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Founded by Lebanese visual artist and musician Raed Yassin and Swiss musician Paed Conca in 2006, Praed is a band whose musical oeuvre can be described as a mixture of Arabic popular music, free jazz, and electronics. Over the years, the duo has collaborated with renowned musicians from across the globe, including Axel Dörner and Johannes Bauer from Germany, Hans Koch from Switzerland, Takumi Seino and Maki Hachiya from Japan, and Stéphane Rives from France, among others. Praed's body of work explores the terrain of shaabi (Arabic popular music) and its interconnectedness with other hypnotic music genres. Since its inception, the duo has shown a keen interest in this music as a medium that reflects Egyptian society's complicated fabric. Through their research and thanks to numerous concerts in various Egyptian cities, Conca and Yassin discovered a strong cultural connection between shaabi sounds and the mouled music played in religious trance ceremonies. The hypnotizing psychedelic effect embedded in this genre incited Praed to explore other popular music from around the world that also employs forms of sonic delirium, such as free jazz, space jazz, and psychedelic rock, among others, and effectively incorporate these in their own musical concoctions. The Fabrication of Silver Dreams is the duo's fourth album and their second for Lebanese independent music label Annihaya Records. Paed Conca: electric bass, clarinet, electronics, percussion; Raed Yassin: keyboards, electronics, vocals. With: Fadi Tabbal: electric guitar; Sharif Sehnaoui: electric guitar; Khaled Yassine: riq. Recorded and mixed by Fadi Tabbal at Tunefork Studios, Beirut. Mastered by Stefan "Lopazz" Eichinger at Mixmastering.
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Born in England, son of an Essex folk singer, Seamus Cater was surrounded by English revivalist folk music from day one. He eventually moved to Amsterdam in 2000, where he has been working on different kinds of music; acoustic, electronic, composed, and improvised. Cater organizes two Amsterdam concert series, DNK Amsterdam and Pest House, and is the founder of Nearly Not There Records, a small stock, non-profit record shop in Amsterdam specializing in new music in many forms, mostly avant-garde and experimental. The Three Things You Can Hear follows Cater's 2010 collaboration with NYC banjoist Woody Sullender (When We Get to Meeting) and his 2012 collaboration with Finnish multi-instrumentalist Viljam Nybacka (The Anecdotes). Recorded in Amsterdam and Berlin, The Three Things You Can Hear is a solo album consisting of a group of songs developed over a period of about three years. They were written and performed using a duet concertina made in 1941 (serial number Crabb 9807), which Cater found in a junk shop in Amsterdam. Given Cater's folk music background, and the fact that his father also played a concertina, it was a fortuitous event to find an instrument such as this, a black leather squeeze-box made in London. The slow repair and learning of this instrument led to a close relationship and unconventional playing style. By no means a concertina virtuouso, Seamus set out to find simpler, more primitive techniques of playing, and as the songs became ready, he invited some Berlin musicians to accompany him on different songs. The album includes contributions from Kai Fagaschinski and Michael Thieke (The International Nothing), Koen Nutters and Morten J. Olsen (from The Pitch), and Johnny Chang (of Konzert Minimal). When asked about the influences that informed the making of the album, Cater mentions Scottish folk singer Ivor Cutler and English folk singer Peter Bellamy, as well as music from other cultures, chiefly African, Arabic, South American, Indonesian. . . . His distinctive phrasing recalls at times the fragile music of Robert Wyatt's solo releases, and at others the elaborate folk constructions of Peter Blegvad and John Greaves, particularly their surreal 1977 concept album from Kew. Rhone. Seamus Cater: voice and duet concertina. With: Koen Nutters: double bass; Morten J. Olsen: bass drum and vibraphone; Michael Thieke: clarinet; Kai Fagaschinski: clarinet; Johnny Chang: viola; Han Jacobs: saw. Recorded by Seamus Cater, mixed by Clare Gallagher, and mastered by Jeff Carey.
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Entirely recorded at Tunefork Studios on the outskirts of Beirut, Burj al Imam's five tracks include three largely improvised numbers, a loose reworking of early Sun City Girls track "The Imam," and a cover of traditional Americana song "Gently Johnny." The album displays remarkable coherence, for four musicians coming from such different backgrounds. True to their habits, the Lebanese trio of trumpeter Mazen Kerbaj, guitarist Sharif Sehnaoui, and bassist Raed Yassin create acoustic improvised drones that range from insistent, chiming resonances with emergency alarm bells to low, thrumming hums. The three musicians largely avoid conventional technique, instead using what sounds like motorized devices to generate rattling, metallic vibrations, building a mechanistic backdrop out of which the instruments' true voices occasionally arise. Perched above the ambient din, Alan Bishop is in fine form, and alternates between gentle crooning and malevolent whispering. Alan Bishop: guitar and voice; Mazen Kerbaj: trumpet; Sharif Sehnaoui: acoustic guitar; Raed Yassin: double bass. Packaged in a poster sleeve; hand-numbered edition of 500.
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It can be justifiably said that without Rizan Said a good number of Syrian singers from the 1990s on might never have been heard -- most notably Omar Souleyman, who has collaborated with Said for two decades. Where synthesizers can bring a certain artifice and death to the sound of music, Said's torrential speed and flair on the keys bring new life to Syrian and Kurdish sounds, respectfully forcing the component sounds of folkloric dabke to the next level. This is the updated sound of the ages, with hand drums and reed flutes emulated and pounded out on Korg keyboards. Packaged in a poster sleeve with green foil cover; hand-numbered edition of 500. Liner notes by Mark Gergis.
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Over the past 10 years, Nadim Mishlawi has worked as a composer and sound designer on a multitude of films from Lebanon and the Middle East. Having studied music while in school, Nadim put aside his formal musical training when he began studying Fine Arts at university. During this time, Nadim began experimenting with various forms of sample-based and electronic music. Nadim's interest in sample-based compositions developed further as he completed his MA in Film Studies and in 2004 composed his first piece of musique concrète entitled "On the Periphery: An Offscreen Composition." The piece was exhibited at the Ashkal Alwan Homeworks 3 Forum in Beirut the same year. Combining his passion for music and film, Nadim began composing for films in 2006 when documentary filmmaker Mohamad Soueid approached him to compose the music for his documentary The Sky Is Not Always Above. Nadim continued working with Soueid on his next three films My Heart Beats Only for Her, How Bitter My Sweet, and A Spell of Absence. In 2006, Nadim and his wife, sound editor Rana Eid, opened db STUDIOS, a facility specializing in audio postproduction. Since then, Nadim has worked on numerous films. In 2011 Nadim was nominated for Best Original Score at the 2011 Aubagne International Film Festival in France for his work on the film Stray Bullet, directed by George Hachem. In addition to music for film, Nadim has also worked as sound designer on various kinds of projects including Jocelyn Saab's idiosyncratic film What's Going On, and Lamia Joreige's video Nights and Days. However, Nadim's most extensive work as a sound designer has been with artist Akram Zaatari. The two have been working together for the past five years, their most recent collaboration being Letter to a Refusing Pilot which premiered at the 2013 Venice Biennale. In 2011, Nadim released his directorial debut, the documentary Sector Zero, in which he used the bleak history of Karantina, an area on the outskirts of Beirut, as a metaphor for modern Lebanon's troubled past. The film received the first prize in the Muhr Arab Documentary category at the 2011 Dubai International Film Festival, as well as the Berlin Art Prize for Film and Media Arts in 2012. In 2013, Nadim screened his experimental short film Echoes in a Room with No Walls at the Ashkal Alwan Homeworks 6 Forum in Beirut. The film used 16mm footage, again of Karantina, as an "image track" to a composition Nadim constructed mostly from archival sounds from the Lebanese Civil War. Nadim currently lives and works in Beirut. Works is the first release of music by Nadim Mishlawi. The production is a collaboration between Nadim's media label TOTEM Media and Annihaya Records owned by Sharif Sehnaoui, Raed Yassin, and Hatem Imam. The compilation is a selection of Nadim's personal compositions, and does not contain any film scores. The package was designed by Hatem Imam of the graphic design company Studio Safar. The box-set is comprised of three albums: 1. Dreams of the Primitives: The basic intention behind the music of this first album in the compilation was to create a unique sonic experience by fusing together diverse musical genres within the individual tracks. This first CD of the compilation is therefore a synthesis of various genres of music, combining elements of post-rock, classical, jazz, and electronics. The title of the album was inspired by the documentary Cave of Forgotten Dreams by Werner Herzog. 2. Memories of Things to Come: This second album is a selection of tracks Nadim composed by mixing old tape cassette recordings with digital electronics textures. During the Civil War, Nadim's parents made a multitude of tape cassette recordings. Some of these recordings were interviews, and others just basic ambient recordings of gatherings held in their house. Nadim frequently uses these recordings in his work, but this album his most prolific sample of musical experiments made mixing analog and digital textures. The tracks also include modulated piano samples, originally recorded by pianist Cynthia Zaven for various film scores written by Nadim over the past few years. 3. Sonotechture I & II: The final album in the compilation is a more abstract approach to electronic composition consisting of two tracks, each approximately 30 minutes long. The tracks are constantly evolving from ambient electronic drones to minimal percussive sections and again to harsh, noise-driven textures. Nadim has always been intrigued by the sonic qualities of different urban environments and how these qualities change depending on the time and space of the listener. These two compositions are intended to be somewhat expressionistic interpretations of Beirut's rich sonic environment.
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Malayeen is a trio of Lebanese musicians Raed Yassin (a founding member of A-Trio, one of Lebanon's most renowned free improv outfits), Charbel Haber (from experimental rock bands Scrambled Eggs, XEFM and BAO), and Khaled Yassine (a member of Tunisian oud player Anouar Brahem's oriental jazz ensemble). Malayeen was born from Yassin and Haber's love for the music of quintessential Egyptian guitarist Omar Khorshid, and their desire to create a contemporary trio that would study, revisit and modernize his music, and bring it full circle into the 21st century. Master percussionist Khaled Yassine was added to the project at a later phase, creating in the process a Lebanese experimental "supergroup" of sorts. The final result consists of original and unique trio music, as the three musicians' varied backgrounds collide and coalesce in subdued and restrained fashion, not actually playing Khorshid's music, but inspiring themselves from the cult guitarist's genius to create something completely new, modern and unexpected. Malayeen is released by Lebanese experimental label Annihaya. The aim of the label is to revisit and displace various forms of popular culture, whether from the realms of oriental folk music, jazz or electronica, branding them in the process with a resolutely contemporary twist. Previous Annihaya releases have included works by Japanese turntablist DJ Sniff, Swiss/Lebanese electronic duo Praed, a selection of North African-inspired Sun City Girls ditties, and an album of "noir electronica" by Lebanese techno producer Rabih Beaini aka Morphosis. As such, it was only natural that the label would be interested in releasing the music of the Malayeen trio.
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Albidaya in Arabic means "the beginning," which in the case of Rabih Beaini's, might be the return to the beginnings, or the start of the path. The album is conceptually a revisiting of the traditional and early psychedelic Arabic music, all through distorted paths and instruments, remashed and deconstructed sounds, recreating patterns with diverse instruments to give a different perspective of the sound itself. Includes musicians from Upperground, Piero, Bittolo, Bon, and Tommaso Cappellato. Commissioned by Annihaya in Lebanon, by Sharif Sehnaoui, Raed Yassin, and Hatem Imam -- includes artwork by Maria Kassab. "Dips into the ethnically charged concepts and neo-traditionalisms of Annihaya, traversing through a panorama of sounds and textures. Eastern twang, Middle Eastern thematics and jazz all play a role in Albidaya, as do tribal drums and marketplace noise with the introduction of live and off-the-cuff synth experiments, arpeggiated space transmissions and eerie Wu-Tang-like vocal samples entrapped in a gurgling soup of analog beef." --Juno Plus Blog
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