STEVE ANDREW enjoys an account of the many communities that flourished independently of and in resistance to the empires of old
Latest editorial
Afro-Celt fusion sounds scintillating
TOM STONE urges you to catch the last dates of a New York singer/songwriter, never afraid to challenge her audiences musically or politically
JAN WOOLF examines work that aims to give viewers a material experience of the environments in the polar north and Britain equally affected by the climate crisis
The bard recalls advice received 50 years ago from his TRB muse, and sorts out appropriate legislation for football club ownership
MICHAL BONCZA and MARIA DUARTE review Facing War, Kontinental ’25, Bugonia, and Relay
MAYER WAKEFIELD is frustrated by a production of Ibsen’s classic study of an anti-heroine that fails to elucidate her motivations
PETER MASON tunes his ear into the domestic affairs of a Carribbean couple with a troublesome son
Afro Celt Sound System
Barbican, London
EVER since founding member Simon Emmerson's innovative idea in the early 1990s to fuse both traditional West African and Irish music with electronica, Afro Celt Sound System has proven to be an inimitable force.
Always a colourful affair on stage, the group's core of guitarist Emmerson, Guinean kora and balafon player N’Faly Kouyate and Dhol drummer Johnny Kalsi — formerly of Transglobal Underground — are joined by a host of others representing global cultures for this gig.
Similar stories
Ben Cowles speaks with IAN ‘TREE’ ROBINSON and ANDY DAVIES, two of the string pullers behind the Manchester Punk Festival, ahead of its 10th year show later this month
CAROLINE FOWLER explains how the slave trade helped establish the ‘golden age’ of Dutch painting and where to find its hidden traces
Two new releases from Burkina Faso and Niger, one from French-based Afro Latin The Bongo Hop, and rare Mexican bootlegs
MARK TURNER gets over his discomfort that US cultural imperialism means we know more about US subcultures than our own