Real World Records is a record label

Record label

In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

 started in 1989 by Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel

Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...

 to record and produce world music

World music

World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...

.

Overview

The label grew up alongside the success of the WOMAD festivals and Peter Gabriel's exploration of music from other cultures, and helped push world music into the general public's consciousness during the 1990s. Many of the label's releases are recorded at Real World Studios

Real World Studios

Real World Studios is a residential recording studio in Box, Wiltshire, England associated with the Real World Records Ltd. record label founded by rock musician Peter Gabriel...

. The label is distributed in the US by Ryko.

Artists

Artists who have recorded on the label include:

• Afro Celt Sound System
  Afro Celt Sound System
  The Afro Celt Sound System is a musical group which fuses modern electronic dance rhythms with traditional Irish and West African music...
  
  
• Bernard Kabanda
  Bernard Kabanda
  Bernard Kabanda Sslongo was an Ugandan guitarist. He had just realised fame in the world music circuit through his appearances at WOMAD in the USA and the UK in 1999 before he died of AIDS less than two months after his performance at Womad's Reading festival, aged only 40.Before he died, he...
  
  
• Big Blue Ball
  Big Blue Ball
  Big Blue Ball is an album by multiple artists which "grew from 3 recording weeks" at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios in the summers of 1991, 1992, and 1995. It is Peter Gabriel's fourteenth album project overall....
  
  
• Charlie Winston
  Charlie Winston
  Charlie Winston is an English singer-songwriter.-Music Career:Early Career...
  
  
• Creole Choir of Cuba
  Creole Choir of Cuba
  The Creole Choir of Cuba is a Cuban musical group. Its members are Rogelio Torriente, Fidel Miranda, Teresita Miranda, Marcelo Luis, Dalio Vital, Emilia Diaz Chavez, Yordanka Fajardo, Irian Montejo, Marina Fernandes and Yara Diaz...
  
  
• Dengue Fever
  Dengue fever
  Dengue fever , also known as breakbone fever, is an infectious tropical disease caused by the dengue virus. Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic skin rash that is similar to measles...
  
  
• Geoffrey Oryema
  Geoffrey Oryema
  Geoffrey Oryema is an internationally renowned Ugandan musician. In 1977, at the age of 24 and at the height of Idi Amin's power, Oryema was smuggled across the Ugandan border in the trunk of a car, after the death of his father, Erinayo Wilson Oryema, who was a cabinet minister, beginning a life...
  
  
• Hoba Hoba Spirit
  Hoba Hoba Spirit
  Hoba Hoba Spirit is a musical fusion band based in Casablanca, Morocco that was formed in 1998. It is composed of Adil Hanine , Anouar Zehouani , Saâd Bouidi , Reda Allali - and Othmane Hmimar. The name of the group is based on a song by Bob Marley.Hoba Hoba Spirit's musical style mixes Rock,...
  
  
• Johnny Kalsi
  Johnny Kalsi
  Johnny Kalsi is a British Indian dhol drum performer residing in London. He rose to prominence as a former member of Transglobal Underground and the founder of the Dhol Foundation. He also performs with the Afro Celt Sound System and The Imagined Village....
  
  
• Joi
• Joseph Arthur
  Joseph Arthur
  Joseph Arthur is an American singer-songwriter and artist from Akron, Ohio. Combining poetic lyrics with a layered sonic palette, Arthur has built his reputation over the years through critically acclaimed releases and constant touring; his unique solo live performances incorporate the use of a...
  
  
• Little Axe
  Little Axe
  Little Axe is the stage name of Skip McDonald an American blues musician. McDonald played jazz, doo-wop, and gospel when young, and moved to New York as a teenager with his band of friends, called The Entertainers.Axe joined the group Wood Brass & Steel in 1973 with bassist Doug Wimbish and...
  
  
• Maryam Mursal
  Maryam Mursal
  -Biography:Mursal grew up in Somalia in a Muslim family with four daughters. As a teenager, she broke with tradition and began singing professionally in Mogadishu. She performed in nightclubs and her brand of music, featuring a mix of blues, soul, Somali and Arabic influences, and known as Somali...
  
  
• Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
• Ozomatli
  Ozomatli
  Ozomatli is a seven to ten piece band playing primarily Latin, hip hop, and rock music, formed in 1995 in Los Angeles. They are known both for their vocal activist viewpoints and their wide array of musical styles - including salsa, jazz, funk, reggae, rap, and others.In a 2007 NPR interview, band...
  
  
• Paban Das Baul
  Paban Das Baul
  Paban Das Baul is a noted baul singer and musician from India, who also plays a dubki, a small tambourine and sometimes an ektara as an accompaniment...
  
  
• Papa Wemba
  Papa Wemba
  Papa Wemba was born Jules Shungu Wembadio Pene Kikumba in 1949 in Lubefu . He is a Congolese rumba musician, one of Africa's most popular musicians, and prominent in World music.-Zaiko Langa Langa:...
  
  
• Peter Gabriel
  Peter Gabriel
  Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...
  
  
• Portico Quartet
  Portico Quartet
  Portico Quartet are a 4-piece modern jazz group from London and Southampton. Their sound is made distinctive by the use of the Hang, a 21st Century percussion instrument used on all their tracks. The group is composed of Jack Wyllie , Duncan Bellamy , Milo Fitzpatrick , and Keir Vine...
  
  
• Sheila Chandra
  Sheila Chandra
  Sheila Chandra is an English pop singer of Indian descent.-Indian-Western pop fusion period:Sheila Chandra first came to public attention as an actress, playing Sudhamani Patel in the BBC school drama Grange Hill from 1979 to 1981.As a teenager she formed the band Monsoon with Steve Coe , and...
  
  
• Sevara Nazarkhan
  Sevara Nazarkhan
  Sevara Nazarkhan is an Uzbek singer, songwriter, and musician. She was born 1978 in Andijan city, Uzbek SSR....
  
  
• Spiro (band)
  Spiro (band)
  Spiro are an instrumental musical group based in Bristol, England. They formed in 1993 as The Famous Five, soon settling on a line-up which remains unchanged to this day. They released one album under that name before changing it to Spiro in 1997...
  
  
• The Blind Boys of Alabama
  The Blind Boys of Alabama
  The Blind Boys of Alabama are a gospel group from Alabama that first formed at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind at Talladega, Alabama in 1939. The three main vocalists of the group and their drummer/percussionist are all blind....
  
  
• The Imagined Village
  The Imagined Village
  The Imagined Village is a folk musical project founded by Simon Emmerson of the Afro Celt Sound System. It is intended to produce modern folk music that represents modern multiculturalism in the United Kingdom and as such, features musicians from a wide variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds...
  
  

Partial discography

• ABoneCroneDrone, Sheila Chandra, 1996
• Among Brothers
  Among Brothers
  Among Brothers is a World album released in 2003 by Algerian composer and singer-songwriter Abderrahmane Abdelli. The album was released by Real World Records....
  
  , Abderrahmane Abdelli
  Abderrahmane Abdelli
  Abderrahmane Abdelli is an Algerian-born author, composer, and singer songwriter known for mixing the traditional North African music of his homeland with modern sounds.-Biography:...
  
  , 2003
• Atom Bomb
  Atom Bomb (album)
  Atom Bomb is an album by The Blind Boys of Alabama, released in 2005.- Track listing :# " Atom Bomb" – 2:27# "Demons" – 4:30 # "Talk About Suffering" – 4:13# "I Know I've Been Converted" – 2:41...
  
  , The Blind Boys of Alabama, 2005
• Beat the Border
  Beat the Border
  Beat the Border is the second studio album from Ugandan artist Geoffrey Oryema. It was released in 1993 through the Real World label.Notable collaborators to Oryema on this album include Jean-Pierre Alarcen , Brian Eno, Manu Katché and Ayub Ogada.The album evokes the spirit and culture of Africa...
  
  , Geoffrey Oryema, 1993
• Big Blue Ball
  Big Blue Ball
  Big Blue Ball is an album by multiple artists which "grew from 3 recording weeks" at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios in the summers of 1991, 1992, and 1995. It is Peter Gabriel's fourteenth album project overall....
  
  , various artists, 2008 (recorded 1991, 1992, 1995)
• Big City Secrets
  Big City Secrets
  -Album credits:# "Big City Secret"#* Joseph Arthur: guitar and vocals#* Roger Beaujolais: vibes#* Martyn Barker: treated tubular kit#* Simon Edwards: bass#* Markus Dravs: keyboards, desert storm & gravel percussion# "Mercedes"...
  
  , Joseph Arthur
  Joseph Arthur
  Joseph Arthur is an American singer-songwriter and artist from Akron, Ohio. Combining poetic lyrics with a layered sonic palette, Arthur has built his reputation over the years through critically acclaimed releases and constant touring; his unique solo live performances incorporate the use of a...
  
  , 1997
• Black Rock, Djivan Gasparyan
  Djivan Gasparyan
  Djivan Gasparyan is an Armenian musician and composer. He plays the duduk, a double reed woodwind instrument related to the orchestral oboe. Gasparyan is known as the Master of the duduk.-Biography:...
  
   & Michael Brook
  Michael Brook
  Michael Brook is a Canadian guitarist, inventor, producer, and film music composer. He plays in many genres, including rock, electronica, world music, minimalism and film scores....
  
  , 1998
• Coming Home, Yungchen Lhamo, 1998
• Djabote, Doudou Ndiaye Rose, 1992
• Emotion, Papa Wemba
  Papa Wemba
  Papa Wemba was born Jules Shungu Wembadio Pene Kikumba in 1949 in Lubefu . He is a Congolese rumba musician, one of Africa's most popular musicians, and prominent in World music.-Zaiko Langa Langa:...
  
  , 1995
• En Mana Kuoyo, Ayub Ogada
  Ayub Ogada
  Ayub Ogada is a musician from Kenya. Ogada was born in Mombasa and is one of the Luo people of Western Kenya.He received his first exposure to Western culture early on. When he was six, his parents , toured the college circuit in the U.S...
  
  , 1993
• Espace, Tama, 2002
• Higher Ground, The Blind Boys of Alabama, with Robert Randolph and the Family Band, and special guest Ben Harper
  Ben Harper
  Benjamin Chase "Ben" Harper is an American singer-songwriter and musician. Harper plays an eclectic mix of blues, folk, soul, reggae and rock music and is known for his guitar-playing skills, vocals, live performances and activism. Harper's fan base spans several continents...
  
  , 2002
• In Your Hands, Charlie Winston, 2009
• Le Voyageur, Papa Wemba
• My Songs and a Poem, Estrella Morente
  Estrella Morente
  Estrella Morente is a Spanish flamenco singer. She was born on August 14, 1980 in Las Gabias, Granada Province in southern Spain...
  
  , 2001
• Night Song, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Michael Brook, 1995
• Night to Night, Geoffrey Oryema, 1996
• Pod
  Pod (Afro Celt Sound System album)
  Pod, released May 4, 2004 by Real World Records, is essentially a remix album by Afro Celt Sound System of their first three albums, Volume 1: Sound Magic, Volume 2: Release, and Volume 3: Further in Time, done by members of the band and new artists as well, including some songs previously...
  
  , Afro Celt Sound System, 2004
• Quick Look, Pina, 2002
• Real Sugar, Paban Das Baul & Sam Mills, 1997
• Sampradaya, Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma, with Rahul Sharma
  Rahul Sharma (musician)
  Rahul Sharma is an Indian classical musician of Hindustani classical music. He plays santoor and is also a vocalist.-Early life:...
  
  , Shafaat Ahmed Khan & Manorama Sharma, 1999
• Serious Tam, Telek
  George Telek
  George Mamua Telek, commonly known simply as Telek is a singer from Papua New Guinea.Born in 1959 in Raluana, East New Britain Province, Telek is one of the few Papua New Guinean singers to gain international fame. Telek sang with various bands in Papua New Guinea early in his career - most notably...
  
  , 2000
• Sezoni, Mara! with Martenitsa Choir, 1999 (original release on Rufus Records, 1997)
• The Journey, Maryam Mursal, 1998
• The Last Prophet, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Party, 1994
• The Truth (Ny Marina), The Justin Vali Trio, 1995
• The Zen Kiss, Sheila Chandra, 1994
• Tibet, Tibet, Yungchen Lhamo
  Yungchen Lhamo
  Yungchen Lhamo is a Tibetan singer-songwriter and currently living in exile in New York City. She has won an Australian Record Industry Association award for best Folk/World/Traditional album, and was then signed by Peter Gabriel's Realworld Record label.She has performed with Billy Corgan and...
  
  , 1996
• Trance, Hassan Hakmoun
  Hassan Hakmoun
  Hassan Hakmoun is a Los Angeles-based Moroccan Gnawa musician.-Early life:Hakmoun was born to a family of musicians who introduced him to the musical world of the Gnawa. By age four, he performed alongside snake charmers and fire-breathers on Marrakech streets. His mother is known throughout the...
  
   and Zahar, 1993
• Trísan, Trísan, 1992
• Untold Things, Jocelyn Pōōk
  Jocelyn Pook
  Jocelyn Pook is a British composer, pianist and viola player.- Biography :Jocelyn Pook’s distinctive style is a product of her diverse experiences in classical, commercial, and so-called world music...
  
  , 2001
• Volume 2: Release
  Volume 2: Release
  Volume 2: Release is Afro Celt Sound System's second album, Released on January 25, 1999 by Real World Records.-Track listing:# "Release" – 7:36# "Lovers of Light" – 3:58# "Éireann" – 5:09# "Urban Aire" – 2:08# "Big Cat" – 7:43...
  
  , Afro Celt Sound System, 1999
• Volume 3: Further in Time
  Volume 3: Further in Time
  Volume 3: Further in Time is the third studio album from Afro Celt Sound System, released June 19, 2001 through Real World Records.-Track listing:# "North" - 6:48# "North 2" - 2:59# "When You're Falling" - 5:14...
  
  , Afro Celt Sound System, 2001
• Weaving My Ancestor's Voices Sheila Chandra, 1992
• Yo‘l Bo‘lsin, Sevara Nazarkhan, 2003