World music label Putumayo has explored the Arabic milieu before, with collections of pop, dance music, and electronica from the Arab world. Its new compilation, Acoustic Arabia, shows a softer side of that set of traditions - quiet, but not without variety and pulse. "Arabic" music spans a wide range of flavors, voices, and languages.
For example, the CD includes Algerian music sung in French (by Les Orientales), a jazz-inspired Sudanese song sung in classical Arabic (by Rasha, who is based in Spain), and an instrumental with shades of Europop by Lebanese oud player Charbel Rouhana and pianist Hani Siblini.
Just reading Putumayo liner notes can provide a political and cultural education. The group Tiris, for example, is named after the Western Sahara region whose indigenous Sahrawi people became refugees after annexation by Morocco in 1975. The area remains in political flux; the musical group represented here was actually formed by an NGO called Sandblast.
The members of Zaman, for their part, are unable to travel to many Middle Eastern countries where their music might be appreciated, because they are Palestinian Arabs with Israeli passports. Their song here, "Batalti Eli" ("You Are No Longer Mine"), sounds closer to Spanish and gypsy music than to much of what we think of as Middle Eastern music. Meanwhile, Mousta Largo goes back to ancient (but still relevant) politics with "Les Larmes de Boabdil," which commemorates the 1491 departure of Granada's last Arabic king.
Westerners who associate Arabic with Islam, and Islam with repression of women, might be a little surprised to hear a fair number of female voices here. There is also a collaboration between Jewish-Algerian pianist Maurice El Medioni and Cuban percussionist Roberto Rodriguez, which brings to mind the Buena Vista Social Club phenomenon. And Syrian-born singer Zein Al-Jundi, whose mournful song of absent love closes the disc, is based in Austin, TX, a city famous for music yet surely not of the Arabic sort.
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