Zarabi

worldlistenintpost.comWeaving is an apt metaphor for the disparate strands of Oum’s music—North African Gnawa, Hassani, Sufi, jazz, gospel, Afro-beat, R&B, bossa nova and Cuban trova—which converge like winds in a magical desert. The Moroccan singer-songwriter (full name, Oum El Ghait Benessahraoui) grew up in Marrakech but also feels at home in the oasis town of M’hamid el Ghizlane, known for it annual arts festival and the local women who weave carpets from old clothes. She recorded Zarabi (“Carpets” in Maghrebi Arabic), her fourth album, in the town’s open air, which explains the occasional ambient sounds of wind, water and birds. In a resonant frame of oud, bass, trumpet and percussion, her bracing and soulful voice tells of love and family, dreams and memory, spirits and fate, accented with fragrances, colors and sensations. In Nia (Intention) she sings of keeping love refreshed: “For my Beloved, with my clay I’d build a palace/And share my passion with him on glowing embers." There’s an ardent, soaring tone to N’Nay (The Ney Flute): “Cut from its reed, it cries out the pain of lovers/It calls to hearts that desire tears apart/Those who burn and melt in passion’s fire.” A melancholy trumpet heralds the suspension of rational thought in Hna (Here): “In the alley of lovers/The orange tree bestows its essence,” she observes, “The night crystalizes/The pulse hastens/Reason loses its way, regresses to infancy.” Across the soundscape, notes and themes swirl, from the nocturnal fog of Jini (Spirit) to the plucked and tapped wisdom of Wali (Ancestors) and the optimism of the trova-inspired Veinte Años (Twenty Years). No dry panorama, Oum’s desert is a wondrous place of connections.

I first heard Oum, Zarabi when I was in Morocco and fell in love with the music. Her voice is hypnotizing, and the sound of the oud (stringed instrument) really captured me. Oum does not sing in English, but to me that doesn't matter.

民族的な要素とジャズ的な要素がナチュラルな感じで混じり合い心地よいサウンドを作り上げている。歌声もとてもいい。またCDのジャケットも美しい。とても気に入った。

Im Großen und Ganzen kann ich mich meinem Vorredner PMH nur anschließen. Eine wunderbar gelungene Platte.Der Knack am Ende des zweiten Liedes (Lila) kann ich leider bestätigen. Persönlich stört es mich nicht, da es sich aber offenbar um einen Fehler bei der Pressung handelt, ziehe ich ebenfalls einen Stern ab.Für diejenigen, die die Platte vielleicht nicht über Amazon direkt kaufen und damit die AutoRip nicht nutzen können, liegt ein Downloadcode bei. Bei neuen Platten zwar sehr verbreitet, aber mWn noch nicht selbstverständlich.

Scoperta per me!Casablanca sforna una cantante ed autrice veramente originale, con un mix di sufi, hassani, jazz, gospel, soul, afrobeat che conquista.

No me gusta. Muy malo