UKC

I'm after some Middle Eastern or North African mellow haunting music with the occasional male solo vocal in Arabic style music but I haven't got a clue what to listen for, so I'd appreciate some suggestions please.

Thanks muchly

In reply to The Lemming:

this is more sub saharan, and has a female vocalist but i liked it:

youtube.com/watch?v=Q3GTnc9M92c&

In reply to The Lemming:

Google 'sufi music' and the country that appeals.

In reply to The Lemming: Not exactly authentic, but there's this

youtube.com/watch?v=FJQBQXrJVbg&

In reply to ice.solo:

Cant go wrong with some nusrat fateh ali khan. Eastern gospel music.

D

In reply to The Lemming:

Peter Gabriel's 'Passion' is almost all played on African and middle eastern instruments with a great deal of ethnic styling. Westernised of course, to be more palatable to western ears, but not in the muzak 'Pan pipes of the Andes' kinda thing. Very mellow, haunting and ethereal too.

In reply to The Lemming:
The Éthiopiques series on Buda Music is very good. We've got the "Very Best Of..." one, but if you're specifically after mellow and haunting you might want to track down specific instalments.

In reply to Dauphin:
undoubtably. its worth extending the nth africa/mid east rule just to include him.
no expert, but im sure he sang in arabic (amongst other languages).

In reply to The Lemming:

Thanks everybody for the suggestions, and yes the peter Gabs intro is the sort of stuff that I'm hoping to find.

I've always loved music from foreign countries and could listen to Gaelic and Arabic vocals all day in a haunting style.

Any further suggestions would be muchly appreciated.

In reply to toad:

I have no idea what they are singing about but I like's it.

youtube.com/watch?v=Sr6CNejcFRQ&

youtube.com/watch?v=LKyMWDjTKDw&

youtube.com/watch?v=Ovl3sTsXUGo&

youtube.com/watch?v=M7d-G1Q8neg&

youtube.com/watch?v=fEhnOx-G54A&

In reply to The Lemming:

Glad you like it. Some of his can stuff move you to tears.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qawwali

Plenty more to explore.


D

In reply to paul-1970: Though not in the style the OP requested, the two versions of With This Love on that album are sublime.

T.

In reply to The Lemming: Everyone's favourite tax-avoiding retailer is recommending Natacha Atlas to me at the moment. I know nothing of her music but from the description it may suit if you're after an electronic backing. Others more familiar might care to comment...

T.

In reply to Pursued by a bear:

great voice, fit as, mad as a box of crazy frogs but dodgy collaborations - I tend to think her choices of collaborators are not that sound. She has been making music for 20+ years so there are some good things out there amongst the rubbish.

D

In reply to The Lemming:

youtube.com/watch?v=Do5vj3D-OD4&

sort of ish....

In reply to The Lemming:

uygher/uzbek music is very good and developed. a lot of central asian stuff is quite twangy and basic, or atonal and lyric based, but the uyghers/uzbeks have complex arrangements for small ensembles yet retain a lot of the essential elements.

afghan stuff too can be very listenable, and of course persian music covers a huge spectrum from nomadic lullabys to full persian orchestras. turkish dervish stuff can get very moving, especially stuff based around the flute. they have a big tradition of riding music thats stimulating listening.

then theres mongolian music if you like esoteric male voices and weird string instruments. string ensembles are incredibly powerful, or single horse-head cello can be very poignant.

god knows where youd find a lot of that tho, but i assume london would have specialty ethnic shops.

In reply to ice.solo:

I shall do my best to check your suggestions out.

Cheers

In reply to The Lemming: what you need is a little trip over to paris and spend the afternoon , and probably a couple of hundred euros, in the big fnac store. i use to ask to be routed through paris so i could go have a browse, buy some vinyl and get them to send it home for me so i had a little package of listening pleasure to meet me. ahh...those days . (as he pauses to shout out the window :"stop trying to hit him with that, you ll kill him" to a 4 year with a length of 2 by 4).
but that there internet offers some consolation:
http://recherche.fnac.com/Search/SearchResult.aspx?SCat=3!1&Search=pers...
you ll probably find all the above mentioned at fnac.

In reply to The Lemming:

You might like at least some of my friends stuff

http://www.marcliebeskind.com/

Plays with some Senegalese guys as Taffetas and Sit-Guitar with various Indian maestros.

D

In reply to The Lemming:

Oh yeah check out Zakir Hussain - Indian Tabla player. Album with Jan Gaberek and John McLaughlin called Making Music. Considered to be a flawed masterpiece.

D

In reply to Dauphin:

On the third video clip, the middle musician playing the string instrument was phenomenal. I must see if I can find any more of his stuff.

http://www.marcliebeskind.com/videos_en/

Cheers

In reply to The Lemming: Female middle eastern singer Fairuz was famous and made an album B'Hebbak Ya Loubnan but whether you can get that here?

In reply to The Lemming:

It is called a Kora.


D

In reply to The Lemming:

Enya

In reply to The Lemming: why only male?

In reply to ice.solo:

i love the drony sounds of mercan dede: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLs3jgZliQM&list=PL4DB4230EECBF3756

In reply to malk:

That's the sort of stuff I'm after.

As for females, I tend to not like screeching high pitched voices, like those in opera.

However my music collection is roughly 50/50 and my be a bit more biased to wards a female pop, rock and bluegrass vocal.

In reply to The Lemming: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natacha_Atlas isn't too screechy i know what you mean about some opera and cheesy house

In reply to MargieB: Forgot to mention she sings with an instrumental ensemble with male singing . Male and female echo each other in a sort of musical dialogue, not really western. She was big in Beirut. Her voice is extraordinary.

In reply to The Lemming:

Badouin Love - Pete Namlook
youtube.com/watch?v=lgIKlOWpzss&

7 mins in you will get what you asked for , in large portions

In reply to The Lemming:

here u go

youtube.com/watch?v=KFlHO3r9UBk&

youtube.com/watch?v=goJ6vYJQU9w&

the last one is great not sure its the original audio for that vid

Check out Nigel Keenedy's East is East album. Maybe not as Eastern as you are looking for but still very good. Stand out tracks are Ajda Jano and T 4.2.

Sorry that should have been East meets East.