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Psychedelic cumbias from Peru. The folk music of Myanmar. Sugary Thai pop and soul. Raw, lightning-fast Syrian rock. Colombian sounds from the 1960s and ’70s.

A recent spate of astonishing world-music compilations, many from countries often associated more with political unrest than rocking out, have expanded the musical globe, filling in what were once blank spots on the map. With eyes and ears opened by groundbreaking prior releases, inquiring minds want to know: What does Burmese pop sound like? And what happened in Brazil after the Tropicalia movement had its late-’60s run?

Music made outside the borders of the United States and the United Kingdom has long been a presence in American record stores, primarily African and Brazilian music. But in recent years, the level of interest in exotic world music has increased sharply. The music industry’s split into dozens of small niches has helped to create a market of highly informed, adventurous music fans who - like the film buffs who spent the 1990s embracing movies from Taiwan, Iran, and China - seek fresh sounds, whatever their provenance.

Plus, the influence of well-regarded world releases such as the “Ethiopiques” series of Ethiopian rock and jazz and the rerelease of influential Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti’s albums have helped to generate a hunger for more of the same.

“There’s been a deluge in the past few years of really super-interesting, almost totally unheard of world-music compilations - stuff from Southeast Asia, tons and tons of African stuff,” says Michael Klausman, who works at Other Music, an influential music store in New York City. “It probably started a few years ago, with the huge resurgence and popularity of Fela Kuti, and ever since then, people realize he’s just the tip of the iceberg and that there’s a ton more along those lines.”

Having heard Fela’s “Original Sufferhead” or Luaka Bop’s collection of Brazilian music, “Beleza Tropical,” eager music fans now ask, “Is there more like this?”

The answer, invariably, is yes. Olivier Conan, owner of Barbes, a popular nightspot in Brooklyn’s Park Slope, discovered the psychedelic, dance-friendly chicha sound of Peru while visiting the country in pursuit of unique sounds.

Chicha had been popular in the 1960s, but the demise of Infopesa, the record label that had released the bulk of chicha, made it a challenge to track down original masters and acquire rights for the new album “The Roots of Chicha: Psychedelic Cumbias From Peru.”

“I got different kinds of reactions,” Conan says of his Peruvian excursion. “The first [musician] I contacted was the guy from Los Hijos del Sol, Angel Rosado, and he was very excited that someone in America was calling him to put his music out. He really saw that he was getting discovered. He was so excited, he was playing me songs over the phone: ‘What about this one? Do you like this one?’ In general, a lot of those people really craved a sense of recognition that they didn’t always get.”