Reviews

Marjaa: The Battle of the Hotels

Mayssa Jallad

The Battle of the Hotels was a vicious conflict that took place in Beirut at the beginning of the Lebanese...

Reviewed in issue May/2023

Künh

Nağme Yarkın

Hailing from Istanbul, composer and musician Nağme Yarkın is a player of the klasik kemençe – the three-stringed bowed lyre...

Reviewed in issue May/2023

Direct-to-Disc Sessions

Islandman feat Okay Temiz and Muhlis Berberoğlu

As well as being a pioneer of Turkish folk-jazz who played with Don Cherry, percussionist Okay Temiz is revered for...

Reviewed in issue May/2023

New Sound of the Middle East

Hagai Bilitzky

The album title certainly makes a brave claim, but in many ways the music lives up to it, for Hagai...

Reviewed in issue April/2023

Nara

Senem Diyici

Senem Diyici has a long career making music, having started recording her songs in 1969, before going on to develop...

Reviewed in issue April/2023

Saat Arahman

Mor Karbasi

Mor Karbasi was born to a family of Moroccan, Sephardic and Iranian roots. And her musical career has been an...

Reviewed in issue April/2023

Elesa

Mze Shina

A quintet of American, Peruvian, French and Iranian origin, based in Rennes, Brittany, is a pretty odd collective of musicians...

Reviewed in issue April/2023

Sababa 5

Sababa 5

Tel Aviv's Sababa 5 are a quintet of hard-working musos who have loaned their talents to a boatload of Israeli...

Reviewed in issue April/2023

The Unknown Spanish Levant Vol 2: Egypt

Luis Giménez Amorós

An academic in ethnomusicology as well as a musician and composer who has been performing since he was a teenager...

Reviewed in issue April/2023

Nagham Fi Hayati

Farid El Atrache

Born in Syria in 1910, Farid El Atrache was an icon of 20th-century Arab music and culture. Having moved to...

Reviewed in issue April/2023