Reviews

Barki

Maltash

Born in Beirut, Lebanon and residing in Brussels, Maltash (Arabic for ‘Wicked’) is an experimental musician attempting to deconstruct industrial...

Reviewed in issue March/2023

Kifak Inta

Fairuz

The retro-specialist Parisian label Wewantsounds continues its vinyl-only series of releases by Fairuz, the eminent Lebanese singer. This time it's...

Reviewed in issue March/2023

The Series of Music for Young Adults: Iranian Folk Songs

Pari Zangeneh

Originally released in 1976 by Iran's Centre for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults as part of a...

Reviewed in issue March/2023

Amrat

Rasha Nahas

There is something about discovering one's native tongue after a brief fling abroad with a foreign language. Whether out of...

Reviewed in issue March/2023

Songs of Horaman

Mohammad Mostafa Heydarian

It’s hard to believe Mohammad Mostafa Heydarian was only 17 when he recorded this debut album in 2019. For sure,...

Reviewed in issue January/February/2023

MusicAlly

Ertuğrul Erhan & Meriç Dönük

If you can get past the absolutely dreadful title, this album does contain some nice moments. Ertuğrul Erhan, on violin,...

Reviewed in issue January/February/2023

Orkos

Maha

As one of the few female singers operating within Egypt’s fertile 70s jazz scene, Maha was picked out as a...

Reviewed in issue January/February/2023

Anadolu Ejderi

Gaye Su Akyol

Whereas earlier albums had more to do with retro-futurism, on Anadolu Ejderi (Anatolian Dragons) past and present collide beguilingly as...

Reviewed in issue January/February/2023

The Music of Mohamed Abdel Wahab

Simon Shaheen

Mohamed Abdel Wahab was a titanic figure within Middle Eastern music. Composing for legends such as Egyptian singers Oum Kalthoum,...

Reviewed in issue December/2022

Aligned

Itzhak Ventura

Itzhak Ventura is a ney specialist, mastering the Persian, Arabic and Turkish variants of this end-blown reed flute. He also...

Reviewed in issue December/2022