In the dense digital woods of contemporary world music, DJ/Rupture's radio show Mudd Up!on WFMU is a guiding light on global sounds. Recently, Chris Kirkley of Sahel Sounds graced the program to divulge his field recording secrets and strategies for exchanging music with West African locals, which ultimately lead to the creation of Music from Saharan Cell Phones.

Highlights include how Kirkley recorded Mauritanian wedding music, "I would wander around until I found weddings happening. I'd stop taxi drivers sometimes and say just drive me around until we find a wedding." Tracking down the local artists that constructed the sounds was another feat all together. For the task, Kirkley utilized the modern social networks he'd used to obtain much of the music in the first place:

One of the biggest resources has been facebook, there is a  great feature where you can search for mutual friends and filter them based on cities if you know one of these bands lives in a particular city you can filter and just find who you know that lives in Tamanrasset. Then I just started sending messages to people that look  musicians and asking them, do you know this song?

Here the full interview below.