Tinariwen: Tuareg guitar band returns to the roots

It's safe to say that renowned Tuareg guitar band Tinariwen have arrived. After a string of acclaimed recordings, they offer us Imidiwan:Companions, recorded in a temporary studio in the Saharan oasis village of Tessalit and some of the surrounding wilderness. It has the same brooding power while recalling the best aspects of what gave Tinariwen's first album the spontaneous feel of a field recording at times, resulting in disc that sounds like the creative juices were simply allowed to flow and captured in the best way possible.

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Fotefar and Håvard Lund: skewed visions of Nordic music

Fotefar & Håvard Lund are Swedes who take a skewed view of their traditional music on their recording, Fest. They do loopy things with the rhythms, crash sonorities up against one another, and splatter timbres up against a wall with Pollock-esque abandon. They'll pull you into a tune thinking it's going to be all traditional and sedate, then they'll twist the harmony up into something unrecognizable. Lena Jinnegren's matter-of-fact vocals have an off-handed air about them that says, "Join this party or don't. We're going to keep playing either way."

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Trio Ifriqiya: jazz from France, Congo, Algeria

Trio Ifriqiya comprises the compelling talents of Fayçal El Mezouar (vocals, violin, oud, percussion, trained at Algeria's El Kordobia conservatory), French jazz pianist-composer Didier Fréboeuf, and Congolese drummer-percussionist Emile Biayenda (a founding member of Les Tambours de Brazza). Inspired by the traditions of the Maghreb, yet invested with a collective improvisatory genius that blends lyrical traces from four continents, they craft a music that defies easy categorization on their CD, Petite Planète.

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