Saat Arahman

Mor Karbasi was born to a family of Moroccan, Sephardic and Iranian roots. And her musical career has been an elegant exploration and tribute to those same roots, digging out songbooks and often singing in the almost lost Ladino language (specific to the ancient Jewish Iberian communities). Family is a big theme throughout Karbasi's fifth album, Saat Arahman, as she sings and arranges Hebrew, Ladino Sephardic and Berber songs from the Atlas mountains, making an excellent case for the beauty to be found in cultural complexity.

Saat Arahman starts off with the title-track, a gorgeous Yemenite song that touches on child marriages, arranged by Karbasi as a chamber tune that she admittedly wanted to sound more like a funeral than a wedding parade. Summoning up top musicians such as Avishai Cohen and Moshe Elmakias, Karbasi leads each track with her broad, dexterous and mellifluous voice (although in tracks like ‘Ahuv Etsbeotai’ and ‘Judia’ she goes a bit over the top). It is a delight to hear her singing ‘David’ or ‘Zambra Judia’, a majestic Sephardic song arranged as if it had been written as a piano piece by Erik Satie. A remarkable plunge into her roots.