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This year the entertainment business returned to some form of normality after the hard slog of lockdowns and lack of customers. It was good to see music lovers back at festivals and clubs. And the best festive season present of all was the performance of Ethiopian legend Hailu Mergia and his trio at Studio Lam on Dec 21.
Interest in recorded music, led by DJs and "crate-diggers", has shone a light on some fascinating popular music genres over the past 20-odd years. Soundway Records, set up by Miles Claret in the UK, released its first compilation in 2002 on Afrobeat, funk and fusion from Ghana in the 1970s, and since then has released compilations on African, Caribbean, Latin and Asian music (mainly focusing on the period from 1950s to 1980s, when popular genres were being created by newly independent countries).
The music scene has been given a boost this year with the return of tourists and the reopening of entertainment venues. Festivals are returning to the provinces this month and the local circuits for rock and luk thung are back, too. The summer festival season in Europe, Japan and North America also returned and coincided with lots of summer and now winter music releases. The World Beat desk is groaning under the weight of new music.
Mogadishu in Somalia in the mid-1980s was a crossroads where Africa, Asia and Europe joined, where hotels like the Al-Uruba competed with other luxury venues to host some of the Indian Ocean's most potent popular music. Situated right on Lido beach, the distinctive Al-Uruba building with Arabic and Somali architectural influences had a little-known recording studio.
Amaru Tribe, a Latin band based in Melbourne, Australia, released their second studio album, Between Two Worlds, on March 18. The band visited Thailand in 2019 for a mini-tour, which culminated in a full band concert at Studio Lam, for which they jammed with phin and khaen players from Toom Turn Molam Band.