The 15 Best Global Music Albums of 2011
The best global music albums of 2011 prove there’s energy surging everywhere around music, this human-made fight to find an approximation of the inexpressible.
“It’s been a good year,” said Dave, mentioning albums by established names like Tinariwen, Natacha Atlas, Mamadou Diabate. I agreed, thinking of the Orchestre Poly-Rhythmo reunion, and considering, too, the nameless Ethiopians recorded by Olivia Wyatt for
Staring Into the Sun and the Scots from
Whaur the Pig Gaed on the Spree, these people who were documented once on short notice before stepping back quietly into their lives of private singing. A mass of albums at the end of the year can remind you of infinity, or of endings. New faces have arrived. Two Kyrgyz men recorded 40 minutes of mouth harp. After five years of online posting, Awesome Tapes from Africa released a physical album. Finders Keepers in the UK had its warehouse burned down by rioters, and musicians rallied
Kyrgyzstan
Slovak-republic
United-kingdom
Ethiopia
Czechoslovakia
Kyrgyz
Ethiopians
Olivia-wyatt
Kiran-ahluwalia
David-maine
Natacha-atlas
Nusrat-fateh-ali-khan