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Buy now at the Real World store: cd

Various Artists

Real World 25

Various Artists

Released 28 September 2014

  1. Mustt Mustt - Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
  2. Kufilaw (Take Care) - Maryam Mursal
  3. Fingers - Joi
  4. If I Had My Way - Little Axe
  5. Run On For A Long Time - The Blind Boys Of Alabama
  6. The Feeling Begins - Peter Gabriel
  7. Kothbiro - Ayub Ogada
  8. Dionysus - Jocelyn Pook
  9. Sisitizo La Amani Duniani - Hukwe Zawose
  10. Kipenda Roho - Remmy Ongala
  11. No Dog Jazz - Adrian Sherwood
  12. Guragigna - Dub Colossus
  13. La Sombra Negra - Totó la Momposina
  14. Cold Haily Rainy Night - The Imagined Village
  15. Glistening Fields - Iarla O'Lionaird
  16. Offering Chant - Lama Gyurme
  17. Mariama - Pape and Cheikh
  18. Muito Quente - Daúde
  19. Resistencia - Los de Abajo
  20. Innulamane - Toumast
  21. Dounounia - Farafina
  22. Take My Heart - Djivan Gasparyan & Michael Brook
  23. Kokiriko Melody - Joji Hirota
  24. To My First Love (Na Pbrvo Libe) - Mara!
  25. Utopia - Tom Kerstens' G Plus ensemble
  26. Mountain Wind - Mamer
  27. Valhe/The Lie - Värttinä
  28. T'amo = I Love You - Tenores di Bitti
  29. Marudzi Nemarudzi - Thomas Mapfumo and The Blacks Unlimited
  30. Streets Of Calcutta (Live) - Ananda Shankar
  31. Al Araby - Syriana
  32. White Kite - Guo Yue
  33. Fey Oh Di Nou - The Creole Choir of Cuba
  34. In The Sun - Joseph Arthur
  35. Iris - Daby Touré
  36. Yol Bolsin (Where Are You Going?) - Sevara Nazarkhan
  37. Release - Afro Celt Sound System
  38. Line - Portico Quartet
  39. Happiness Is... - Yungchen Lhamo
  40. The City and the Stars - Spiro
  41. Move - Martyn Bennett
  42. Night Walk - Justin Adams & Juldeh Camara
  43. In Your Hands - Charlie Winston
  44. Altus Silva - Big Blue Ball
  45. Land Of Anaka - Geoffrey Oryema
  46. Ever So Lonely/Eyes/Ocean - Sheila Chandra
  47. Sweet Pain - Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
  48. Awa Y' Okeyi (Molokai version) - Papa Wemba

Buy now at the Real World store: cd

Various Artists

Liner notes

How, then, to condense a quarter century? How to represent a record label that blazed trails, opened doors and introduced a whole new world of music? It was never going to be easy, or definitive. But with Real World 25 – a celebratory 3CD set boasting big names, hidden gems and tracks chosen by listeners – we’re giving it a go.

“We’ve always been vibrant, alive and kicking,” says Peter Gabriel of Real World Records, the label he launched in 1989, a few years after establishing the WOMAD (World of Music Arts and Dance) Festival. “We worked hard to create an environment where the artists felt respected and supported, so that they were able to deliver extraordinary performances.”

The magic was there from the off: an old mill building, transformed into state-of-the-art studios, on the edge of a pond fringed with bulrushes, in landscaped gardens bordered by a river, in the village of Box in the southwest of England.

Peter Gabriel on 25 years of Real World Records

Listen

Reviews

  • A scintillating survey of modern music from all points of the compass... The sheer guts of the label in backing the mad, the unorthodox and the audacious as well as the wronged and the exiled, is something to really celebrate. ★★★★★ Songlines (UK)
  • What makes this a cut above is the sequencing in which the listener's journey from China to Finland to Sardinia is as smooth as one of Patrick Bateman's Armani suits. ★★★★ MOJO (UK)
  • A substantial set celebrating a little-acknowledged British institution. Independent On Sunday (UK)
  • Real World 25 stands not only as a reminder about this label's longevity, but also its quality. One of the most comprehensive anthologies of world music out there. ★★★★★ All About Jazz
  • This is how you celebrate a record label anniversary - with the sort of release that makes you thirsty for another quarter century. ★★★★ Classic Pop (UK)
  • Peter Gabriel's world-music label has been marching to its own beat for a quarter of a century, so it more than deserves to throw a party for itself. Do some of the recordings flirt with the anodyne harmonies of new age? Yes, but the best of the company's output - exemplified by the Creole Choir of Cuba, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Los de Abajo, Toto La Momposina and Dub Colossus - is a reminder of how much Gabriel and co have done to bring this music to the mainstream. Here's to another 25 years. The Sunday Times (UK)
  • One of the most adventurous of the great British record labels. Real World changed the musical landscape - and this album shows exactly how and why. ★★★★ The Guardian (UK)

Further Listening

  •

    Big Blue Ball

    Various Artists

    Released 26 July 2008

    Almost eighteen years in the making, Big Blue Ball grew from three extraordinary Recording Weeks at Real World Studios in the summers of 1991, 1992 and 1995. With Peter Gabriel and Karl Wallinger at the helm, the album features a huge cast of performers with a global reach.

Further reading

The last Dub Colossus recording with Nick Page out on Real World X in Spring 2026

The first track 'We Stand' is out now on all digital platforms.

Fri, 23 January 26

Clara Serra López new EP for Real World X

On Lengua Materna (Part II), Clara Serra López continues the story from her first EP. Shifting focu...

Thu, 19 February 26

Track of the day: ‘Dub Conquers All’ by Dub Colossus

This song carries an uplifting message of positivity, unity, joy and hope.

Fri, 13 February 26

Spafford Campbell: Erasing genre and finding gold in the embers

Jane Cornwell talks to Spafford Campbell about new album Tomorrow Held.

Wed, 10 September 25