West Asian music -- Persian, Turkish, Iraqi, Israeli etc...

[essrand]

These days I find myself more and more into music from West Asia (or the Middle-East, although is Turkey also Middle-East?).
I was wondering why the attraction. Perhaps because they have some similarities with Indian classical, while also being different enough to have that new-ness and exotic feeling.
It all started when I discovered Kayhan Kalhor (whom I discovered because of the Yo Yo Ma's Silk road project). Then with him followed to his collaborators and then their individual albums. Also their fusion with Indian musician, the duo Ghazal comes to mind.
I mentioned one of the artists I obsessed about in my blog, Sedat Anar and his Santoor that sounds so different from the Indian renditions of it.
Currently am tripping on Ahmad Hani on Tidal.

Anyone else into music from this part of the world.....

 

[shafic]

I have a nice collection of west asian music in vinyl as well as cd format.
Coincidentally today I am listening to some of them.
Souad massi's mesk elil and camelspotting .....
Pls listen to this Anastasia album.

 

[Deleted member 15865]

‘Fascinating’ is how I feel about Arabic music. It creates a certain ‘mahaul’ reminiscent of Arabian nights for me - deserts, bedouins, belly dancers, gyrating mystics... et al. Of course it’s a caricature and I am sure there’s a lot more to it. But some of the essential defining elements do remain.

Arabian music is more accessible to us Indians as it is also based on melody and rhythm rather than harmony, unlike western music. Yet, it is peculiar and different from ours in its tunes and instruments. The tunes, especially in traditional western Asian music are quite seductive and their instruments, such as the rubab and oud, have a rustic richness that adds to their timelessness.

Of course there’s also the Arabic Pop, just like African pop, but I get attracted to either their traditional music or fusion with musical cultures with rest of the world. Arabia is also uniquely placed between the occidental, oriental and the African world and blends elements of each in its culture and music. Like French, North African and Indian musical influences can be seen in various Arabian music (which in itself is varied, eg Egyptian/Moroccan vs Arabian peninsula). And when we add Persian music to it to make up Western Asia, there’s quite a bit of variety too.

 

[Deleted member 15865]

The undisputed queen of Egyptian music, Diva of Arabia - Umm Khultum (Reign from 1920-1970).

 

[moktan]

Taragalte from Oum’s Soul Of Morocco ....I remember this from the movie Beirut...

 

[essrand]

I have a nice collection of west asian music in vinyl as well as cd format.
Coincidentally today I am listening to some of them.
Souad massi's mesk elil and camelspotting .....
Pls listen to this Anastasia album.

Nice. I am a fan of Idan Raichel because of one of his collaborations with Vieux Farka Toure (Son of Ali Farka Toure, the Mali guitar legend) called the Toure-Raichel Collective. Israeli Music jugalbandhi with West African music, who knew it could sound so amazing.

 

[essrand]

My current favorite. I listen to "Dawn" when I switch on my system, and Dusk parts 1-4 before going to bed, quite often these days. It's quite amazing how he collaborates with different artists and creates new music, not a hodgepodge of two genres like most fusion music does.

 

[essrand]

My current favourite discovery, chanced upon it when I was scouring for DSD albums of Indian/West-Asian music.
This is music that is hard to classify, truly global, truly grounded, saturated in the life of the musician whose lived in Turkey, Egypt, Europe and a saturated in all their cultures. It's composed over a period of a decade or so. I have been listening for weeks, and still each time, I discover some new emotion in some composition.

 

[essrand]

I was recently wondering what the point of Roon was when it recommended this album. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_A...a#/media/File:The_Astounding_Eyes_of_Rita.jpg

It is now my favourite single as well: The Astounding eyes of Rita.
I would like to meet Rita who inspired such a song

 

[ajeshkumarts]

and never miss out Fairuz, " the soul of Lebanon"

Some others are

Naseer shamma from Iraq - Oud

Kudsi Erguner from Turkey

Omar Bashir from Iraq/ Hungary - Oud

 

[NewBee2020]

Balochi song -Laila O Laila by Rostam Mirlashari from coke studio

 

[essrand]

and never miss out Fairuz, " the soul of Lebanon"

Some others are

Naseer shamma from Iraq - Oud

Kudsi Erguner from Turkey

Omar Bashir from Iraq/ Hungary - Oud

Thank you so much for sharing, these are stellar recommendations. I have put them in my queue for today evening's listen

Any more, please do share.....

 

[ajeshkumarts]

Thank you so much for sharing, these are stellar recommendations. I have put them in my queue for today evening's listen

Any more, please do share.....

Mark Eliyahu from Israel - Playing Kamanche
Roads - https://tidal.com/browse/album/67763810
Sands - https://tidal.com/browse/album/70780772

Ara Dinkjian - an Armenian/ American Oud player. His collaboration with " The secret Trio" has Gypsy elements in their Music

Ara Dınkjıan - Live at Princeton University

Listen to Live at Princeton University on TIDAL

tidal.com

Iyad Rimawi - From Syria and plays a mix of rock, pop with Oriental elements
Damscus Now - https://tidal.com/browse/album/121158834
Tales from Damscus - https://tidal.com/browse/album/121216992

Hossam Ramzy - Egypt
Source of Fire - https://tidal.com/browse/album/55088037

 

[hydra]

You could look at Anouar Brahem's work. It has a very nice Middle Eastern vibe to it. I frequently listen to:

Souvenance (2014)
The Astounding Eyes of Rita (2009)
Madar (1994) [With Jan Garbarek and Ustad Shaukat Hussein]