Folk /
Magg Tekki
Assiko Golden Band de Grand Yoff is the sprawling drum collective tearing up Dakar’s nightlife scene. Senegalese poet Djiby Ly (Wau Wau Collectif) is backed by fourteen different percussive instruments plus horns, winds, balafon, and the occasional accordion, combining Count Ossie’s spiritually elevated polyrhythms with Fela Kuti’s orchestra and Tony Allen’s groove. Based in the impoverished neighborhood of Grand Yoff and operating as a mutual aid group for the larger community, the band builds …
Black Earth
Black Earth has eleven traditional Macedonian songs infused with African aesthetics, including Gnawa undertones, Congo rumba, and African field recordings. The core of the traditional Macedonian harmonies and rhythms was developed over the centuries from the Ancient Greek and Roman Empire’s lyricism, Byzantium’s chants, and the Ottoman Empire’s classical music progressions, by way of multiple migrations, storytelling, wars, myths, tribalism, reconciliations, etc.) In a nutshell, Black Earth is a…
Talea
Recorded in Australia, Brasil, Italy, Japan, Turkey and America on his 2015/16 world tour, these excellent recordings offer an astonishing range of styles and sounds – all somehow emanating from Angeli’s fingers and feet – and his highly modified, prepared, extended and amplified giant Sardinian guitar which – like Angeli himself – is routinely able do several very different things at once. You have to keep reminding yourself as you listen that this is just one person with one instrument, workin…
Original Soundtrack Album Of Nagham Fi Hayati
Wewantsounds is delighted to reissue Farid el Atrache's cult album 'Nagham Fi Hayati' another cornerstone of Arabic Music released in 1974 and the soundtrack of the eponymous film starring El Atrache and Mervat Amin. Nicknamed the King of Oud, El Atrache is one of the giants of Egyptian music with Oum Kalthoum, Abdel Halim Hafez and Warda. Composed of four tracks showcasing El Atrache's versatility, the album which contains the monster groove 'Hebina Hebina' happens to be one of Brian Eno's favo…
“Tumai Takahashi / Uya nu Kukuru”
This recording is a miraculous session produced by Makoto Kubota and is surely precious being their very first performance in Japan. “Tumai Takahashi” is often sung in a set with “Yatcya guwa” but in this recording it is performed as a stand-alone song, which makes it very rare. The coupling song “Uya nu Kukuru” is a classic piece by Teihan China, Misako Oshiro's mentor. Misako Oshiro sings with Kanako Horiuchi, her top pupil, in a relaxed and lustrous voice.
Misako Ōshiro (or sometimes Misako O…
Wa No Wa
The much-awaited vinyl version of a musical piece which has garnered much attention over the recent years in Japan. The sound is eye-opening, profound, spiritual, and will leave you in awe. Absolutely mind-bending. This is beyond categories and beyond good! The highest possible recommendation!
Nikhil Banerjee in California 1967
*2023 stock* These are live recordings of Nikhil Banerjee at KPFA Radio in Berkeley, California, on the 9th of July, 1967. It is for the first time they are made into vinyl record and published in China. The original recordings were on two reel-to-reel tapes. In 1988, American record label Raga Records released the recordings on both CD and cassette. Until a few years ago, it was by chance that producer Tu Fei got hold of these reel-to-reel tapes and decided to release this vinyl version, hoping…
Zhuizi Selections
This studio album is recorded after Guo Yongzhang performing on the 5th Tomorrow Festival stage.
Amamiaynu
“Let us unravel the ancient songs of Amami and Aynu and sew them together. Let us go adrift in the whirl of the sea as we row our squid fishing boat.” Amamiaynu is a project that was initiated by Ikue Asazaki, who has been on the frontlines of Amami music for decades. Members of this project include; Ikue Asazaki, Oki, a Tonkori player (a traditional stringed instrument developed by the native Ainu people), Rekpo, the vocalist and leader for the female vocal group Marewrew, Kapiw & Apappo, who a…
The Music Of Mohamed Abdel Wahab
Tip! Reissue of the oud / viola virtuoso Simon Shaheen’s interpretations of pieces by one of the Middle East`s most important 20th Century composers, Mohamed Abdel Wahab. Produced by Bil Laswell, remastered for vinyl at D&M Berlin. Mohamed Abdel Wahab (1902-1991) was „a giant in the world of Middle Eastern entertainment” (Al Jadid Magazine) - as singer, actor and composer – and is commonly considered “the father of modern Egyptian song”. After a visit to Paris, he revolutionized the film industr…
Istehlal
Zehra is proud to present the debut album Istehlal by the Mohamad Zatari Trio, consisting of musicians from Syria, Iran and India. The trio merges traditional Middle Eastern sounds with contemporary vibes incl. interpretations of Hossein Alizadeh and Riad Al-Sunbati classics.
Padang Moonrise (The Birth Of The Modern Indonesian Recording Industry ⋆ 1955-69)
Tip! Padang Moonrise is the story of modern Indonesian music that emerged underneath the volcanoes of Java and Sumatra. Java, the most populous island in the archipelago of over 17,000 islands and 1300 distinct ethnic groups, and its capital city Jakarta, was where most of the post-colonial national identity, politics, administration and music production was centred.
Traditional songs from Java, Sumatra, Bali and beyond were re-imagined by a small group of state-sponsored musicians that also com…
Mawood
All-time arabic music classic recorded in 1971 by egyptian music titan Abdel Halim Hafez. Composed by Baligh Hamdi and featuring Omar Khorshid, the album is reissued on vinyl for the first time in decades, with remastered audio.
Cycles
Edition of 50.* Hugjiltu plays the guitar with five strings. Not used to the standard chord-forms of Western guitar, he invented his own system of tuning, combining the three-string Mongolian lute and the two-string horsehead fiddle, both of which he started playing as a child. These five strings epitomise his relationship with the music from within the Mongolian ethnic tradition and with the music beyond, a state of artistic composure few in his generation have achieved. Hailing from a musical …
Exploring Gongs Culture In Southeast Asia, Mainland And Archipelago
Tip! *In process of stocking* 'Gongs have played an integral role in the mythogeography of Asia. This is not music that aligns with national borders or ideas of homogenous populations, let alone racial stereotypes and exotic clichés. What connects all of these tracks is a simultaneous feeling of entrancement and social cohesion. Communal and collaborative, its form is hypnotically repetitious, melodies and rhythms spread out among the players using the technique of hocketing in which a flowing l…
A Cloudy Dawn
Death is Not the End follow up 'The Sun is Setting on the World' with another set of Greek rebetika from the 1930s to the late 1950s.
The Music Of Islām
Ten years in the making, The Music of Islam series recorded in Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, Yemen, Pakistan, Indonesia, Iran and Qatar represents the most comprehensive sound documentation available to Westerners today, of a world religion dating back to 1/622. Although governed by strict rules for fourteen centuries, contact with other cultures has radically affected Islamic music throughout history. As the world enters the XV/21st century the timing of this collection serves an even larger…
Mayeh-ye Dashti / Mayeh-ye Isfahan
*2022 stock.* The award-winning 2-CD album features contemporary classical compositions and arrangements with traditional Irani instruments. The spiritual intensity and traditional musicianship was deemed worthy for Celestial Harmonies records. The musicians are the Dastan Ensemble, which is a collective who change membership over the decades. For this 2008 live concert recording, the Ensemble consists of Hossein Behroozinia (barbat, the Irani oud), Hamid Motebassem (the long-neck tar), Said Far…
The Music Of Bali
The Music of Bali is produced by the highly acclaimed New Zealand composer/musician/producer David Parsons. Much like the other traditional/lost arts replications he has produced, The Music of Cambodia (19902), The Music of Vietnam (19903) and The Music of Armenia (19909), this collection is an opened time capsule of music from the isles of paradise.
Jegog as heard on The Music of Bali, Volume One: Jegog (13136) is played predominantly for entertainment although it occasionally accompanies relig…
The Music Of Vietnam
*2022 stock. In process of stocking* A country shaped by struggles with Chinese, French, Japanese and American invasions. That is how Vietnam stands in the minds of many, while its culture most people actually know little about. It is a rich culture, whose musical heritage has developed over a thousand years' time. Celestial Harmonies, early in 1994, released the first two volumes of The Music of Vietnam series in order to bring this beautiful, fascinating music to the world at large.
It is unde…