World Circuit's first taste of major success came in 1993 with the teaming of Ali Farka Touré and American guitarist Ry Cooder on the Grammy award-winning album, Talking Timbuktu.

Moving away from their usual Latin and West African emphasis, World Circuit released the album Rumba Argelina by Spanish group Radio Tarifa.

The dreadlocked maverick's debut album Ne La Thiass was produced by Youssou N’Dour, and is underpinned by indigenous Mbalax and Flamenco rhythms.

[3] First, they recorded A Toda Cuba le Gusta by the Afro-Cuban All Stars,[5]: 8  an album of big band Son Cubano music produced by Juan de Marcos González.

Nick Gold had met Jerry Boys after working together on an album with Oumou Sangaré during 1993 and they subsequently began their close collaboration on Cuban music projects in 1996.

[11][12] In the summer of 2004 the World Circuit team of Nick Gold and Jerry Boys travelled with a mobile studio to Mali to record a trilogy of albums at the Hotel Mandé, Bamako.

Second in the series is Boulevard de l’Indépendance by Toumani Diabaté's pan-African Symmetric Orchestra, composed of musicians (mostly griots)[13] from across the old Mali Empire of west Africa, who play a mix of traditional instruments including the kora, djembe, balafon and bolombatto, as well as guitar and electronic keyboard.

As time ran out for many of the veteran musicians World Circuit had recorded in its early years, the label brought young and previously unknown talent to the fore.