The first known Images of the ancient Galician instrument known as "corna" (cow horn) date back to the time of Alfonso X of Castile. Its remote history has since been passed down from father to son, eventually reaching Abraham Cupeiro via the same family route. Cupeiro’s contact with the "corna" connects the ends of a long timeline, and has fascinated the musician since he was a child, allowing him to travel back in time through the sounds of instruments locked away in the past. This has been the center of his musical career, specialising in the recovery of lost instruments and the invention of new ones based on them. Thanks to a very personal journey through time, Cupeiro explores his deep passion for these sounds awaken from a long sleep and, rather than devoting himself to historical repertoires, he allows them to guide him through the creation of this music of astonishing emotional and visual appeal. Alongside the Eborae Musica Chamber Orchestra or solo (in the stunning setting of the Almendres Cromlech), he performs music that sounds unlike anything we've heard before.

It may sound strange in the present day, but thirty years ago, when Mísia started her musical career, fado wasn't even close to being a mainstream genre. It was even less accepting for a woman uninterested in seeking the blessing of a fairly closed and conservative scene. But Mísia stuck to her identity and conquered a place that is hers alone – all thanks to her bold image and approach, the writers she brought to fado (Agustina Bessa-Luís, José Saramago, António Lobo Antunes or Sérgio Godinho, who wrote Liberdades Poéticas for her), her keen sense of performance, and her distinctive timbre. In 2022, she celebrated a career of three decades with the triptych Animal Sentimental: a new album; a book in which she tells episodes from her professional and personal life; and a concert that Mísia will present at Imaterial, directed by Tiago Torres da Silva, and where stories are interwoven with music. A permanent reinvention, always with an eye on the next step.

Os do Fondo da Barra started within the Cultural Association Xacarandaina. This association, based in La Coruña, has been carrying out fundamental work in the preservation, recovery and promotion of Galician folklore for 45 years. That's why these 15 men came together and found in Xacarandaina the natural drive to perform male songs from Galicia's intangible heritage. In their latest album, Banzo, the Galician singers take the traditional songs of the region and give them a fresh, modern twist, combining tavern singing with songs of sailors and for traditional balls, all scattered over percussion, accordion, harmonica, drums, saxophone and whatever else that can broaden the range of these deep, joyful voices. On this year’s Imaterial, Os do Fondo da Barra will be performing at the Garcia de Resende Theatre in their own right, on 19 May, and the next morning, at the Herdade do Freixo do Meio, they will join the great guardians of cante alentejano, Cantares de Évora, for an unforgettable meeting of brotherly cultures.

Carles Dénia's career has been defined by musically combining his jazz background with the pulse of the Mediterranean tradition. Dénia is a singer, guitarist, composer and arranger who has created an unrivalled style to which he adds new nuances with each project. If there's one album that has earned a prominent place, bringing together a Neapolitan songwriting tradition, arrangements worthy of Tom Waits or Goran Bregovic and bits of flamenco, it's El Paradis de les Paraules (2011). Despite its huge impact, there have been few occasions on which Dénia has presented the album on stage, which is why, on its tenth anniversary, he has organised a celebration event in the form of a concert, with a most anticipated stopover at Imaterial. These are beautiful songs that combine jazz and tradition, written to serve Arabic poems about love, pleasure and life's little joys by poets from Al-Andalus, and translated into Valencian. Music made of many layers, movingly put together.

"A few chairs, a good glass of wine and three great soloists. Such is the essence of tango". This is how Tablao de Tango introduces itself, a trio that brings together the virtuosity of guitarist Rudi Flores, harmonica prodigy Franco Luciani and singer Walter "El Chino" Laborde. On stage, they recreate the atmosphere of Buenos Aires tango clubs - not the touristy ones, but the underground places you don't find in travel guides, the ones where you never know how a night might end or what may really happen. Here, Tango becomes a place of intimacy between the musicians, an unrestrained sharing of everything that stirs their souls, but also of a search for closeness with the audience. Tangos, milongas and other Argentine rhythms offered on a platter, like a toast to the encounter, to raw emotions, and to the joys that make life worthwhile.

Maybe Emmy Curl only registered on mainstream radar when she entered the 2018 Portuguese leg of Eurovision Song Contest, invited by pianist Júlio Resende to perform the delicate Para Sorrir Eu Não Preciso de Nada (I Need Nothing to Smile). But Catarina Miranda (her real name), born and raised in the mountains of Trás-os-Montes, has long been spreading a fairy tale pop that has grown closer to the roots of Portuguese folklore over time. This path became clearer with the release of the album Pastoral, Emmy Curl's deepest plunge into traditional melodies and rhythms, with a pop sense that shines through. Without romant icizing ancestry or the countryside, her music is a natural blend of a desire to be connected to nature, the grammar of global indie music, and a voice that is from everywhere and doesn't feel embarrassed about it. Emmy Curl learned early on that freedom is meant to be enjoyed.

Dasom Baek is a storyteller. And she presents her narratives, as she says, through unique music, sculpted from a set of traditional South Korean wind instruments - such as the daegeum, the soguem and the saenghwang. Her music is enchanting in a way that is hard to explain, when the uniqueness of these sounds combines with a bold approach, placing her in an almost impossible (but fascinating) place, between tradition and the avant-garde, an impossible point to grasp between past and future. Dasom Baek, an award-winning performer, usually presents herself solo, although her duo with Argentinian cellist Violeta García has brought her praise from the prestigious website The Quietus; but regardless of the constellation she performs in, her works always reflect the same particular intensity. And her remarkable expressiveness always ensures that each song in her concerts is a magnetic collection of stories which, thanks to her magic, translation always falls short.

Meher Angez was born in the remote Pakistani region of Gilgit-Baltistan and is said to be the first and only female singer to this day to have mastered the local music and poetry, which are inscribed in the Sufi tradition and described as "subtle and mystical". For 25 years, Angez has committed herself to her rendition of Sufi chants, delivering a message of inner peace and equality for all. The ethereal voice in which she performs ginans, devotional hymns and epic poetry, transports us through themes of divine love, cosmology, rituals, ethical behaviour, and meditation, as if her melodies were a window into the universal truths that define her life. Meher Angez sees music as an extension of principles like harmony, unity, peace, and personal and collective fulfilment; she sings about humanity with the depth and insight of someone who grew up in a geopolitically disputed territory afflicted by armed conflicts. In this amazing trio, she sings to ward off war and to remind us of what we should always strive for: brotherhood.

The story of the Estonian Duo Rutt, formed by Ann-Lisett Rebane and Katariina Kivi, has been blessed by chance and accident. They were already playing together, Rebane on the keyboards with a jazz background, Kivi on the cello with a classical one, when taking part in a festival required them to present a traditional tune. And after trying out different options, the breakthrough occurred when they found an old, dust-covered regional instrument from the psaltery family known as the kannel. And a new world has opened up for them since then, sharing the same kannel that they play in front of each other, a world that has proven to be an amazing source of wonder. Duo Ruut explores fishermen's songs and lullabies in between new works based on the instrument's ethereal sonority, and old melodies that are brought to life by the kannel and their voices; as they told Público, they write songs that can sound like "fog, or like a cold and dark, dangerous and hopeful morning." It's all as simple as it is overwhelmingly beautiful.

Every now and then, the music industry manages to correct the historical record of Western dominance and ongoing disregard for non-hegemonic cultures, allowing enlightened musicians from less obvious regions to share their music across the planet. Ustad Noor Bakhsh is a Pakistani musician from the remote region of Balochistan who, at nearly 80, has made his first international tour. Bakhsh, a benju player - the regional adaptation of a Japanese toy instrument brought to Pakistan by sailors, with a sound that will be familiar to lovers of sitar and electric guitar - released his first album, Jingul, in 2022; his unexpected success led him to perform last year at festivals such as Roskilde and Le Guess Who?, as well as at Womex, the largest professional world music fair. Somewhere between Ravi Shankar and Jimi Hendrix, Bakhsh improvises, interprets his own songs and adapts Bollywood hits in such remarkable ways that even and Pitchfork couldn't resist his exciting language.

This is the perfect Scandinavian match. Lena Jonsson is a Swedish fiddle star, while Johanna Juhola is a leading figure of the accordion in Finland. Carrying their individual traditions and compositions, the two met on the boundary between their two countries, establishing a singular world devoid of conflict. Lena Jonsson and Johanna Juhola both have their feet firmly set in the musical traditions of their respective countries, but they also have a natural affinity for the opportunities of innovation that these languages allow. Juhola has experimented with tango, a music genre that is particularly popular in Finland, while Jonsson is often praised for bringing her own personal style to traditional Swedish music. But when we listen to them, it becomes clear that they have created a new place, one in which they have partnered in an effortless way, merely engaging in a genuine musical search where they hold each other’s hand - and off they go together.

Maite Larburu lived in the Netherlands for fifteen years. There she specialised in performing early music and was invited to play with several of Central Europe's most renowned ensembles dedicated to this repertoire. Then, in 2018, she decided to move back to the Spanish Basque Country, where she had been born and raised, and chose to create original music sung in Euskara (after abandoning English) that she recorded on two excellent albums - which also testify to her talent for various instruments, from her usual violin to different chordophones. Maite Larburu is also a regular presence on stage as a theatrical actress. Therefore, her approach to music embodies a strong sense of narrative and a natural ability to express herself. Krark, her most recent album, won the Musika Bulegoe Award in 2022, and delivers songs on love, life, and death, the usual major themes that music has always dealt with. But rarely with such catchy and lively invention.

Parveen & Ilyas Khan present a very special perspective on the traditional music of their country. The final protagonists in a seven-generation musical lineage of Rajasthan, Parveen and Ilyas are daughter and son to the famous percussionist Hameed Khan Kawa (a member of the Jaipur Kawa Brass Band). They grew up in India and were taught in their tradition’s classical music, which was passed down orally over 3,000 years ago, but they were looking for a more personal and contemporary approach to Rajasthani ragas and folk songs, to which Parveen lends her meandering, lovely voice. Ilyas then joins in with his virtuosity, as well as his hip-hop beatboxing skills. And so, almost effortlessly, they match ancient Indian rhythms with others born of African-American culture, over which Parveen sings about freely. It is as if they opened a gateway between the two worlds and ended up remaining in this limbo, without choosing either side.

Davide Ambrogio’s restless interest drove him to leave the mountain region of Calabria, where he was born and raised, and live in Rome to pursue ethnomusicological studies. This is how he deepened his research into popular vocal techniques, oral tradition songs, Sardinian songs, aesthetics and polyphonies from Sardinia and Salento. Ambrogio has played in La Sapienza and is a member of Linguamadre, but it is on his own that he is particularly magnetic. His first album, Evocazioni e Invocazioni, was highly praised by Songlines magazine, describing it as "more aligned with [rapper] Kae Tempest’s artistry than the canon of the folk revivalists". Starting with his voice, Ambrogio then adds guitar, Calabrian lyre, zampogna (bagpipes), percussion, and electronics to create a set of songs that can shape themselves as lullabies, sound manifestos or protest songs, resulting in a whole that feels like a Dionysian sorcery descending on us.

After San Salvador and Barrut, Imaterial welcomes once again one of the most fascinating groups representing the rich music of Occitania. If the tradition of southern France is based mainly on the relationship between polyphonic chants and percussion with an energy that could raise the dead, it is no different with Cocanha. The peculiarity, however, is that everything happens around the enchanting voices of Caroline Dufau and Lila Fravsse, to which they add all kinds of rhythmic elements, their feet stamping the floor, their claps driving the tempo. Together for 12 years, Dufau and Fravsse have released two outstanding albums, I Ès and Puput, where they perform what they call "polyphonic songs for dancing". Their music is minimalist, melodic and rhythmically irresistible, applying new lyrics (with female protagonists who assert their power) to an old repertoire, but which, in their renditions, sounds as if there were no distance between the past and the present.

In January 2011, during a demonstration on Bourguiba Avenue, where thousands of other protesters were gathering, Emel Mathlouthi stood up and started singing "Kelmti Horra" (My Word Is Free) a cappella, in the heart of the Tunisian capital. The mobile phones and cameras nearby didn't miss on the moment and, in no time, the song became an anthem of the Arab Spring, and Emel became one of the most important voices of an angry youth willing to fight the streets for more democratic systems in the Arab world. The singer would later perform the song at the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, awarded to the Dialogue Quartet for Tunisia. But what was immediately seductive about "Kelmti Horra" was – there's no escaping it –, Emel's moving voice; and it still produces the same dazzling effect, as we can hear on the albums she has released since, accompanied by both acoustic and electronic instruments. In 2023, in New York, she once more made her music a political gesture by recording MRA, a 100 per cent female album and an ode to women.

Born in Istanbul, Melisa Yıldırım soon discovered the kemane (or kamancha) and dedicated herself to the intense study of this instrument widespread in Anatolia, Central Asia and the Middle East. To accomplish so, however, she had to overcome the fact that it was not an instrument usually played by musicians from the Alevi culture to which she belongs. Despite this, she persisted and gradually collected awards and international recognition, performing solo concerts at the Barbican Centre (as part of the London Jazz Festival) and at Wow!Women of the World, while also developing the duo Talus with guitarist Gilad Weiss - followed by another duo, for tablas and kamancha, with Swarupa Ananth. In Yıldırım's hands, the kamancha is imbued with a deep timbral melancholy, but also with a spiritual and transcendent quality, calling to mind echoes of Sufi music, Anatolian folklore, traditional Iranian music, and contemporary variations on roots music.

Tomasito is the musical name for Tomás Moreno Romero. According to El País, the unlikely and eccentric Tomasito, author of an original and festive mix of flamenco, hip-pop, rock, pop and ska, "learned to rap from a priest, break danced in the tablao of Los Canasteros, recorded his first album thanks to Lola Flores [a flamenco legend] and performed (...) with Chick Corea, Wynton Marsalis, Gilberto Gil, Rita Marley or Youssou N'Dour". A flamenco bailaor like his mother, and a rapper unlike anyone else in his family, Tomasito chose "Jerez a Plutón" as the opening theme for his latest album, Agustisimísimo - in other words, from Jerez de la Frontera, where he was born, to Pluto; from his roots, to the farthest imaginable place. Tomasito's music, a relentless celebration of his joy in singing and dancing, recalls the not-too-distant example of Manu Chao, and also like Manu Chao we can say he is a stage dynamo.