiano do Nascimento's Quiet Guitar
'Cavejaz' finds the Brazilian guitarist collaborating with UAKTI percussionist Paulo Santos, Japanese tabla master U-zhaan, and Los Angeles percussionist Tiki Pasillas on an album that privileges listening and space over the virtuosity his tradition demands.
Sessa Finds São Paulo's Rhythm in the Cosmic Ordinary
Three years of sessions in São Paulo yielded 'Pequena Vertigem de Amor,' an album born from the submarine days of early fatherhood and the vertigo between extraordinary love and ordinary routine.
Peter Knight and Hand to Earth — Drawn Together by a Thread
The Australian trumpeter discusses 'Ŋurru Wäŋa', the concept of raki that underpins his quintet's practice, and what he learned from his musical relationship with Wágilak song keepers Daniel and David Wilfred.
Gamelan Dreaming — The Surreal World of Bill Brennan and Andy McNeill
The Canadian composers discuss 'Dreaming In Gamelan,' an album twenty-five years in the making that honors West Javanese traditions while exploring ambient textures, electronic processing, and the emotional ambiguity of hand-forged bronze instruments.
John McLaughlin's Shakti Legacy — From Zakir Hussain to 'Mind Explosion'
The legendary guitarist explores Shakti's unique synthesis of Western harmony and Indian improvisation, from their groundbreaking early albums to their poignant final statement honoring Zakir Hussain's musical genius.
Brothers in Folk and Fire — Sturle Dagsland's Norwegian Soundworld
The Norwegian sibling duo behind 'Dreams and Conjurations' discusses their Sámi roots, their growing collection of foreign instruments, and what it's like to conduct a two-hundred-dog choir in Greenland.
Borrowed Voices, Borrowed Time — SANAM's Infinite Fire
The Lebanese sextet's second album 'Sametou Sawtan' transforms twelfth-century poetry and contemporary texts into experimental rock that captures both the intensity of their cult-like recording sessions and the existential weight of living under constant threat.