Reviews
Habibi Funk 015: An Eclectic Selection of Music from the Arab World, Part 2
As the comprehensive and beautifully produced sleeve notes make clear, this compilation of 13 jaw-droppingly funky tracks from the Middle...
Reviewed in issue Aug/Sep/2021
Hanin: Field Recordings in Syria 2008-2009
Compiled by Spanish musician and filmmaker Michel Gasco between 2008 and 2009, this collection of field recordings spans a period...
Reviewed in issue Aug/Sep/2021
DOST 1
Derya Yıldırım doesn’t like to be pigeonholed. “I do what comes out of me. And if that is for some...
Reviewed in issue Aug/Sep/2021
This is Tehran?
Getting their music heard outside of Iran can be tricky for artists working in the oppressive environment enforced by the...
Reviewed in issue July/2021
Bennesbeh Labokra… Chou?
This is an interesting release – Ziad Rahbani is the son of Lebanon’s foremost diva, Fairuz, and her husband, Assi...
Reviewed in issue July/2021
Unknown Nearness
Misagh Joolaee is an Iranian kamancheh (spike fiddle) player based in Berlin. His solo album Ferne (2019) was surely the...
Reviewed in issue July/2021
Hokin Janapar
There was once, in London in the 1920s, a now largely forgotten author named Michael Arlen, an Armenian born in...
Reviewed in issue July/2021
Roots of Strings: A Musical Journey with the Arabic Oud
It's a dark irony that the protracted suffering of the Syrian conflict has given Western audiences unprecedented opportunities to hear...
Reviewed in issue June/2021
Zarb-e Osul
After having begun learning tombak (goblet drum) in Iran at the age of ten, Tabassian's rhythmic journey would later begin...
Reviewed in issue June/2021
Divanegi
Residing in the Gilan Province of northern Iran, Pedram Delara is a young tombak (goblet drum) soloist and rhythm composer....
Reviewed in issue June/2021
