Malian kora player Ballaké Sissoko released his eleventh album, Djourou, on 9 April 2021 on French label Nø Førmat! (Oumou Sangaré, Blick Bassy, Mélissa Laveaux). Djourou draws together solo compositions alongside thoughtful collaborations with Nouvelle Vague’s Camille, African legend Salif Keita, leading kora player Sona Jobarteh, master cellist Vincent Segal, French rapper Oxmo Puccino, singer/songwriter Piers Faccini and Arthur Teboul, a vocalist from Paris-based rock band Feu! Chatterton.

Pharoah Sanders: Huh?

Sam (Floating Points): Were you asleep? I’m sorry.

Pharoah: No, no. I was listening and dreaming… listening to music in my head.

Sam: Oh, wow. Sorry.

Pharoah: Many times, people think I might be asleep, but in fact, I am just listening to music in my head. I’m always listening to the sounds around me and playing, in my mind. And sometimes I dream.

Sam: What were you dreaming about?

Pharoah: I’m on a ship. In the ocean. Bears are around, smoking cigars. The bears are singing, ‘We have the music. …

Gilles Peterson has partnered with Jean-Paul ‘Bluey’ Maunick to reinvigorate the loose, protean energy of the early-80s Brit-funk scene. Long-time friends and collaborators, STR4TA sees them mine new musical possibilities out of that shared formative era.

It was through Maunick’s band, Incognito — one of the essential groups of an oft-overlooked, vital pocket of Black British musical history — that they first connected. On ‘Aspects’, he and Peterson revisit that important period and the spirit that guided it: self-taught, DIY vitality, and a raucous energy built on live performance.

Bringing a fresh slant to a sound first developed by groups…

Creole poetry, folk mysticism and heavy-grooving cosmic synths combine on this unprecedented survey of spiritual Martinique polymath Gratien Midonet’s first four albums.“I always broke free from the rules, from codes being too narrow,”says poet, musician and sonic shaman Gratien Midonet.“I have always had this sense of peaceful knowledge that there is no separation between genres, beings and universal things.”

For Midonet, pushing musical boundaries was less a choice than an extension of his spirit. A self-taught guitarist and composer, drawing on his childhood memories of bélé and beguine rhythms, Midonet’s musical life developed in parallel to his academic and spiritual…

We’ve updated our regular Worldwide FM playlist with upfront and reissued music from around the world. Listen throughout the month on air, or to enjoy on the move, subscribe or follow the playlist on Spotify and Soundcloud.

96 Back — 9696 Dream [Local Action] Adrian Younge — George Stinney Jr. [Jazz Is Dead] Ages Ago — Lockdown Blues [Wavy Inc] Altın Gün — Kesik Çayır [Glitterbeat Records] Amandra — Sarape [AD 93] Asha Puthli — The Devil Is Loose [CBS] Ballaké Sissoko — Djourou [Nø Førmat!] Beringei — Without You ft. William Florelle [Wot Not Records] Bleaching Agent — Amar…

Puma Blue, the London singer-songwriter AKA Jacob Allen, presents ‘In Praise Of Shadows’, which is available now on Blue Flowers Music.

Puma Blue’s nocturnal, soul-searching sound was born from a decade in which the 25-year-old was plagued with insomnia, “for literally a decade, I just couldn’t sleep.” That certainly helps to explain the hazy, late-night “voicemail ballads” of the early EP releases that propelled him to prominence, 2017’s ‘Swum Baby’ and 2018’s ‘Blood Loss’ earning him a reputation as affecting chronicler of unrequited love and inner turmoil.

It’s an intimacy still present across In Praise Of Shadows but there’s also…

Charlotte Algar speaks to singer, composer, actor and Worldwide FM DJ Liraz about the notions of identity and womanhood entrenched in her music.

Zan: Woman

Naz: A mode of femininity encompassing things like elegance, politeness, beauty and pride.

Music, our tastes in it, the way we participate in it, is always an expression of our identity. We create our own sonic fingerprints related to the ideologies we agree with, the clothes we wear, our economic situation, how we like to dance. Although the days of burning mix tapes for our friends are long gone, our “Here’s a song for you…” WhatsApp messages secretly say “Here’s a bit of me, what do you think of it?” In a world of binaries, boxes and checklists…

We’ve updated our regular Worldwide FM playlist with upfront and reissued music from around the world. Listen throughout the month on air, or to enjoy on the move, subscribe or follow the playlist on Spotify and Soundcloud.

Aaron Taylor — Don’t Leave Me Alone ft. Lalah Hathaway [Edenic Records] ACT! — Section 2 (21–40) [Halocline Trance] Adrian Younge — The American Negro [Jazz Is Dead] Al Wootton — Ashe [TRULE] Alostmen — Bayiti [Strut] Altin Gün — Ordunun Dereleri [Glitterbeat Records] Amandra — Kapsalon [AD 93] Apifera — Overstand [Stones Throw] Balkan Taksim — Zalina (Baiuca Remix) [raso.] Binker and…