In a sequel to his 2013 Bell Labs Flutes In Crisis column, Clive Bell takes a measure of the current state of Japan’s traditional bamboo flute

“Is it possible we’ve come full circle?” asks Clive Bell, as he observes more than a century of revolutions in recording technology, from Thomas Edison's tinfoil phonograph to pink vinyl in Sainsburys

Clive Bell takes a look the unlikely musical partnership found in birdsong contests across the globe

Clive Bell unties some new historical knots binding centuries-old Celtic chants, Mediterranean piping, and more

Jennifer Walshe's Aisteach Foundation fakes a history of Irish avant garde activity to cover for the lack of a real one. By Clive Bell

Wagakki Band deploy traditional Japanese instruments at dazzling speed to stay ahead of the future, says Clive Bell

"This foreigner has taken us to a beautiful place but he hasn’t bought us lunch yet". Clive Bell looks at the endangered music of southeast Asian hilltribes and John Moore's Indigenius label

"In the very early days, when all film came from the US, benshi could explain the projection technology and also mediate strange western customs to the Japanese audience." Clive Bell on the narration of silent cinema in Japan, the Burmese record industry and Ugandan Video Jokers

Clive Bell ponders the fragmented London music audience

You read correctly: the sage Mr Bell buffs his crystal ball (well, his laptop screen), peers into the fogs of 2015 and sees double

Clive Bell on plunging one's head into a brazier of burning coals, playing for the angels and the legacy of Ostad Elahi, reclusive tanbour master

Clive Bell muses on the biwa as vehicle for Japanese epic, and finds parallels in Irish folk ballads and beyond

Clive Bell on the recent furore over Sam Callow's accompaniments to traditional British folk singers.

“That musician really gets up my nose”. Like a bloodhound, Mr Bell picks up on the scent of a new musical accompaniment and asks whether it's gesamtkunstwerk or gimmick.

Clive Bell wonders about the fate of the musician-instrument relationship in the age of the laptop.

Clive Bell laces up his travellin' shoes and goes for a wander through the clips, clops and squeaks of footwear in music.

Clive Bell looks at the resurgent interest in near forgotten 1960s Cambodian pop music, before the Khmer Rouge came to power.

All aboard with Clive Bell: "Musicians love trains. They sing about them, imitate their sounds, and scamper, instrument in hand, for the last departure homebound after a show."

Clive Bell takes a look at the Tweets, the column inches, the bitching and the I’m-above-all-this-nonsense that music competitions attract.

Who gives a toot about the flute anymore? A panegyric by Clive Bell on the once potent pipes of Pan, and some green shoots of hope for this currently degraded wind instrument.