Young Cuban pianist Fonesca is a touring member with Buena Vista Social Club and appears on Caichato's album. Afro-Cuban with elements of contemporary

jazz make for a thoroughly engrossing album. Percussion and piano driven, with vocals and brass adding variety. Juan de Marcos Gonzalez reckons he's a future star of Cuban music and he could be right. So far, only available in Japan.


Price:  £17.99

Tarbagan is the duo of Masahiko Todoriki a Tuva (khoomi) style throat singer and Haruhiko Saga who plays the Morin Khuur and sings in the Mongolian throat tradition. In 1998 the team won the guest division and placed second overall at Unesco's khoomi contest. This CD contains traditional songs from Tuva, Mongolia and Japan.


Price:  £17.99

Tuvan and Mongolian tunes and songs by two Japanese musicians, Masahiko Todoriki and Haruhiko Saga complete with throat singing and traditional Tuvan

instrurments. They include somesongs from northern Japan, Ainu jew's harp and even Irish influences, to make this an interesting and recommended album.

Comes with useful English liner notes.


Price:  £17.99

Namjilin Norovbanzad has an extraordinary voice. Singing urtiin duu, or long song, and bogino duu, meaning short song, her voice is piercing, powerful.

Trouble is, this is a bit much over a whole CD. She is joined by instruments including morin khuur, with 2 it's strings and the hair of it's bow made from horsehair. Move any valuable glasses out the way before listening.


Price:  £17.99

Superb Japanese bandoneon player, interpreting tunes by Piazzola and other Argentinian tango greats.Has made the bandoneon and tango popular with young people in Japan.


Price:  £17.99

Forget the Bolivian cliche panpipes. A deeply strange album of Medeival voices and sounds with Bolivian traditional instruments and electronic accompaniment.

A real grower.


Price:  £17.99

If on the other hand, you like Andean pipes and charangos, and enjoy listening to them outside train stations (wherever you are in the world), then this is a good album to own.


Price:  £17.99

Amazing that when there is a so-called 'boom' in Japan, this time Bolivian folklore, out come the Japanese versions. They usually play beautifully, and the best ones add their own take. This is a good one, including Japanese songs.


Price:  £17.99

And now Japan has it's own women Paraguay harp player, apparently spawning a new trend. She plays beautifully,but album has a feel of a marketing ploy by big company.Japanese, Mexican, Argentinian tunes.


Price:  £17.99

Tracks from the King World Music library, compiled and mastered by Makoto Kubota. Not much more than old tracks reissued into a hip package, but Kubota has chosen well with music from Burma, Timor, Madagascar, Mongolia, Greece, Nepal, Vietnam and elsewhere. Hugely enjoyable CD that is full of discoveries.


Price:  £16.99

DVD with music by four Asian musicians produced and mixed by Makoto Kubota. Balinese and Sundanese gamelan expertly melded together by a master producer with some Turkish and Middle Eastern influences broadening the soundscape. More mellow than most things Kubota's done but this makes great late night listening and on headphones.The visuals are of scenes, images, festivals, and people of Bali, beatifully put together.


Price:  £17.99

One of Kubota's long time dreams has been to work and record with Turkish musicians which he finally achieves here. A kind of jazzy Arabic groove, as always with Kubota, cleverly produced. Features on one track the equally clever Sabah Habas Mustapha.


Price:  £17.99

Interesting CD featuring artists including Sol Hoopi, Andy Iona, Lena Machado,Gabby Pahinui, Kalama's Quartet and Yuki Yamauchi and Aloha Friends.


Price:  £17.99

Compiled from 78s collected in Japan, some rare recordings from 1920s by an exceptional artist. Compiled by Yuki Yamauchi.


Price:  £17.99

Two veterans of the Hawaii music scene get together to play mainly American standards.


Price:  £17.99

Another Cuban compilation. Shouldn't find these tracks anywhere else though. Artists include Sierra Maestra, Beny More and Orquesta Aragon.


Price:  £14.99

All that you might expect, harps, marimbas, mariachi. Artists include Los 3 Amigos, Marimba Nandayapa.


Price:  £14.99

Japanese compilation of Czech pop music, Moravian folk and more.


Price:  £17.99

Wonderful compilation album of one of Sri Lanka's greatest singers. Baila music, a Ceylonese form of dance music, but not the modern often cheesy version. Recordings date back about 30 years.


Price:  £16.99

Old style Sinhalese film music, that is unique in style to Sri Lanka. Male vocal accompanied by tabla and sitar, that mixes pop elements with traditional in a natural combination. Superb.


Price:  £16.99