To begin, Mahuna's new single “Far-Off Summer’s Night” does not fill the room with sound so much as it hollows out a small, reverent space within it. This is a song that arrives like a fog from the fields of Monaghan, a gentle haunting born of a Belfast past and a Berlin present, carrying with it the DNA of quiet sorcerers like Nick Drake...

Musicians who can create magic by drawing into their origins have a certain captivating and true quality about them. Sista Mika, whose given name is Sophia Michalakoudis, is a living monument to the genuineness of that culture. Sista Mika was born in Brussels with a Greek background. She grew up to the rhythmic rhythms of rebetiko, Greece's response to blues and reggae, a lyrical story of...