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Music from: Argentina, Belgium, Bosnia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Ecuador, Egypt, Finland, Iran, Ireland, Mali, Morocco, Portugal, Reunion, São Tomé & Principe, Scotland, Senegal, Serbia, Spain, and Türkiye.
Music by: Ævestaden, Alune Wade, Amadou & Mariam, Amira Medunjanin, Ammar 808, BaianaSystem, BIRCH, Brighde Chaimbeul, Elana Sasson & Kaveh Sarvarian, Grecia Albán, Habib Koité with Aly Keita & Lamine Cissokho, Igor Bozanic, Kanazoé Orkestra, Lucrecia Carrizo, Mario Lucio, Maurice Louca, Mehmet Polat, Omiri, Os Úntués, Tagua Tagua ,The Bothy Band, Värttinä, Votia, Ward Dhoore, and Youssou N'Dour
This week’s Featured Album - Toña by Kadialy Kouyate
Kanou Foro Ka Di - Accoustic Live - Kadialy Kouyate
Kadialy Kouyate was born in Casamance, southern Senegal, into the distinguished Kouyate griot lineage. Griots, or jali, serve as oral historians, poets, and musicians, conveying communal memory through song and storytelling. From an early age, Kadialy absorbed centuries of Mandinka repertoire, mastering the intricate art of the kora—a 21-stringed West African harp. His upbringing instilled in him the cultural responsibility to preserve and reinterpret ancestral narratives.
Musical Training and London Years
After moving to the UK in 2003, Kadialy honed his craft at the Guildhall School of Music before joining SOAS University of London as a kora instructor. Over the past decade, he has shaped a generation of kora players while enriching London’s world-music scene through his ensemble Sound Archive. His fleet-fingered kora technique and haunting, soulful vocals have graced stages from WOMAD and the Royal Festival Hall to the O2 Arena and Royal Albert Hall. Alongside solo work, he collaborates widely, recording and touring with Rafiki Jazz and appearing on BBC Radio and TV broadcasts.
Collaborations and Notable Projects
Featured musician and cultural consultant on the 2015 remake of the TV series Roots, providing dialect coaching and historical insight
Touring and recording with world-music collective Rafiki Jazz, including three albums under Koni Music
Performer in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Julius Caesar production, touring the UK, Moscow, and the US
Appearances with London Globe Theatre’s We The People and Oily Cart children’s theatre productions
The Toña Album
Toña—meaning “Truth”—is Kadialy’s ninth album, released June 27, on ARC Music Productions. The record functions as a musical diary, delving into themes of cultural upbringing, migration, love, and homesickness. Through introspective storytelling and kora virtuosity, Toña invites listeners to reflect on the past and embrace future possibilities with honesty and hope.
Guest Musicians on Toña include the Italian guitarist Davide Mantovani, the English pianist Al McSween, Accordionist Josh Middleton. From Senegal, Abdoulaye Samb and Mamadou Sarr play Guitar and Percussion (djembe, congas, hand drums) respectively, and British Egyptian Mina Mikhael Salama plays Ney (Arabic flute), and oud (Arabic lute).
Sources: Little Baobab - Celebrating Sanctuary - Koni Music
AMMAR 808 “Aman Aman” ( Feat. Mariem Bettouhami )
AMMAR 808 is the moniker of Sofyann Ben Youssef, a Tunisian‐born producer and electronic visionary whose work bridges ancestral folk and futuristic club music.
He grew up in Tunis immersed in Mezoued, Gnawa and Sufi traditions. After studying musicology at the Institute of Music in Tunis, he relocated to Denmark and later Brussels, where he established his signature fusion of traditional North African instrumentation with Roland TR-808 rhythms.
Aman Aman old Tunisian song is ode the broken-hearted, the ones who left and the ones who were left behind, Behind the spaced synths and heavy bass, the haunting vocals of Meriem Bettouhami transcend this song into its essence, sadness aspiring for a lost hope, till we meet again.
Mariem Bettouhami is a Tunisian vocalist who studied at the Institute of Music in Tunis, honing a lyrical singing style rooted in North African traditions and classical technique
Sources: Far Out Magazine - The Quietus - YouTube
Brìghde Chaimbeul - A Chailleach
Brìghde Chaimbeul was born in 1998 in Sleat on the Isle of Skye, and grew up as a native Gaelic speaker. She began fiddle and piano studies before taking up the Great Highland bagpipe and Scottish smallpipes at age seven, inspired by legendary piper Rona Lightfoot.
IN 2016 Brìghde won the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award and the Horizon Award in 2019, marking her as a leading young talent. A Saltire Society bursary sent her to Bulgaria to study local piping traditions, broadening her musical vocabulary.
Her music sits at the crossroads of ancient tradition and experimental minimalism. Chaimbeul emphasizes the drone’s hypnotic power, layering sparse melodic figures and occasional vocals to create trance-like soundscapes. She draws on Gaelic folklore—especially the mythic figure of Cailleach Bheurr—to shape immersive, ritualistic journeys.
Sources: The Arts Desk - Bandcamp - Wikipedia
Where and when to hear Around the World
Thursday:
LIVE DRN1 Perth Western Australia - 9:00 p.m. local time (2:00 pm CET)
Friday:
Akaroa World Radio 2:00 pm local New Zealand Time (3:00 am GMT 4:00 am CET)
NAR-GROUP Germany – 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m (CET)
Mosel Radio – 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m (CET)
NAR-Alf – 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m (CET)
Waterwaves Radio: 9:00 pm GMT (22:00 CET)
Saturday:
Power 101FM Malawi: 11:00 local time
Flirt FM (Galway's Community of Interest & Student Station) 101.3 10:45 am - 12 45 pm
Best City Radio (Belfast) 3:00 pm
RCFM (Radio City FM) Duisburg, Germany 3:00 – 5:00 pm CET
U Radio - Sri Lanka 8:00pm - 10:00 pm local time
World FM 10:00 pm local New Zealand Time (11:00 am GMT, 12:00 noon CET)
Essential Radio Midnight to 2:00 am GMT (1:00 am CET)
Sunday:
West Coast FM Namibia 10:00 pm to 12:00 noon Central Africa Time (2:00 to 4:00 GMT)
Power 101FM Malawi: 12:00 local time
NFRS Osaka Japan: 12:00 noon local time (3:00 am UK time 4:00 am CET)
973FM in Singapore and 11:00 pm local time (3:00 pm/15:00 hours UTC – Universal Time).
Circl8 Chester: 12:00 noon
Websound Radio (Larne) 11:00 pm
Slice Audio 10:00 pm local time (11:00 pm CET)
Monday:
Armagh City Radio 00:00 pm local time (01:00 pm CET)
SparkFlame Radio: 00:00 am GMT (01:00 CET)
Circl8 Chester: 12:00 noon
Stirling Community Radio 8:00 pm GMT (9:00 pm CET)
Waterwaves Radio: 9:00 pm GMT (22:00 CET)
BR2 Pure Gold Radio – Costa Blanca, Spain 10:00 pm local time (CET)
Akaroa World Radio 10:00 pm local New Zealand Time (11:00 am GMT, 12:00 noon CET)
World FM 10:00 pm local New Zealand Time (11:00 am GMT, 12:00 noon CET)
Tuesday:
Shire Extra: 8:00 pm GMT (21:00 CET)
Waterwaves Radio: 9:00 pm GMT (22:00 CET)
Wednesday:
World FM 4:00 am local New Zealand Time (5:00 pm Tuesday GMT, 6:00 pm CET)
Slice Audio 4:00 am local time GMT (5:00 am CET)
Life Right Radio (London) 7:00 pm
Best City Radio (Belfast) 10:00 pm
Radio Skye (Radio Garden) 10:00 pm GMT (11:00 pm CET)
Thursday:
Waterwaves Radio: 9:00 pm GMT (22:00 CET)
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