Batila: Tatamana

At the junction of multiple roads you often see signs pointing in many directions, and Batila’s debut solo album is a crossroads of sorts. Son of Congolese and Angolan parents, he was raised in Germany and England and now lives in Berlin, but his destination is more about identity—encompassing freedom, cultural integrity and Black love—than a place on the map. His signs are esoteric but he invites us in: Batila, his name, is Kikongo for “one who … More Batila: Tatamana

Helene Blum & Harald Haugaard Band: Strømmen

In poetry and prose, flowing water is a common metaphor for life and history, constancy and destiny. But there’s nothing common about Strømmen (The Current), which meanders with calm majesty through timeless landscapes. Helene Blum and Harald Haugaard are a lyricist-composer couple (in art and life), she a nightingale of club and concert hall, he a virtuoso fiddler, together peerless navigators and … More Helene Blum & Harald Haugaard Band: Strømmen

Andrea Pancur: Alpen Klezmer – Zum Meer

Scholars debate whether Yiddish, the German-based language of Ashkenazi Jews, emerged in the Rhineland or Bavaria. Few have studied Bavarian-Yiddish links more than Andrea Pancur, who focuses less on debating linguistic history than on composing new connections. After nearly three decades in klezmer music, she added her native Bavaria to the mix; Zum Meer (To the Sea) is the second album in her signature genre of Alpen Klezmer … More Andrea Pancur: Alpen Klezmer – Zum Meer