Benno Wormgoor in search of the ‘soul of music’.
Tonight we will be looking for the soul of music for 7 hours! In doing this we stumbled across the NETWORK label which released some themed compilations. Of this you will hear three double albums:
The Soul of Russian Gypsy
Soul of Klezmer
The Soul of Armenia by Djivan Gasparyan.
And to finish off singer Oum and her latest album Soul of Morocco.
The double album Russian Gypsy Soul has a great variety of music styles, including choral singing by Siberian gypsies and the guitar playing of Kolpakov, who uses a traditional Russian 7-string guitar.
Many of the musicians on this album have never been heard outside Russia.
Double CD: Russian Gypsy Soul. Label: Network/Harmonia Mundi LC 6759.
The Soul of the Klezmer on the double album Reve et Passion.
In this compilation the compilers tried to distil the written history of Jewish music from its early social roots to the most avant-garde interpretations.
Doubel CD: Reve et Passion – The soul of Klezmer 1998.
Label: Network/ Harmonia Mundi LC 6759
The Soul of Armenia by Djivan Gasparyan. He is the most famous musician in Armenia. Djivan was a local shepherd who became an internationally performing musician. His music was used a lot in films. Ever since 1989, after he got help from Brian Eno and Peter Gabriel, he has been performing in concert halls around the world.
Double CD: The Soul of Armenia by Djivan Gasparyan.
Label: Network/ Harmonia Mundi.
Singer Oum (Oum el Ghaït Benessaraoui in full) spent her childhood in Marrakech. She loved jazz and soul and joined a Christian gospel choir at 14, where she soon became one of the soloists. Her third album ‘Soul of Morocco’ (2013), on which she mixes the Gnawa and Hassani rhythms of her Sahara desert roots with the soul and jazz she grew up with, was her international break through.
CD Oum- Soul of Morocco (2013)
Label: Lofmusic/MDC
MDC011
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