Tonight another 16 showcases at Womex are a chance for bands from all over the world to wow an audience of festival programmers, media, labels and agents who are ready to be surprised by new artists. The programme is so packed and the platform so diverse it’s sometimes a disorienting experience, as rapid context shifts go from kitsch spectacle to intimate moments. Over here, you watch raw tradition operating in reverse, over there a cross-cultural collision - Womex applies a panoramic approach, so we go nightly from carnival to salon via the nightclub.

Victor Demé, the ex best kept secret from Burkina Faso is quietly gaining attention. His folky African blues comes through his soulful voice backed by a groovy band. Lepistö & Lethi, a double bass and accordion listen carefully to each other and take the audience on a sensitive adventure which crosses jazz, folk and contemporary landscapes: sounds emblematic of the openness of the Scandinavian approach to music. In the country of wild icy landscapes the weirdest music may grow. The yoik singer and sami musician Johan Sara Jr. Group, builds a musical adventure which goes from ancestral raw traditions to free mind psycho rock and electro jazz. A totally surprising, but convincing music accompanied by abstract images from the winterlands.

Spok Frevo Orquestra bring one of the key rhythms of the Recife street carnival to the concert hall, big band style, with mega brass swing. Chocquibtown are here to say that positive things can emerge from Colombia, their funky hip hop meets cumbia meets salsa is a musical shout against corruption and violence. Direct from Choco, a remote region of the Pacific with strong African roots, MCs Tostao and (ex-Sidestepper) Goyo and young mix-wizard Slow plug the Pacific Coast´s traditional music into the future and pulling the Womex panorama into sharp focus. 

Mondomix