The Rough Guide to Sudan

The Rough Guide To The Music Of Sudan is bursting with the diverse and rich music that has emerged from Africa’s largest country, from desert rhythms echoing a camel’s stride to savannah woodland harmonies. This album offers you an overview of a flourishing musical culture – including trance drumming, hip-hop, orchestral music, Arabic love songs and spicy horn sections – and incorporates influences from Egypt to Congo and from the White Nile to the Blue Nile.

As the horrors of the evening news tell us, the various peoples of Sudan don't mix particularly well. That alone makes the sinuousness of this polyglot comp astonishing, a sort of can’t-we-all-get-along survey of desert music that places veterans (Abdel Aziz el-Mubarak, Abdel Karim el-Kabli) next to modernists like diva Setona, deceased saxist Tariq Abubakar and child-soldier-turned-rapper Emmanuel Jal. They all mix just fine.’ Time Out New York, USA

Artists include – Rasha, Abdel Karim El Kabli, Emmanuel Jal, Tarig Abubakar & The Afro-Nubians, Setona, Joseph Modi, Zar Omdurman, Abdel Aziz El Mubarak, Mustafa Al Sunni, Mohammed Wardi, Muhamed El Amin, Omdurman Women’s Ensemble, Didinga Singer and Abdel Gadir Salim.