The leading world music magazine Songlines is turning promoter for a weekend in June (23 to 25) with a mini-festival entitled Encounters, at Kings Place. Editor in chief, Simon Broughton (also co-editor of the well-respected Rough Guide to World Music), is curating the weekend to celebrate 75 editions of Songlines.
The resulting programme presents artists that Broughton and his team think deserve exposure in London. Typically for a magazine with such a wide-ranging brief, the music is eclectic and, of course, off the beaten track.
Over 13 events – concerts, talks and workshops – Encounters draws from Greece, Portugal, Finland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Southern Asia and more. Highlights include the UK debut for young Portuguese artist, Carminho, who sings fado, the melancholy national song-style. Find out more about the music with a film about fado ahead of the concert.
More upbeat fare comes in the form of a brilliant Finnish harmonica quartet, Sväng, and UK-based Balkan and klezmer ensemble, She'koyokh (pictured). The festival closes with another great band with a difficult-to-pronounce name: 'one of Hungary's best kept secrets', Söndörgő.
To steal Songlines's strapline, Encounters is a chance to 'discover a world of music'. See here for the full list of events.
