The winners of the Songlines Music Awards 2015 have been announced, and among them are Kronos Quartet and Toumani and Sidiki Diabaté.

Kronos Quartet's A Thousand Thoughts has won the Songlines Music Award for Cross-Cultural Collaboration of the Year. Released in Kronos Quartet's 40th anniversary year, A Thousand Thoughts is a look at the group's geographically wide-ranging sources, featuring music from 14 different countries, including China, India, Sweden, and Vietnam. The album includes the four cellists who have been in Kronos Quartet over the last 36 years.

"David Harrington and his colleagues have long been intrepid world music adventurers, expanding the string quartet repertoire with works from diverse sources and genres around the globe," wrote Songlines reviewer Nigel Williamson in his five-star review of the album. "What sets Kronos apart from most who have trained in the Western classical tradition is their invention, experimentation with microtonality and ability to re-think the capabilities of their instruments ... Happy birthday to Kronos Quartet, one of the musical marvels of our ages."

Kora master Toumani Diabaté and his eldest son Sidiki have won the Songlines Music Award for Best Group of the Year. The duo released the recording Toumani & Sidiki on World Circuit, distributed in North America by Nonesuch Records, in 2014. The album is a set of unaccompanied kora duets, featuring both obscure, almost forgotten kora pieces and a new look at some Mandé classics from Mali.

The album is "brimming with burnished melodies and virtuoso playing and the production is pristine," wrote Williamson in the Songlines review. "Yet perhaps the most impressive aspect is the sheer diversity of the sonic palette ... Every note in this rich tapestry of strings is exquisitely calibrated in the pursuit of perfection."

Tony Allen, who released his album Secret Agent, on World Circuit/Nonesuch Records in 2010, won the award for Best Artist of the Year for his album Film of Life, released on Jazz Village.

Now in its seventh year, the Songlines Music Awards are voted by readers of the magazine and the general public, with the top four in each category earning a nomination; the winners were selected by Songlines and are published in the June 2015 issue, #108, on sale from May 1. Songlines magazine has released a compilation album featuring all 16 nominated artists, including Kronos Quartet's performance of "Luu Thuy Truong" and Robert Plant's "Pocketful of Golden," from his album lullaby and... The Ceaseless Roar, which was also nominated for Cross-Cultural Collaboration of the Year, and Toumani and Sidiki Diabaté's "Rachid Ouiguini." For additional details, visit songlines.co.uk.

And you can watch the winners announcement video here: