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Ana Moura

Portuguese vocalist Ana Moura, whose soulful and riveting interpretation of her land's captivating fado style has made her a star in Europe. Ana Moura has become a leading exponent of this poetic, deeply expressive idiom which personifies the Portuguese psyche as it explores such universal themes as lost love, separation, and longing. As Ana explains, "It's very special because it's all about emotions and feelings. It needs no translation."

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Konono Nº1

Konono Nº1 is a musical group from Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly known as Zaire). They combine three electric likembé (a traditional lamellaphone similar to the mbira) with voices, dancers, and percussion instruments that are made out of items salvaged from a junkyard. The group's amplification equipment is equally rudimentary, including a microphone carved out of wood fitted with a magnet from an automobile alternator.

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Kodo

<a href="http://www.last.fm/music/%E9%BC%93%E7%AB%A5" class="bbcode_artist">鼓童</a> (Kodō) is one of the elite taiko drumming groups today. Based in Sado Island, Japan, they have been a major force in the post-World War II revitalization of taiko drumming, both in Japan and abroad. They regularly tour Japan and the United States. Although the main focus of the performance is taiko drumming, other traditional Japanese musical instruments such as fue and shamisen make an appearance on stage as do traditional dance and vocal performance.

Juzzie Smith

Juzzie Started playing the harmonica at 13. By 23 he had won the coveted Golden Harmonica at the Tamworth Country Music Festival, and the Byron Bay Blues Blowout twice. He has in the course of his musical journey embraced and mastered a range of instruments, and absorbed influence from some diverse musical styles. Juzzie has played in a lot of bands, some fantastic and some forgettable, and performed with some of Australia's best musicians, including John Butler, Damon Davies, Jodi Martin and Jeff Lang.

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The Very Best

Esau Mwamwaya was born in Mzuzu in Malawi, East Africa. He grew up in the capital, Lilongwe, where he played drums in various bands such as Masaka Band. He was a good friend of the legendary Evison Matafale and they played together for several years before Matafale was killed in Malawi police custody in 2003. In 1999 Esau Mwamwaya moved to London, England has until recently run a second-hand furniture store in Clapton, East London.

A French Butler Called Smith

Gold Coast based world music band A FRENCH BUTLER CALLED SMITH have been performing their high energy Latin, funk, instrumental fusion over a 2 year period to ever increasing audiences on Australia's East Coast. The initial creators behind this all organic dance music sound were acoustic guitar aficionado (Scott French), bass maestro (Jake ‘the Butler’ Martin) and respected world percussion artist (Brennan Smith).

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Senyawa

Rully Shabara is a frontman and vocalist of Zoo, a math-rock/experimental band based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. In Zoo’s latest trilogy album he develop the music direction with traditional music approach by using javanesse language and traditional instrument but still in the vein of punk music. Meanwhile, Wukir Suryadi devoted his life into traditional music even in his teen he also listening to rock and heavy metal (musical genre that very popular in Indonesia back in the ’80s). He is best known when he create his own instrument named Bambuwukir by himself.

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Emmanuel Jal

Emmanuel Jal (born c. 1980) is a Sudanese musician and former child soldier. Born in the village of Tonj in Southern Sudan, he was a little boy when the civil war broke out. Emmanuel’s father joined the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and when he was about seven years old his mother died. Emmanuel then decided to join the thousands of children travelling to Ethiopia who had been told that they could be educated there.

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Gurrumul

A former member of Australian band Yothu Yindi, Gurrumul was born blind and sings mostly in his traditional language. Gurrumul plays the guitar upside down because there were no left handed guitars in the communities he grew up in. Gurrumul's story will inspire many. But his voice is what will cut through and if it lands on enough ears, his debut album 'Gurrumul' available on Skinnyfish Music could prove to be a landmark Australian release.

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