Described as an experiment in immediacy, back in 2020 the Portland-based label Sahel Sounds doubled down on its commitment to the music of the Southern Sahara with its searing blend of psychedelic jams, crackling choral textures, roiling dub rhythms, and boisterous desert blues. Familiar faces like Etran de L’AĆÆr and the Nigerien techno pioneer Hama plus newcomers from Bounaly to the Wodaabe guitar group Andal Sukabe were invited to record and send short sessions to Sahel Sounds via WhatsApp, with each performance hosted for one month on Bandcamp while all of the proceeds were wired directly to the musicians.
Now for the first time Sahel Sounds compiles some of its favourite tracks from the series, starting with the supple guitar of Amaria Hamadalher from the bittersweet folk band Les Filles de Illighadad. The Tuareg rock stars Mdou Moctar announce a collection of remixes from Afrique Victime, and the Durban trio Phelimuncasi draw inspiration from the buzz and sting of indigenous bees on their second full-length for Nyege Nyege Tapes. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Emile Mosseri daub in green, the Shanghai producer Osheyack mines the utopian potential of the club for SVBKVLT, and the harpist Nailah Hunter combines with the producer Brogan Bentley and saxophonist Maxwell Kaplan to conjure the lovelorn depths and puckish mysteries of the forest.
Forced to abandon home following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, amid rocket sirens and shattered memories the Kyiv raver Koloah still dreams for the future. Laura Cannell leaves her overbow violin and recorders to one side for the fulsome embrace of a droning East Anglian pipe organ. Romance and Dean Hurley celebrate the curdled glamour and heartrending melodrama of daytime soap operas sampled through early YouTube codecs and old VHS tapes, Maral finds fleeting moments of gratitude amid blooming shrubs of sweet lavender, and there are tracks by Billy Woods, Daniel Villarreal, A. Billi Free, Naomi Alligator, Vega Trails, and Kalia Vandever.
Playlists: Spotify Ā· Apple Music Ā· YouTube
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Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith & Emile Mosseri – ‘Green To You’
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A. Billi Free & The Lasso – ‘Riding the Beam’
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Mdou Moctar – ‘Taliat’ (Rey Sapienz Remix feat. MC Dougis)
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Phelimuncasi – ‘I don’t feel my legs’
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Amaria Hamadalher – ‘Tarhanine’
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Laura Cannell – ‘In a Falling Shadow’
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