Culture 16 July 2023

Ears of the People is a collection of sublime contemporary recordings of the ekonting, a three-stringed gourd lute played by Jola people in Gambia and the Casamance region of Senegal. The nine tradition-bearers featured on the album share stories of love, heartache, conflict, spirituality, and all that is unique and beautiful in Jola culture over the rolling lilt of the instrument. An important forebear of the American banjo, the ekonting drives lively dancing and brings these stories to life. These songs, rarely heard outside Senegambia, are a living tapestry of the Jola people and a unique interweaving of human voices and stringed instruments.

Brandee Younger release her second album on Impulse! Records, Brand New Life. Younger is quite often noted for standing on the shoulders of the very women who ushered in the harp as a clear and distinct voice in jazz: Dorothy Ashby. This record is an amalgamation of original pieces from Brandee and select reinterpretations of Ashby’s work. Brandee Younger represents a generation of contemporary improvisational musicians who came of age in an era when hip hop commanded a strong presence in American popular culture and emerged as leaders of a new school. In Brand New Life, she brings progressive explorations of harmony, rhythm, and melody infused with styles from hip hop, rock and pop music.

"It’s one thing to create an excellent three-and-a-half-minute dance-pop song, but another to sustain the appeal over an entire album. Kylie managed it with Fever, Madonna followed suit on Confessions on a Dance Floor. Dannii’s contribution to the genre on Neon Nights is every bit as good as those classics." Neon Nights is the perfect snapshot of the early noughties dance-pop zeitgeist. Propelled by a veritable pick and mix of the European dance production scene, Dannii’s album spawned 4 UK Top Tens smashes and 13 No.1 spots across the UK Dance Charts.

With Discreet Music (1975), Music for Airports (1978), and Thursday Afternoon (1985), Brian Eno invented a new music genre, ambient music, which he defined as "able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting." These versions performed and arranged by Dedalus Ensemble, according to the musicians and the critics who listened to it, goes beyond what you expect from it. A mental base that takes you far away. One of the only music without beginning or end in which we want to stay as long as possible.