World Music Network

The Music of Sudan & South Sudan: Divided Together

Sudan is a place that becomes increasingly more difficult to define with the passing of time. Once the largest African nation, on the verge of union with Egypt, Sudan is now a fractious pair of North and South, where land, culture, ethnicity and religion vie for the dominant means of constituting Sudanese Identity. This history of union and division has undeniably fed into the sound and customs of Sudanese musical practices.

Cambodia: From Dancing Angels To Dengue Fever

Cambodia's recent musical history is a a bloody one; the majority of musicians and singers were killed in the mass murders of the Khmer Rouge Regime.

The Music Of Egypt: Ancient Civilisation, Modern Nation.

A pillar of ancient history and a flashpoint for modern transition, the music of Egypt is as plural as its identity. A closer look reveals it is as much a home to music and culture as it is to palms and UNESCO heritage sites.

Voodoo: From Vodou To The Blues

There are many popular misconceptions of the Haitian Vodou religion in Western media. Generations of colonisers and filmmakers in Hollywood exoticised the religion and mispronounced its name as ‘voodoo’ – now the most widely recognised term used to refer to the range of cultures historically related to Haitian Vodou and West African Vodun.

Azerbaijan - Mugham and Modernism

Our guide to the music of Azerbaijan, from the classical Mugham tradition, to Azeri modernism. In Azerbaijan, three cultures meet – Turkish, Persian and Russian. Now, thanks to the oil, American-style capitalism has also moved in.

South African Jazz

Jazz crystallized sophisticated urban and political aspirations in postwar South Africa. From the jazz society of the suburbs in the 1940s and 50s, South African jazz persisted through apartheid and into the Rainbow Nation.

Arabesque: East Meets West

Huge international pop hits have instilled Arab influences into Western popular music, whilst Middle Eastern producers meld their musical roots with the hottest club tunes.

Georgia: A Feast Of Songs

Warm, fertile and surrounded by the spectacular beauty of the Caucasus mountains, Georgia's extraordinary music is inextricably linked to geographical isolation, a mythical fixation with feasting and an ancient Christian faith going back to the 4th century.

The Music Of Jamaica: From Roots to Ragga

Despite the tiny size of the island, Jamaican music has long been a powerful force on a global scale. Even ignoring the deity that is Bob Marley and his reggae legacy, the island boasts a wealth of extraordinarily popular genres...

The Folk Music Of England: Roots And Revival

England’s multi-cultural status has at last begun to express itself in music, encouraging a whole range of musicians to re-assess their roots and discover music that goes way beyond the usual stereotypes of beards, nasal voices, and overweight morris dancers.

Syria, Lebanon And The Levant: Europe Meets Asia

Music from Syria, Lebanon and the Levant conjures up images of exotic landscapes and fascinating soundscapes.

The Music Of Central Asia: Bards Of The Golden Road

The Central Asian Republics share a common historical and cultural background in the Islamic faith, except for Tajikistan, their Turkic roots. The area is a meeting point between Turkic and Iranian people, culture and traditions.