Just as we experience a new place through its flavors—the bite of a piping hot empanada, a fiery sip of rice wine—or by clapping eyes on a dramatic landscape, finally seen in person, we also get to hear it. There are the atmospheric noises, like the blare of a taxi horn on New York City’s streets or the gentle crash of the Pacific on Tahiti’s shores, that first flood our senses. But through the rattle of a jazz bar, or the salsa shoes tapping on a dance floor, a destination can present itself to the world, telling stories that can’t be put into words alone.
Take Inuit throat singing, a long-held tradition in the rugged Arctic. The huffs and hums, produced by two women standing face-to-face and vocalizing from their throats, is believed to be one of the oldest music forms in the world. But today, go to Canadian cities like Toronto and you might find young artists mixing this sound—meant to mimic nature’s noises on the tundra—with cross-genre back beats. It’s an evolution that charts the course of a culture.
The same can be said of the heavy beats pulsing out of hazy nightclubs in Kosovo this year, on the 25th anniversary of the Kosovo War coming to an end. There, an underground electronic scene has provided much-needed community—and catharsis—following brutal periods of first conflict, and then isolation. But a new dawn is arriving on the dancefloor, as the country joins the Schengen Zone, effectively allowing locals greater access to the rest of Europe, and an era of connection with the rest of the world begins.
To us, these types of sounds—and scenes—are what we hope to find when we travel. They encapsulate decades, and even centuries, of human history; they remind us of what we have in common, despite language barriers, while also displaying endemic traditions you might not find anywhere else. So much of how we experience music on our trips is by chance, like stumbling onto that plaza in Cusco to find a local musician blowing into a pan flute, or realizing a Portuguese music festival is happening the same weekend you’re in the Azores. It’s a lot of being in the right place, right time—you just follow the beat. We want to put luck in your favor. With this collection of stories, we turn the spotlight on artists around the world—from the stages of Lusaka, Zambia, to the shores of Jamaica—and tell you how global sounds are building on tradition and evolving with the times, and where to feel the thrum of music for yourself.
