Journey back 1,500 years to the birth of music in Ethiopia, explore modern-day Addis Ababa and discover a sound that has influenced artists from Bob Marley to Common. Mikael Awake is your guide to Ethiopop — a genre that emerged when artists like Mulatu Astatke blended jazz, bebop and blues with a sexy, lilting Ethopian sensibility. Want to hear today’s ... Read More »
Istanbul has always been an exotic blend of East and West, since as far back as when they called it Constantinople, and that distinctly Eurasian cultural flavor can be heard in the city’s music. Western music was brought to Turkey in the 1600s and by the early 20th century, “the Turkish Five” had established Turkey as a viable center of modern ... Read More »
Born in tsarist jails, transformed in the gulag into a tool of political protest, and immortalized on gangsters’ graves — the criminal chanson is about as bad a they come. Chanson is Russia’s romantic version of gangsta rap (or the darker side of country music), a blend of melancholic folk with klezmer and gypsy music. Alina Simone is your guide to Moscow and ... Read More »
Berlin. The one place in the world where 24/7 clubbing and social activism meet face-to-face. Join Museyon Guide Siobhan O’Leary for a tour of Germany’s “poor, but sexy” capital, and find out why, some 30 years later, innovators of techno still come to the city where it all started. Hit up the Love Parade, dance at the legendary Tresor Club and discover a ... Read More »
To understand Muslim hip-hop in Paris, you’d have to go back to the beginning — to the early ’80s when rap was imported from New York City. Since then, the city has spawned a distinctly francophone sound, one that paints an accurate picture of what’s really happening á Paris — beyond the bright lights of the Seine and Champs-Elysees. Join ... Read More »
Dublin has music in its soul, writes Museyon Guide James Hendicott, and today that spirit can be heard in the city’s Celtic punk scene. Brighter than its English sibling, yet too raw to go mainstream, Celtic punk is a blend of traditional Irish instrumentation with electric guitars and other sounds borrowed from rock ‘n’ roll. Join your guide as he ... Read More »
Southern Africa produces more internationally recognized films by African directors than its neighbors in the east and north, and among these films conflict is a recurring theme. From the slums of Soweto to the Kalahari Desert, Lee Middleton is your guide to Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Botswana, and South Africa. About Your Guide: Lee Middleton has traveled and worked in 34 ... Read More »
The vision of Africa as “the dark continent” was cemented in film history by films like 1951’s The African Queen, but that’s only a fraction of the role that the continent plays on film. From romanticized portrays of Africa’s natural splendor to the investigations into its recent history in Hotel Rwanda and The Last King of Scotland, the legacy of ... Read More »
MUSEYON BOOKS Smart City Guides for Travel, History, Art and Film Lovers