THE atmosphere will be very Chile at the National Centre for Early Music in York this autumn when Pascuala Ilabaca & Fauna perform under the Making Tracks scheme that allows you to buy tickets for one show and see another for free.

Pascuala is a Chilean singer, songwriter and accordionist whose sensual and feisty music is rooted in traditional sounds but integrates jazz, pop and rock and influences.

Performing with her band Fauna on November 23, she picks up the legacy of the great Violeta Parra, her prime inspiration, in songs of fragility and verve that draw on her life in the colourful port city of Valpairiso.

The Making Tracks project brings together 12 music venues from across Britain to promote a travelling season of concerts of new music from around the globe.

The first of this autumn's York two shows introduces Istanbul singer Cigdem Aslam on September 26, when she performs in many languages, ranging from Turkish to Kurdish, Greek to Bulgarian, Roma to the Judeo-Spanish Ladino.

Cigdem, who studied English Literature at Istanbul University, is a rising star in the revival of rebetiko, the bitter-sweet , devil-may-care songs first sung in the hash dens and the café aman music houses of Athens, Piraeus and Istanbul in the turbulent 1920s.

She opens the door to old songs that speak of life, love, hope and the struggles of everyday people as she revisits past times to make this exotic music resonate anew.

As mentioned earlier, the aim of Making Tracks is to encourage audiences to discover new music and new artists with the two-for-one ticket policy.

NCEM director Delma Tomlin says there has been some misunderstanding that the offer means two tickets for the price of one for one concert, so she has allowed this form of booking this season – but the real purpose is to tempt concert-goers into seeing both concerts.

The new season opens on Sunday with a 7.30pm concert by guitarist, singer and songwriter Chris Wood, who weaves the folk tradition with his own contemporary parables. This year, the title track from his fourth album, None The Wiser, was nominated for Best Original Song in the BBC awards.

Martins at the double head to the NCEM in October. Acoustic guitarist Martin Simpson will be in York on the 4th, at the invitation of the NCEM and Black Swan Folk Club, while Juan Martin joins fellow Spanish flamenco guitarist Chaparro de Malaga for the Two Guitarras Malaguenas concert on October 13.

Tibetan monks have a long tradition of bringing their sacred music and monastic dance to York and the latest to do so will be the Tashi Lhunpo Monks in their October 16 performance of The Power Of Compassion. Ancient musical instruments from the Tibetan Tantric tradition will be used, including the conch-shell trumpet, horns made from human leg bones, skull-drums and meditation bells.

The NCEM links up with the Black Swan Folk Club again for Rose Ainslie & Jarlath Henderson's night of border pipes, whistle and cittern music on October 20. Rose is a Scottish trad musician and composer while Jarlath, from Tyrone, Northern Ireland, is a Uilieann piper. Their second album, Air-Fix, earned them a Best Duo nomination in the 2014 BBC Folk Awards and they will be joined by Al Hutton on guitar when they perform their pan-Celtic music in York.

As part of the 2014 Illuminating York Festival, the NCEM welcomes Bradford's Kala Sangam for an evening of South Asian music and dance reflecting Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights, on October 30.

In Dance Divine, storyteller and dancer Shrikant Subramaniam will be joined by dancer Nrithya Rammohan and musician Vijay Venkat as they unveil the story of the divine presence of sunlight in the life of the common man, "capturing the importance of the Sun as a female energy and her deification as a divine cosmic being".

Snake Davis leads his ground-breaking collaboration with the Solo Players String Players in the SnakeStrings Live concert of pop, soul and jazz on November 1, when Snake wraps his snaky saxophone around the Players' cello, viola and violin.

Further details of the season ahead will follow next Thursday. For tickets, ring 01904 658338 or book online at ncem.co.uk