Music Planet - coming on Radio 3 in the autumn ...

Yes indeed, as Andy Kershaw tells us on his promo video, filmed recently in Papua New Guinea, he and Lucy Duran are currently travelling the globe for a new eight-part series of world music programmes. 

Music Planetwill be a companion series for BBC1's major new natural history project Human Planet, presenting the music of some of the cultures featured in the TV series. As I write, Andy is on his way to Thailand, there to join producer James Parkin and engineer James Birtwistle for a trip that includes Laos and Burma; tomorrow Lucy Duran and I, with engineer Martin Appleby, head off on a rather shorter haul to Galicia in northern Spain - this is for a feature on how the local traditions are influenced by music from across the sea (and did you know there was a mass migration of Britons buying villas in northern Spain in the sixth century, bringing Celtic culture to that part of the world?).

Just as Human Planet shows how people relate to their landscape and environment, in Music Planet we're showing how all this is reflected in the local music. So far Lucy has visited Madagascar, Kenya, Greenland and Mali, and Andy has been to the Solomon Islands as well as Papua New Guinea. There's plenty more before the autumn. Look out for our regular blogs as we let you know how we get on ... 

• Music Planet will accompany the transmission of BBC1's Human Planet, and follows the different environments and landscapes of the TV series: Arctic, Oceans, Grasslands, Rivers, Deserts, Mountains, Jungles and finally the Urban environment.
• The photo shows the Music Planet team - engineer James Birtwistle, presenter Andy Kershaw and producer Roger Short - looking at the wrong camera while on location in Papua New Guinea