Tune Your World

Coco Mbassi - FREE Song: 'Na Menguele'!!

Today's FREE Song is by Coco Mbassi, She is Cameroonian, but she is principally based in Paris. Winner of the 1996 Radio France Internationale Decouvertes 'prize in the African music category, she is both an author and a composer.

FREE SONG:'Na Menguele'

Coco's songs tell stories often based on personal life experiences that she recalls. It's these stories and feelings that make her songs what they are today, and a great deal of these memories are made up of those old sepia-colored (black and white) photographs from home.

With a postgraduate degree in translation she began singing lead and chorus in the African gospel choir "Les Cherubins" and as a backing vocalist, she collaborated with various artists like Salif Keita, Oumou Sangare, Manu Dibango and Ray Lema.

The words to the songs of her mother tongue, Duala, are often found combined with jazzy, minimalist and classical arrangements, where vocal polyphony and African rhythm continue to play an important role. Coco Mbassi composes her own pieces and writes the words. Although her husband - who teaches as classical double-bassist - exercises a strong influence on her music writing, in her childhood she was permanently exposed at home to a wide variety of Händel, Makossa and jazz bigbands.

FREE SONG:'Na Menguele'

Get more music from Coco Mbassi here!!

Thione Seck - FREE Song: 'Assalo (Candle Games) w/ Bombay Jayashri'!!

Former member of Star Band de Dakar and Orchestra Baobab, Thione Seck has been an important figure on Senegal’s music scene since the 1960s. In the late 70s and early 80s Seck was one of the originators of mbalax, which has been Senegal’s most popular sound since then. Check out today's FREE Song:

FREE SONG:'Assalo (Candle Games) w/ Bombay Jayashri'

Seck was always a fan of Egyptian superstars such as Abdel Halim Hafez and Oum Kalsoum as well as Bollywood playback singers Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle. These singers have influenced his singing style, sometimes subtly, sometimes in a more obvious way. - An interesting mixture of Africa and Asia, - Senegal and India, among others...

Even though Seck grew up in Senegal, he says that a childhood fascination with Hindu films led him to favor Eastern modes. He told Afropop, "It's like the scales of the Spanish, Hindu, Greek, Arab musicians. Each time I compose a song, I put a few notes from this eastern scale, because that's what I love the most." The contrast between the band's edgy alertness and Seck's air of spiritual intoxication is likely to raise the hair on your spine. Do you agree?

FREE SONG:'Assalo (Candle Games) w/ Bombay Jayashri'

Get more music from Thione Seck here!!

Senegal, Mbalax, Senegalese Pop, World Pop,

Stella Chiweshe - FREE Song: 'Nhamoimbiri'!!

Stella Chiweshe is the Queen of Mbira Music, as well as the first female Mbira player to gain recognition on a national or international level. In fact, Chiweshe is nicknamed “Ambuya Chinyakare” (Grandmother of Traditional Music). Check out today's FREE song by her:

FREE SONG:'Nhamoimbiri'

Stella Rambisai Chiweshe is one of the few musicians in Zimbabwe and Southern Africa, who for more than 35 years has been a traditional Mbira musician. When Zimbabwe was still a Rhodesian colony, Stella secretly was recognized as a Mbira player at forbidden ceremonies. Before independence Mbira instruments had to be kept hidden, because the colonial government had banned the instrument fearing its magical powers.

She is one of the most original artists in the contemporary African scene using popular music to show the deepness and power of her traditional spiritual music at home and abroad. Stella introduces Mbira music to the occidental context without losing the relation to her Zimbabwean tradition: She creates warm dance grooves as well as popular songs always based on Mbira rhythms.

Mbira music, from Zimbabwe, is the basic element of the Bantu Shona culture. The sound of the mbira is the material medium of the culture, made of ceremonies to satisfy religious, healing and spiritual needs. What you hear is not simply what is played as such, but your ear selects the tones to form melodies.

The sound of the mbira will immerse you in the depths of African knowledge of the spirits. Stella Chiweshe, the Mbira Queen of Zimbabwe will take you there:

FREE SONG:'Nhamoimbiri'

Get more music from Stella Chiweshe here!!

Africa, Zimbabwe, Mbira, Chimurenga,

Sussan Deyhim - FREE Song: 'The Candle and The Moth'!!

Today's FREE song is by Sussan Deyhim!

FREE SONG:'The Candle and The Moth'

Sussan Deyhim was born in Teheran to an old aristocratic family, the youngest of eleven children. Her upbringing during the rule of the Shah was ultra-progressive. Her father was an economist, scientist and violinist; her house was filled with every conceivable style of music, old and new.

"There was unbelievable variety," recalls Deyhim, reflecting on the creative odyssey that has taken her from pre-Revolutionary Iran, to the cutting edge conceptualism of the progressive music scene. "There was all this growing tension between traditionalism and the modern world-a lot of schizophrenia at the time. So much was open and available and you had this young generation trying to make up its mind about what was real for them." And what was real for Deyhim, was dance and music!

A haunting quality inspired Peter Gabriel to use Deyhim's voice to evoke Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead in Scorsese's Last Temptation of Christ. Deyhim eventually collaborated with Depak Chopra for A Gift of Love, with the poetry of Rumi being read by Madonna, Martin Sheen and many others. She also began a solo album in London called Maze, mixed by Adrian Sherwood and Keith LeBlanc in London and produced by Bill Laswell in New York. In other words; the woman is around and Deyhim has become a presence on the international scene as a multi-dimensional vocalist and performance artist combining music, movement, and media. check her out:

FREE SONG:'The Candle and The Moth'

Get more music from Sussan Deyhim here!!

Iran, Saudi Arabia, Etno-Techno, Inspirational,

Saucetone - FREE Song: 'Sunset'!!

Today's FREE song is by Saucetone, and it is a unique fusion of African and Hawaiian slide guitar. Refreshing and honest music you guys!

FREE SONG:'Sunset'

Richard Bruyns, the man behind Saucetone, says that "Besides the violin and the saxophone, the lap steel guitar probably has the closest sound to the human voice," when explaining his predilection for an instrument originally invented in Hawaii at the cusp of the 20th Century before  finding it’s way into blues, country, rock, pop, African and Indian music.

One of only a handful of lap steel players working in South Africa, Bruyns’ guitar journey began back in high school when he discovered the blues by pure chance. Testing out several instruments on his personal musical journey, he is today handling this instrument as one of the greatest worldwide. Bruyns uses a Gibson Epiphone Acoustic with an action raised specifically for lap slide and a Goldtone lap steel guitar with a Sunrise acoustic pick up and an LR Baggs DI Box plugged into a Fender Champion Amp.

Discover the mixtures and the fine line between Hawaii and South Africa!

FREE SONG:'Sunset'

Get more music from Saucetone here!!

 

South Africa, Hawaiian Guitar Music, jazz, South African Pop,

Saba - FREE Song: 'Yenne Yenne'!!

Today's FREE song is by an artist that more or less carries a bit of everything with her. Born in Mogadishu to an Italian father and Ethiopian mother, Saba has come to represent the meeting of African and European cultures: as an actress she starred in a long-running TV drama, playing the role of a policewoman fighting against the prejudice of her colleagues, while dealing with issues such as illegal immigration from Africa.

FREE SONG:'Yenne Yenne'

Saba left Somalia when she was 5 years old. As the product of a mixed marriage and because her father was Italian (Italy being the colonial ruler of Somalia), the family was viewed with some suspicion. They were given 48 hours to leave, forcing them to migrate to Italy. From this point on Saba was determined to hold on to her Somali roots, to learn the language and to mend the broken thread with her homeland through music.

Jidka is Saba 's way of telling her story. A woman's search for her identity and what it means to be alive in the 21 st century, when so many people live in more than one culture. She sings in her mother tongue – a type of Somali that is spoken in Reer Xamar, a quarter of Mogadishu, and has real expression and rhythm in itself.

Saba is joined on djembe, guitar and percussion by long-term friend and collaborator, Taté Nsongan, from Cameroon, on kora Senegalese Lao Kouyate and on vocals Felix Moungara.

FREE SONG:'Yenne Yenne'

Get more music from Saba here!!

Somalia, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Senegal, Italy, World Fusion,

Marsada - Free Song: 'Gondang Mula Mula'!!

Marsada, a dynamic group of young musicians from Sumatra, Indonesia. Part of the Toba-Batak indigenous group, their native home and source of inspiration for their music is the beautiful tropical island of Samosir in Lake Toba, the largest volcanic lake in the world!!

FREE SONG:'Gondang Mula Mula'

Marsada means ‘together’ in Batak, an apt name for a group who have known each other and performed together for most of their lives. It is a lively 7-piece Batak group who perform their own arrangements of both traditional ceremonial music (uning-uningan) and more recent Batak folk using a mix of traditional instruments, acoustic guitars and close harmony vocals. Infectious rhythms and sensuous melodies.

Keen to sustain their musical traditions, as well as draw on their modern day influences, Marsada have developed their own arrangements of both the Batak ceremonial music (uning-uningan) and Batak folksongs. Using traditional instruments alongside modern acoustic guitars, Marsada broaden their musical accessibility by weaving together traditional rhythms with those that have evolved from contact with Europe and the west. Traditional instruments used by Marsada include the the hasapi (2-stringed plucked lute); sulim (bamboo flute), garantung (wooden xylophone), taganing (set of 5 wooden drums of varying pitch) and the hesek (common bottle struck with beater).

Engaged in charity work, Children of Sumatra is a charity supported by Marsada, which was set up to correct cleft lip and palate in children living in Sumatra. However, after the tsunami it widened its focus to include disaster relief. It's work which has been witnessed first hand by members of the group and their manager, is making a huge difference to the lives of many people in northern Sumatra, especially the areas of Aceh, Medan and Lake Toba.

FREE SONG:'Gondang Mula Mula'

Get more music from Marsada here!!

 Asia, Indonesia, Tradimodern,

Huracan de Fuego - FREE song: El Arca de Noe (Noah's Ark)!!

Madly infectious Venezuelan drumming, vocal and dancing collective, Huracan de Fuego, sings songs of colonization and slavery - Let's not forget!

FREE SONG:'El Arca de Noe (Noa's Ark)'

The group of the Venezuelan Caribbean, Huracán de Fuego, arrived with the only aim to sing and to dance the drum. A drum, or better, drums taken from the area of Maracaibo by black enslaved, coming from which today is Angola, the Congo and Zaire. Where in many of those places the tradition of the drums is lost, a group of young people recovers them. They are chimbangueles and the cumacos, great drums that are touched fallen down, seating the musician on its wood body and using the heel of the foot against the patch in search of the correct refining.

A group wanting to connect intensively with the audience, Huracan De Fuego presents only percussion and voices. Caribbean voices with that nasal quality, which so characteristic of the region. Voices that tell sassy stories like Bomba que bomba or La encubridora. Voices that speak to us of colonization and of slavery on Rebelión and El Negro Primero. Voices that bring us news of Venezuela or even look for inspiration in the Old Testament. Songs fashioned around the genuinely black tradition of call and response.

FREE SONG:'El Arca de Noe (Noa's Ark)'

Get more music from Huracan De Fuego here!!

South America, Venezuela, Bomba, Calopsy,Percussion,

Mari Boine - FREE song: 'Gula Gula'

Mari Boine, born in 1956, out of the deep of North Sami Native Culture, and gave her a heritage which make the her the strong voice of the northern people in Scandinavia. Her childhood was spent in the small village of Gámehhisnjárga, not far from the sami cultural center of Karasjok, (Finnmark/Norway). Today's FREE song is taking us up to the Arctic part of the world, but presenting us an electronic universe at the same time;

FREE SONG: 'Gula Gula'

Mari Boine's roots in the Ethnic native Sami "joik", together with the Christian influences ,have beside of her adopting of jazz, rock and native music from all over the world, made her one of today's really unique artists.

She was met with resistance from her own at first, due to the opposition she made against the traditional ways of Sami Culture under Norwegian colonization, and the traditional women's roll, but now Mari Boine give the inspiration to most of her people, and crushes the myths about Norwegian bending the Sami, and the problems towards the Norwegian society. The history of Norwegian domination and injustice are not spoken easily about even today, and somehow it's being silenced and even denied of some Norwegians.
Who would have known, right? A country seen as the 'richest country of the world' and with less than 5mill. people....

Mari Boine is and will stand as the future artist of ethnic music world wide, and she is and will be the one spirit of fire , which will burn in many people's mind for a long time into the future.
She is the cultural identity of the Native people of the world, one voice and mind that refused bending knees for anything!!

FREE SONG: 'Gula Gula'

Listen to more music from Mari Boyne here!

 Norway, Scandinavia, Electronica, World Fusion,

Corey and Maple-FREE song: 'simple things'!!

Today's FREE song is by Corey & Maple, a two-man band and a production team of two friends who have been playing together in various rock bands since the early nineties.

FREE SONG: 'Simple Things'

The music they make is driven by the passion for playing and endless search for the perfect song - with no boundaries, rules, or restrictions, and they use all the tools, instruments and guest musicians
necessary to catch the spirit of their songs.

The electronics give place to live instruments and the sounds sometimes go blatantly 70 ́s. Rock, progressive, jazz and spacey 'sound-scapes' shake hands on this album, taking you on small trips in space and time. Corey & Maple present a  mixture of funky rhythms, electronically treated vocals and cinematic textures.

The main message, if there is one, might be to stop and look around, to see the beauty of our planet an its inhabitants, and to live constructively and responsibly with open heart and mind. Spaciously human?

FREE SONG: 'Simple Things'

Get more music from Corey & Maple here!!

 

Europe, Finland, Scandinavia, World Fusion,