Reviews
Oud Classics from Armenia, the Balkans & Middle East
If you are someone who is slightly unsure about Middle Eastern music but would like to dip your toe into...
Reviewed in issue May/2020
Songs of Exile Vol 1-3
The Naghash Ensemble take their name from Mkrtich Naghash, a 15th-century Armenian poet, priest and painter. Living in the Armenian...
Reviewed in issue May/2020
The Wolf of Baghdad Memoir of a Lost Homeland
The Wolf of Baghdad is an ambitious and beautifully executed motion-comic that tells the story of Carol Isaacs’ Iraqi-Jewish family...
Reviewed in issue May/2020
Mouasalat Ila Jacad el Ard
Largely unknown outside a small group of Arabic record collectors, Lebanese artist Issam Hajali's debut is finally getting the release...
Reviewed in issue March/2020
Chants des Trois Cours
Lebanese-Canadian singer Lamia Yared's album explores three of the traditions that created the Ottoman musical world: Turkic, Arabic and Persian,...
Reviewed in issue March/2020
Sand Enigma
Sun Ra Arkestra colliding with Arabic tropes and urban Cairo grit, Land of Kush almost literally smashes itself onto the...
Reviewed in issue March/2020
Cairo Moon
This exciting album is rooted in a rich Middle Eastern soundscape. It's performed by a Canada-based quartet of musicians hailing...
Reviewed in issue Jan/Feb/2020
Saadia Jefferson
On first impressions this sounds like a Middle Eastern Manu Chao. Or maybe DIY Ethio-jazz. Or then again, it could...
Reviewed in issue Jan/Feb/2020
Dancing on the Heads of Snakes
Orontes began as a Syrian-Spanish project in the city of Homs, but ceased to function when the catastrophic civil war...
Reviewed in issue Jan/Feb/2020
Alep-Brest
Aleppo in northern Syria has lived through tragedy. Its name now resonates with the pain of a brutal war, which...
Reviewed in issue Jan/Feb/2020
