Purple Spirits is a collection of tributes to artists Ancient Future has historical connections with. "Punjabi Jhinzaki" is a tribute to tabla master Ustad Zakir Hussain, who was very instrumental in the development of Ancient Future and appears on Ancient Future's World Without Walls release. "Spirit of Nirvana" acknowledges the surprising history between Ancient Future and the band Nirvana. "East of the Sun (Studio Version)" features wind virtuoso Paul McCandless of Oregon. Sadly, this is the last oboe recording featuring him to be released, as in 2017 he was diagnosed with a health condition that led him to retire from playing oboe, although he kept a busy performance schedule on his other wind instruments until 2025. "Tres Tarantas Tres" is a tribute to David Easley, Matthew Montfort's high school guitar student who became a master flamenco player. "Purple Nam and Purple Haze (Vietnamese Đàn Bầu Style)" is a tribute to Jimi Hendrix that incorporates Indian raga and Vietnamese music.

Nearly ninety years after its opening in Paris at Opera Garnier, Transylvanian expat pianist Lucian Ban and American violist Mat Maneri present a radical re-imagination of George Enescu’s famous Oedipe opera. For decades, the opera was seen as too difficult to perform, the score and four long acts demanded much from the musicians, but Enescu’s Oedipe has finally begun to receive the attention that it rightly deserves and to be recognized as one of the greatest works in the operatic repertoire.

New album by SABA ALIZADEH, a groundbreaking voice in contemporary Iranian music who blends classical Persian traditions with avantgarde experimentation.

On New Year’s Day 1968 I heard Swamy Haridhos for the first time in Bombay and was struck by his charismatic personality and great singing. I was brought to hear and meet him by the family of K. Sridhar and K. Shivakumar with whom I was staying studying tabla and Hindustani music.

Mosaïc is an ensemble made up of six musicians from Bulgaria, France, Portugal and Tunisia. Their compositions are above all else a space for musical encounters at the crossroads of jazz and Mediterranean music. Their musical language is varied, combining Balkan ornamentation with the colours of Western European chamber music and the rhythmic essence of North African music. The ensemble explores imaginative worlds and interweaves traditions like a mosaic, passing from energetic grooves to the breath of the Bulgarian kaval and the woody sonority of stringed instruments. Now that its creations have been welcomed throughout the Mediterranean, Mosaïc presents a debut album inspired by the different places it has visited and the people it has met.

On his new album, the Ivorian balafon virtuoso Aly Keïta explores new horizons for his instrument in improvised music. Together with his Berlin-based trio, he conquers the peaks of balafon possibilities one by one, wandering between groovy African rhythms, spectacular polyphony and elements of jazz, and combining them into a fusion that is both futuristic and deeply in roots. In Balafon Evolution, Keïta establishes a new level of balafon artistry, creating universal, contemporary soundscapes that transcend cultural boundaries.

When most of us go on holiday to Greece, we hang out by the pool, go to the beach and maybe bring home a souvenir or two. Last year Greg went on holiday to Greece and made an album. Synthesizer, Grand Piano and traditional Folk Instruments are blended with Field recordings to create an intriguing album of Authentic Greek Modal Folk-Jazz and soundscapes.

Legendary Malian balafon player Neba Solo and donso n’goni player Benego Diakité’s A Djinn and a Hunter Went Walking—the first in a series of new releases in collaboration with longtime Nonesuch partner Nick Gold, former head of World Circuit Records—is due February 13 on Etoile Audio / Nonesuch. On the album, co-produced by Gold, Ousmane Haïdara, and Sonny Johns, the acoustic instrumentals are complemented by vocals and percussion as well as touches of mellotron, guitar, and strings. The CD and digital versions their original duo performances, unadorned, recorded in a Bamako garden under a mango tree.

Seven years ago, Murat Aydemir and Christos Barbas recorded their first album The Mountain and the Tree in Istanbul, containing original compositions for Tanbur & Ney. Since then, they have played concerts in Greece, Spain, Japan & Cyprus, further developing the interaction and relationship between them. In their newest album Book of Birds, recorded in Brussels for the Seyir Muzik label in October 2024, they present a collection of contemporary compositions inspired by and based on the modal traditions of the wider Middle Eastern and Mediterranean worlds. Their unique mastery of their instruments serves as a prism, a meeting point for different pieces from different composers to take shape.

For the album Wah Wah!, the international Munich-based ensemble JISR collaborated with the virtuoso vocalist of the Carnatic vocal tradition Ramamani R.A. and the German guitarist and oud player Roman Bunka to create an intercontinental opus magnum. The work is the result of an extensive tour in South Asia, during which JISR explored the music of the Indian subcontinent. A considerable wealth of musical styles meet and converge here, inspired from diverse Indian musical traditions, Gnawa music from Morocco, Arabic Maqam, German Jazz-Rock and more.

Luurankolauluja, the second album by Uusi Aika, opens with Luurankouni, a shakuhachi kata rooted in ancient tradition and named after a poem by the 15th-century Japanese Zen poet Ikkyū. This meditative prelude sets the listener adrift, unprepared for the unfolding journey that follows.

Siwane is the synthesis between the talented vocalist Mounia Siwane and some of the most exceptional jazz musicians from Lyon, France. The project is a passionate voyage through time. The compositions, written by guitarist Stani Jardel, are influenced by popular melodies from the Al-Andalus era, the historical, Muslim-ruled area that comprised most of the Iberian peninsula between between 711 and 1492. This is very special music, which mixes the antiquity of the original melodic material with modern, jazz-based language.

Lamia Yared and Efrén López announce their new album From Minho to Euphrates - bridging eight centuries of sacred and secular traditions.

Standing in his front room in Leeds and rifling through his enviable collection of vintage vinyl by the twentieth century masters of the Imdad-Khani gharana, the North Indian school of sitar music in which he’s trained, Degun is anticipating the arrival of his own LP.

Inner Spaces is a collaboration between Iraqi-American trumpeter, santur player, vocalist, and composer Amir ElSaffar and electronics virtuoso Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch. The music explores the intersections of Maqam modes of the Middle East, jazz improvisation, and electronics, creating an immersive, richly textured soundscape that is beyond category.