Digest | Stories, Sounds & Culture

Aesop Rock is not the first name you’d expect to find on a running soundtrack. All Day brings his abstract hip-hop style into the Nike+ Original Run series for another 45-minute experiment.

Baka Beyond brings Celtic folk melodies into conversation with West African rhythms, Baka vocal traditions and acoustic instruments. The result is a distinctive world fusion project built around collaboration and cultural exchange.

Disco arrived in India during the 1970s and became something much stranger. Ragas, synthesizers, drum machines, jazz, funk and Bollywood orchestration all collided as Indian musicians created their own version of dance music.

Aster Aweke’s music connects the golden era of Ethiopian music with a new generation of listeners. Her influence even reached The Weeknd, linking Ethiopian music history with modern pop.

After LCD Soundsystem’s 45:33, the Nike+ Original Run series moves into The Crystal Method’s Drive, a 45-minute electronic soundtrack structured around the rhythm of a run.

45:33 started as a Nike running soundtrack and became one of the most unusual releases in LCD Soundsystem’s catalogue. Its ideas later helped shape Sound of Silver.