Last week I was on the road in the northwest of Spain, in the city of Santiago de Compostela, to attend WOMEX. This was the event's 20th-anniversary edition, and it was like a SXSW for international music: five days of nonstop showcases, panel discussions, meetings, film screenings and schmoozing for professionals interested in sounds from across the globe. This year attracted more than 2000 attendees from about 100 countries on nearly every continent.
I came home totally revved up and inspired by what I heard and saw. This year's WOMEX — I've attended six others — proved to be an incredibly strong one for Latin and Caribbean music, thanks to acts like Honduras' Guayo Cedeño, Colombia's Tribu Baharú and Mexico's Troker.

A few artists and groups I already knew and loved were out in full force this year, like the Congolese-Belgian singer Baloji; his relentlessly tight show was so good, I just couldn't tear myself away. It was the same with the utterly charming El Gusto Orchestra from Algeria, whom I featured in a radio piece last year. Another was the recently renamed Orkesta Mendoza, the only U.S. group to showcase at WOMEX this year. (We loved them so much under their old moniker, Sergio Mendoza y Su Orkesta, we made a Field Recording with them.)
There were also some more commercial acts who are sure to get a lot of international attention out of their WOMEX appearances. I heard buzz about artists like Morocco's Oum, who blends a breathy soprano with jazz and splashes of North African color, Ethiocolor's high-spirited, uptempo folkloric voyage through various Ethiopian styles, and Israel's Ester Rada, who uses her huge voice to pair soul with the woozy brass of her native Ethiopia.
The most exciting artists I heard this year were new to me, and they tended to be either hard-driving modernists or performers who presented roots music in innovative ways.
Most of the evening showcases overlapped, so I know that despite all my efforts in maneuvering through Santiago's old quarter, near its pilgrim destination of the Santiago Cathedral, I missed all sorts of wonderful stuff. Maybe by the time next year's event lands in Budapest I'll have finally figured out how to clone myself.