Using voice, drum, whistle, chimes, shakers, rattle, tambourine, and didgeridoo, Airto and company make music that comes from all regions and belongs to none. These are songs for ritual and healing, based on many cultures. The mood is ethereal, yet because of the predominance of percussion, also powerful. New age music with punch.

If one were to compile a list of iconoclastic and innovative guitarists who came to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s, the list would have to include such names as Michael Hedges, Adrian Belew, David Torn and Steve Tibbetts. While Tibbetts is probably the least known of the four, his work is easily on par with that of the others. What makes Tibbetts unique among these is that he is equally prone to playing acoustic and electric guitars. He has released several all-acoustic albums, but most of his albums feature a good mixture of both, as well as judicious use of electronic effects and a heavy reliance on a variety of exotic and familiar percussive instruments. Safe Journey is all of the above in a nutshell.

By the time he was twenty, Joseph Tawadros had already received a significant music fellowship and an ARIA nomination for his first album. He's gone on to become one of the most respected Oud players in the world, performing a concert of his original music at the BBC Proms and being awarded the Order of Australia medal along the way. For the last few two years he's been stuck in London during the pandemic, finishing off an album that he began in New York, but in the Drawing Room he's looking forward with a tour and mystery new project on the way.

The follow-up to the pioneering Australian art pop duo's 2012 comeback LP Anastasis, Dionysus dispenses with the more song-oriented approach of its predecessor in favor of an atmosphere-driven bacchanalian oratorio inspired by the Greek god of wine and ecstasy. Split into two tracks with a sum of seven movements, Dionysus unfurls like a guided ayahuasca trip; a curl of aromatic smoke that develops into a roaring, pre-Byzantine bonfire replete with primeval chants and ancient rites. Opener "Sea Borne" tracks the outsider God's arrival via a slow build of tribal beats and a sinewy, unfolding melody that suggests "Misirlou" by way of "Kashmir" – the album continues to eschew the European folk proclivities of the duo's early work in favor a more Mediterranean and North African aesthetic.

By the mid-'90s, Malian guitarist Ali Farka Touré was expanding his signature acoustic African blues by changing his instrumental palette and collaborating with Western musicians like Ry Cooder (as on 1994's Talkin' Timbuktu). While Touré gained prominence during this period, many die-hard fans tout the artist's earliest work as his strongest. The double-disc set Red & Green brings together two albums originally released by the French label Sonodisc between the mid- and late '80s. The original vinyl versions were long out of print and difficult to find, until their issue here on World Circuit/Nonesuch. Both albums are entirely acoustic (Touré didn't introduce an electric guitar until 1991's The Source), with minimal accompaniment on calabash and ngoni (a traditional four-string guitar), which perfectly complements Touré's percussive guitar style and plaintive, keening vocals.

Babak Afshar is a perfect example of a new age composer whose albums can appeal to those who aren't big new age fans. That's because his new age/world music output not only soothes, it also stimulates. Consistently tranquil and peaceful, Color of Rain can appeal to those who simply want to unplug, unwind, and be soothed. But as calming as Afshar's music is, it isn't mindless or mind-numbing. Blending new age with elements of both Middle Eastern folk and European classical music, Afshar (who is listed is simply Babak on this CD) is substantial, interesting, and creative. Afshar helps you relax, but he doesn't force you to turn your brain off in order to appreciate him. On Color of Rain, Afshar gives us new age music with a difference.

Introducing "East is East", the latest album from Infusion Baroque. This fourth album from the Montreal-based ensemble is a fusion of Western Baroque, Persian and Indian music traditions. Featuring collaborators Amir Amiri, Hank Knox, Thibault Bertin-Maghit, Hamin Honari, Vidita Kanniks, and Shawn Mativetsky, the thirteen tracks see Western and Eastern musical traditions find common ground in transcultural music.In "Bergamasca" and "La Folia", baroque composers are realized with Persian santur, tombak, and daf alongside the Western harpsicord, violin, cello, and recorder. Amiri's compositions "Raghse Choobi" and "Aghrab" sees Persian folk melodies from Iran and Azerbaijan brought West, while "Saghi Nameh" and "Cortege" make use of Persian harmony alongside the textures of western counterpoint.

Although Oregon was founded as an ensemble of soloists, their strength has always been their ability to integrate as a band, a result of their unusual combination of talent and curiosity. None of the members was content with just one instrumental style, but instead developed connections with classical Indian and European music, bluegrass, folk, jazz and experimental avant-garde. With such a solid musical foundation, the Oregon four needed to do little more than appear within a zeitgeist that welcomed improvisational and chamber jazz sounds, and before an audience that valued their wild mix of characters and compositional talents.

Their reputation growing by leaps and bounds, including a huge underground following in the U.S. – they were able to tour there even without one domestic release available, while at one point Dead Can Dance was the biggest selling band in 4AD's history – Perry and Gerrard once again did the business with Aion. Its cover taken from Bosch, Aion's medievalism was worn more openly than ever before, with songs adapted from centuries-old material. The beautiful, entrancing "Saltarello," with lead performance by what sounds like an old wind instrument, comes from an Italian dance of the 14th century, while the mysterious moods of "The Song of the Sibyl" derive from 16th-century Catalonia. The group's command of not merely recording possibilities – witness the exquisite layering of vocals on the opening "The Arrival and the Reunion" – but of musical traditions, instruments, and more from around the world was arguably never stronger. Gerrard's vocals in particular have an even stronger, richer feeling than before, not merely able to command with its power but softly calm and seduce.

This 66 minute CD has 16 tracks of highly interesting electronic music. The material does not have the wall of sound density like that of Kistenmacher but is closer in sound to that of Exchange. Several songs are light in texture and sparse in complexity. This gives them a pop-jingle sound that can fool the listener, but several playings will show the composers working for an overall diversity. Several tracks are notable - "Icefields", "Banana", and "Polarlight" by J. Mohn; "Lhasa" by K. and M. Buntrock. This first release album shows a lot of promise for the musicians. A nice change from the work of Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze.