This 10 Best International Releases of This Past Year

Looking back on the musical landscape of worldwide sounds that expanded horizons. We explore ten remarkable albums that defined the year in music.

10. Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty

A continuous, 40-minute suite of insistent percussion might not seem the most approachable musical proposition. But, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar turns this driving beat into a strangely alluring album. Directing an trio of three drummers, Korwar crafts a complex percussive dialect over the record's ten parts. The album channels minimalist concepts from Steve Reich as well as Indian classical phrasing, all anchored in the reiteration of a continual, thrumming motif. Over its duration, this refrain begins to emulate the hypnotic repetition of devotional music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive world.

9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget

Following an hiatus of eight years, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan returns with a mournful album of songs. She expands on the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced style that made her a staple in the Arab alternative scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is quiet and thoughtful, singing tender melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop groove of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a quivering, yearning vibrato against north African synth lines and skittering electronic percussion. The production is sparse and understated, yet this simplicity creates the perfect setting for Hamdan's emotive compositions to resonate. It is well worth the long anticipation.

Number Eight: Debit – Desaceleradas

From Mexico producer Debit has a knack for eerie reworkings of traditional music. On her new album, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit decelerates this sound down to a crawl, processing its signature synths and syncopated rhythm via veils of distortion and static to produce a fresh, menacing rhythm. At turns ambient and unsettling, Debit morphs the celebratory dancefloor sound of cumbia into a persistent, spectral afterimage.

7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!

Sheer intensity is the key term for the music of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a cacophony of alarms, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics over the enduring Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This captures the energetic sound of urban celebrations. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the ferocity, adding everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially frenetic and punishingly loud forty-minute sonic journey. Surrender to the assault and Vieira's brash productions become strangely exhilarating.

6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi

Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a newly appreciated gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an unusually compelling fusion of the synthetic sound of 1980s synthesisers and programmed drums with her melismatic classical Indian singing style. Drum machine patterns mirrors the rolling tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody replicates the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, Latin-inflected grooves comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a fast-paced walking disco bassline. It's a dancefloor fusion created over a decade before the rise of Asian Underground music.

5. Enji – Resonance

From Mongolia singer Enji's gentle new release, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to present some of her broadest music so far. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces range from the gentle Norah Jones-esque melodics of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a full backing band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains close, inviting the listener into the tender acoustics of her distinctive voice.

4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow

Inspired by the psychedelic tradition of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's third record with her band Grup Şimşek blends the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with woozy keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a nostalgic vibe anchored in Yıldırım's strong falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. Yet, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group reaches vibrant new territory. They craft smooth, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that lend a novel, off-kilter twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style.

Number Three: Lido Pimienta – La Belleza

Catholic requiem mass music, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings merge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary latest work. Arranging music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through a vast range including the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic dembow rhythms of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim