Yeli singing, from northern Congo. Meandering, polyphonic counterpoint, with a sophisticated interlacing of sounds and motifs, and complex yodelling techniques.
‘When something grave occurs, when someone fall sick, when the hunt is bad, or when death strikes, it must be that the forest herself is asleep and unable to watch over her children… We have to wake her up. And we do this with singing…’

The lyra viol in heart-tugging, rug-cutting songs from the eastern Mediterranean, brilliantly performed by Stelios Petrakis.

Lullabies, carnival, work, wedding, shepherds’, bandits’ — music for singing, flutes, bagpipes, guimbards, fiddles and cymbalums.

Elegant, serene, new-wave, profoundly tuneful playing, with accompaniment from Abhijit Banerjee’s tabla and Sudipta Remy’s tampura.

Intense Moroccan singer improvisatorially lighting up the rare, refined nineteenth century wasla style, in suite form, with chamber orchestra — qanun zither, ud lute, kaman violin and riqq percussion.

Epic poetry wrapped up in the rabab viol (a coconut shell covered with fish skin, with a long, spiked handle, two horsehair strings), the vertical suffara flute, the arghul double clarinet, droning and melodious.

From the south-east corner, with uneasy Estonian identity, and ties to Russia via the Orthodox Church — striking singing about everything, in different lineups, with recordings from the 1930s till up to date.

Dramatic, intricate singing from South West Ethiopia — non-verbal, the voice turned inside out, used like an instrument — sometimes with lyre, riffing till death do us part, clapping, flutes from space, bells, and other accompaniments.

‘Wild songs’ (without words), sophisticated choral singing, improvisations, pastorals and newer song forms.

Erik Marchand singing, with his accompanist Thierry Robin finding the ud better suited than guitar or mandolin to the intervalic arrangements of quarter tones peculiar to this repertoire.

Polyphonic song — a kind of broken, yodelling counterpoint — accompanied by drums, sticks, sanza, vegetal trumpets, hand-clapping.

Mainly for rituals of initiation, possession and mourning, with the women singing and shaking a tchege, besides drums, a palm branch hit with a stick, a harp, and a bow played with the mouth.

Virtuoso performances recorded in 1972 and al fresco in 1970, mixing together works from the nineteenth century heartlands of the instrument, and rocking Mande tunes of the 1960s and 70s.

Sacred and secular vocal polyphony.

The Theodore Vassilikos Ensemble powerfully performing Petros Bereketis — extended variations on eight modes —  the most important composer of the golden age of Byzantine music, an eastward Bach.

Stirring, beautiful historical recordings of paralogues — deep, traditional melodies — drawn from folklore, everyday life and classical mythology: solo voice, or choral, or with clarinet, ud, lyre, violins.

Invigorating, soulful music; warmly recommended.
The langeleik is a box zither with one melodic string, and three to eight accompaniment strings or drones. Gunvor was taught by her grandmother. Here she is joined occasionally by two violinists and a a second zither.
The compositions are mostly traditional and centuries-old. The drones draw you in deep; the melodies take flight. Rapturous waltzes, giddying dance music, aching laments, sublime evocations of nature…

Possession and funeral songs and drumming, full of Africa, but sustaining its Indian Carib roots.

Following in the footsteps of Bela Bartok across Transdanubia, the Highlands, the Great Plain: marvellous recordings over thirty years of hurdy-gurdy, cymbalum, shepherd’s pipe, bagpipe, popular song.

Sundanese ritual music for the goddess of rice and the ancestral spirits, performed by Pupung Supena and Tahya — tarawangsa fiddle with ostinato accompaniment on kacapi zither.