DAVID YEARSLEY is fascinated by the account of four composers who transformed their experiences of the second world war and the Holocaust into deeply moving works of art
RUN for and by Turkish and Kurdish people in London to help them solve their problems and promote their cultural, economic, social and democratic rights and to strengthen solidarity among themselves as well as local people, this year’s 30th annual Day-Mer Festival in north London’s Clissold Park was headlined by Turkish psych-folk singer Selda Bagcan.
Also known simply as Selda, her first album came out in 1976 and her mix of folk and psyched-up backing music, as well as powerful lyrics speaking out on working-class struggles, have made her popular but less so, as you’d expect, with those in power.
She’s been jailed three times since the Turkish military coup in 1980. “A pop singer going to jail was unheard of at that time,” she has said. “It was because of my lyrics, not because I was a terrorist. But I did share a cell with terrorists.”
BEN COWLES samples the many sonic and social therapies of Manchester Punk Festival 2026, and is ready again to smash capitalism
STEVE JOHNSON relishes a celebration of the commonality of folk music and its links with the struggles of working people the world over
TONY BURKE revels in the publication of previously unreleased tracks by the great US folksinger
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to Ethiopian vocalist SOFIA JERNBERG


