A companion mini-album to Heavy Combination, last year’s career-spanning compilation documenting some of the amazing music recorded over five decades by the late Joseph Kamaru, a towering figure in post-colonial Kenyan culture. This new record presents five more gems from the archives, chosen by Disciples and Joseph Kamaru’s grandson, the sound artist KMRU. Carefully remastered from original tape transfers, with liner notes by Kenyan academic Maina wa Mũtonya.

There are some artistic collaboration’s that are both unexpected and the fruits of that liaison very often fail to see the light of day. This was so nearly the case when it came to the Bristol and Zimbabwe collision that would be between former Bhundu Boys frontman, Biggie Tembo, and the sonic sculptors that were Startled Insects.

The legendary singer Salif Keita makes a grand return with So Kono, an acoustic and deeply intimate album.

Underground to overground. Forest to metropolis. North Africa and South Africa, meeting up, digging down, finding gold in the seams. Here, at the intersection of club floor and ritual, of electronics and ceremony, are worlds both ancient and modern. Otherworlds, where inhibitions fall away, dancers shakedown and trance takes you out there, and far away.

Grammy-nominated Malian singer, songwriter and guitarist Fatoumata Diawara returns in 2026 with MASSA, her most personal work to date. Introspective and powerful, the album explores motherhood, faith, memory, and resilience, transforming intimate reflection into universal storytelling. Through these songs, Fatoumata invites listeners, of all backgrounds, to embrace gratitude and accept that destiny is an inevitable part of the human journey. The album also carries a moving tribute to her late father, whose love continues to guide her beyond his passing.

From soulful Sahara blues to mesmerizing mbira melodies from Zimbabwe, African Sojourn offers an expansive yet intimate journey across a continent rich with music and culture. Putumayo's latest African collection brings together singer-songwriters and troubadours from north to south, east to west, who, despite their diversity, share songs united by enchanting melodies, soulful rhythms and rich storytelling. Singing a wide array of languages and performing with local acoustic instruments such as the kora, balafón and mbira, these exceptional artists share stories of love, land, identity, and resilience that are rooted in local traditions yet open to the world.

When Khalab and Baba Sissoko first recorded together in 2015, they produced something definitive: a record where electronics and griot tradition achieved genuine synthesis rather than polite cohabitation. Not layered genres maintaining separate identities, but two forms evolving into something singular. "Tata" took Track of the Year at the 2016 Gilles Peterson Worldwide Awards, found champions in Laurent Garnier, Ben UFO, Matthew Dear, Bonobo, and many others — but more significantly, it established a working method built to last.

Bambaraoui performs both entirely traditional songs from the Gnawa and hunter music repertoires, most lying at the intersection of the two, but with new arrangements. The music also ventures into blues, funk, and modern dance music styles that, in one way or another, have their origins in West Africa. Bambaraoui is a journey into the past, the present, and into the future.

Amsterdam-based Ghanaian trumpeter, composer and bandleader Berima Amo blends highlife, Afrobeat, traditional West African rhythms, jazz and soul into a rich, contemporary sound. Rhythms of Love is a heartfelt tribute to the music and icons that shaped his journey-exploring love, unity and cultural pride through hypnotic grooves, expressive trumpet lines and soulful melodies. Bridging tradition and innovation, the album celebrates African musical heritage while carrying it boldly into the future.

One World Records Proudly Presents: Mah Damba with ‘Taabolo Koura’, a ten-track statement of authority from one of Mali’s defining voices — four decades into a career that has never wavered from its source. This new record deepens the musical partnership with guitarist and arranger Thierry Fournel, who has worked alongside the Damba family for twenty years. The production is a family affair in the deepest sense. Her nephew Badje Tounkara — an icon of the djeli n’goni, sought after by Salif Keita, Baaba Maal, and others — anchors the string arrangements. Her son Guimba Kouyaté, one of the most in-demand guitarists in West Africanmusic, contributes guitar. Her daughters and granddaughters sing the choruses. Antoine Girard’s accordion — an unusual presence in Malian music, but one that echoes Mah Damba’s own grandfather Ousmane Soumano, who played the instrument — adds a rare harmonic colour, while Fournel’s guembri pulls certain tracks toward the hypnotic territory of the Gnawa.

The iconic Saharan rock band’s sixth album, Assikel, is by turns intimate, raw and deeply atmospheric. Recorded on analogue tape, with the band playing live and direct, the album fully captures their instinctive interplay and hypnotic presence. Songs of resistance, community and longing. Music for this moment. Featuring: Ibrahim Ag Alhabib (Tinariwen)

Grammy award-winning producer/author Ian Brennan presents riveting recordings of traditional song by Namibia’s Himba for an album exemplary of Sublime Frequencies’ incredible library of sounds lesser-heard beyond their locale…

Experience the beauty of African acoustic music with 10 of the continent’s talented singer-songwriters on Café Africa, an enchanting collection celebrating the continent's diverse musical heritage.

Massa Dembele is a songwriter, griot, percussionist and master of the camel N'Goni, a West African harp.

A couple of years back, UK-based House DJ Jerry Frempong’s wife Katie was doing a spring clean at the family home. At the bottom of the garden, amongst a pile of rusty garden tools, she discovered a couple of mysterious bin-bags. She was about to assign them to the skip with everything else, but a sixth sense persuaded her to check the contents. It was a huge pile of rare soul, funk, disco, boogie and- yes – Ghana Highlife records. Katie brought this to the attention of Jerry, who immediately understood the significance of the treasure trove.