Hopefully all the links have now finally been refreshed and replaced with working ones at a new service. If you still find missing or malfunctioning ones let me know and I will try to remedy that.

Will start looking for a possible continuation but all the secretaries at the various Luobaniyan consulates have been overburdened with travail and all sorts of diplomatic affairs have kept us most busy. The Chargé d'affaires et Ministre de la Culture et des relations internationelles Luobanienne have also been very busy writing other texts for publication and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

The incense is and the oil lamps with fragrant oils are constantly burning here in the hope that all the last days actions to improve the situation of Luobaniya will have been auspicious and that all the links now finally working!

After the last years when Luobaniya has had to abide its time in Anhui, China gasping for air to breath and with almost no moments of decent computer connections in spite of all VPN's tried, constantly blocked and with lousy down speed and even worse and most unstable up speeds it is now breathing a bit by bit better than before … watching the clouds on a blue sky from the terrace Luobaniya, the State of Mind, is gradually recuperating and might even start singing some new Anthems again …

Initially things will appear to be getting worse and not better as there will be an interruption for a little while when most of the files will not be available. Moving right now the whole lot to another service … Please don't drown me with mail asking where the files are gone! Most of them will be available soon again, but a few are unfortunately gone, also from my own disks so I will put up a want list for some of my own files. Hopefully you can help me restore those and I know I have promised this several times before but there will be more posts after I have fixed the old links to point to the new server!


Anyone that still saves .zip files after unpacking (I usually do …) are most welcome to send them back to me! Lacking the zip file it is of course equally kind of you if you could zip the unpacked files and send the resulting zip back to me. I am most eager  to have the Archiv Java Gamelans below … I still have the original records but it would be very good indeed, not to have to redo work that I already painstakingly did already! Any help with this will be most appreciated!

Thanks for sending this one back to me!

Archiv_2565028_9_Java_Gamelans_from_the_sultans_palace_in_Yogyakarta_2LP_320.zip

The other missing files are no longer missing as they have been located on various backups!
I will supply new links for files chronologically and on a request basis. If there is some Rapidshare link that stops working please let me know and I will substitute it with a new working one!
[edited 2014.07.26]

 

To all Luobaniyans having had problems accessing the music here …

No files needed to be re uploaded it is just the silly new rules of RabidShare that came in the way! Privileges were changed by them behind my back on January 16 2013 … I have been very busy and still am in South India (where the circummeter of my current state of Luobaniya resides at the moment,
see attached picture above and below and you'll understand why the tele communication and computer connections are not fantastic in the mountains at 2700 meters!

All other connection human to human being great though) I was nowhere near my regular workplace since last years november but II finally took time to look in to the situation and it should be working again as I made all files public again! … There seems however to be a limit in download traffic per user? per day? I have no time to find out these details but hopefully it works now. I'm sure you will tell me if it does not.

Guan Pinghu and others • Youlan - Selected Guqin solos

Guan Pinghu - Orchids in seclusion
中國唱片 -  M-141
(Zhongguo Changpian = China Records M-141)

A1 幽蘭 - Secluded orchids - Guan Pinghu 管平湖

B1 醉漁唱晚 - Drunken fisherman singing in the evening - Zha Fuxi 查阜西
B2 梅花三弄 - Three variations on Prune Blossoms - Bo Xuezhai 薄雪斋

This lovely record from pre-cultural revolution times is to celebrate the successful updating of all
dysfunctional links. I have now over the last couple of days painstakingly revived 270 links and I hope they all work well! If there is any links that I missed or that are broken because of sloppy editing please do not hesitate to inform me! I will try to fix that immediately, same thing goes for any other errors. Please tell me and I will according to my time and ability set it right again.

Long live the never ending quest to find enough worthy Anthems for the Luobaniyan realms!


Music ▼ +

The Cultural ministry of Luobaniya • 罗巴尼亚国文化部, take great pleasure in informing you that the tedious work of repairing dead links started again in ernest. Since “the MegaDeath” struck and left us with much digital debris the energy to do so has been void and the ambivalence of once again living at the whim of “the hosting nations” * has further postponed any serious restauration work. This will now change and it may therefore be rewarding to report links that are not working!
* See ▼ Constitution of Luobaniya ▼

The citizens of Luobaniya are again singing from the mountaintops and wishing you all well!

Geetashree Sandhya Mukherjee • Love songs from Bengal

Geetashree Sandhya Mukherjee 

•  E Shudhu Gaaner Din 

Bengali Adhunik Gaan (The Bengali Modern Song) 

The Gramophone Company - Columbia S/33ESX.4268 - P.1980

Side A

A1 Gaane Mor Kon Indradhanu - Agni Pariksha
A2 Akaasher Astaragey - Suryamukhi
A3 Jani Na Phurabe Kobey - Sabar Uparey
A4 O Bak Bak Bakam Bakam - Mayamriga
A5 Tomarey Bhalobeshechhi - Natun Jiban
A6 Teer Bedha Pakhi Aar - Pita Putra


Side B

B1 Tuhu Mamo Mono Pran Hey - Anthony Firingee
B2 E Geene Prajapati - Deva Neya
B3 Du Chokher Bristitey - Sravan Sandhya
B4 Badho Jhulana - Basanta Bahar
B5 Keno E Hridoy - Nayika Sangbad
B6 E Shudhu Gaaner Din - Pathey Holo Deri

I have been very busy lately with completely new tasks and working more than full time in book publishing as editor and graphic designer. This last part has taken most energy away from editing any post and this may explain why there was such a long silence here! I was hoping to keep posting at least a couple of times a week but Alas, no such luck yet. I will not quit posting but unfortunately I have to realize that with my current workload I will be an infrequent poster for still some time to come. Fortunately I have so many very good friends and the following posts were kindly prepared by some of them. You will not suffer since they are of very high quality and I am more than happy to have been given this kind assistance.


First out is a Bengali LP by Geetashree Sandhya Mukherjee from my good friends Costis and Arvind who helped out before. It is Costis rip and photos, and Arvind wrote the high quality accompanying notes! It makes me so very happy each time these guys bring in such lovely music and all I have to do is some editing and minor cosmetics. Well, and adding the names to the tracks and track listings... so there is always a little something to fiddle with that also takes a little time but that is also some sort of a therapy while listening to the music. I hope you like it!


Here's what Arvind wrote:

"Did you listen to her before? She has a lovely voice....and the first song is for me, like a balm....soothing after a rough day!" 

This is a beautiful collection of songs by an artist who remains almost unknown outside Bengal, though one, who according to me, deserves much more recognition. Someone rightly said that her voice is like "liquid honey". On this record, she sings a selection of her film songs. Most popular filmi and non-filmi Bengali music from the time when this was recorded falls under the larger umbrella of Bengali Modern Song.


Bengali Adhunik Gaan 
- The Bengali Modern Song

The trend of composing modern song forms the most important musical phenomenon in Bengal during the post Tagore period. Adhunik gaan literally means "modern songs". Although, to outsiders, this may seem an extremely ambiguous way of nomenclature, it has particular motivations. The term Modern is relative – the period implied is from the third decade of the 20th Century to around the 70s when it reached its apex.

Bangla music traditionally has been classified mainly by the region of origin and the creators of the musical genre, such as Nazrul geeti (written and composed by Kazi Nazrul Islam), ghombhira (unique to a specific area in Bangladesh), etc. However, this prevented the ability to classify any music that failed to fit into any of the classes.

In the period just before Indian independence (Bengal, under British rule, was a part of one massive India that does not exactly correspond to the India of current day), several new minor musical groups emerged, mainly as playback songs for movies. These songs failed to fit into any particular genre, but seemed to be tied together by common theme of "music for the masses". Most of the music tended to be aimed at the mainstream audience - popular catchy tunes with simple words, and music that was inspired by forms of light classical music, folk and Western music. Hence, a miscellaneous category, Adhunik Gaan (or Adhunik Songeet), was created, since, at that time, this music was "modern".

Although over time these so-called "modern" songs have become fairly old, they continue to be called by the same name. Interestingly, this group of song has grown faster than any other, since it is a miscellaneous category that can accommodate anything that fails to fit elsewhere. The common theme continues to exist. So, although the nomenclature itself might not be as insightful, the genre itself is still well-defined.

This modern musical experimentation in Calcutta also formed the background to the modern songs and film music of many other parts of India, most notably that of Bollywood. The main artists who popularized modern Bengali songs, both filmi and non-filmi, and who also gained much of their popularity through them were Hemanta Mukherjee, Manna Dey, Sandhya Mukherjee, Shyamal Mitra, Arati Mukherjee, Kishore Kumar, Sachin Dev Burman, Asha Bhosle, Lata Mangeshkar, Satinath Mukherjee and Jaganmoy Mitra. Many of them went on to become legends as music directors and singers in Bollywood as well, and are household names in India today.

Geetashree Sandhya Mukherjee
(Bengali: সন্ধ্যা মুখোপাধ্যায়, Shondha Mukhopaddhae)* (b. 1931)



“I am not anyone’s rival in the world of music because I sing only for myself and singing is my aarti, my pooja.”

If Lata Mangeshkar is the nightingale of India, then 'Geetashri' Sandhya Mukherjee is the golden voice of Bengali music. No Bengali who loves music will ever be able to get over the spell of this honey-voiced singer of Bengal. Her recorded repertoire reaches beyond 3000 songs comprising a versatile range – bhajan, thumri, khayal, Tagore, modern Bengali song, and playback in Hindi and Bengali films. Bade Ghulam Ali Khan Saheb once said, “Sandhya is comparable with Sandhya alone.”

Born on October 4, 1931, in Dhakuria, Kolkata, Sandhya never had the chance of visiting her village home in Jeerat within Balagarh district. Dhakuria in those days was far from the glittery space filled with shopping malls and multi-storied building and even the over bridge did not exist at the time. Nor were there the dirt and the slush one encounters today. The sky was open and blue. The earth was filled with trees, flowers, fruits and birds. The chugging sound of a passing train would often drill holes of sound into the silent and dark evenings. A little girl would eagerly stare at the trains passing away through the square of an open window. In the evenings, she would go to the terrace of her Dhakuria (it was then a village) home and sing Krishna bhajans with the immediate family as her only audience. This simple incident laid the seeds of one of the greatest singers Bengal has ever produced.

Why the bhajans of Krishna? Krishna was the reigning deity at the Mukherjee home. Narendranath Mukherjee, her father, worked in the railways and was a great lover of music. Her mother Hemaprabha was a very good vocalist. Bhajans invoking the Lord Krishna were sung every evening during the pooja. Her academic career began at Dhakuria Balika Vidyalaya. She later shifted to Binodini High School.

Hers was the voice the most in demand at every school function. When she was 13 years old, Sandhya put in a stage appearance too, not as the heroine but as a maid! That was the time when HMV (His Masters Voice) released her first gramophone record. The song she sang for the record was Tumi Phiraye Diyechho Jaarey (the one you have turned back), a brilliant debut  for a girl so young.

As her heart lay in music and not in academics so after her matriculation examinations, she stopped formal education and began to pursue her only love – music. Before she completed her schooling, her eldest brother placed her under the tutelage of Santosh Basu Mullick to study classical raga-based music. She then trained under Jamini Nath Gangopadhyay, Gyan Prakash Ghosh, Chinmoy Lahiri, Dhruvtara Joshi, AT Kannan and Pandit Ganpat Rao. But it was Ustad Bade Ghulam Khan who tied the naada around her slender wrist to drill her in the complex and fine intricacies of Hindustani classical music. Though he is no more, Sandhya’s ties with his son sustains till this day.

The rest, as they say, is history. RC Boral, the music director of New Theaters gave her the song Ha Ha Ha Hans Ke Jiye Ja in a film called Anjangarh (1948) when she was just 17 years old. She later sang Ashkon Me Chhipi Mohabbat Ki Kahani in the film Pehla Aadmi (1950), which gave her immense popularity in Calcutta and then moved to Bombay where she earned fame with a duet with Hemant Kumar, Gupchup Gupchup Pyar Karen in the film Sazaa (1951). After these initial successes, she sung for most of the leading composers in Bengal and Bombay, but  she is most fondly remembered for her collaboration with Hemanta Mukherjee, with whom she sang numerous duets, primarily as playback for Bengali films produced from Kolkata.  Hemanta and Sandhya became known as the voices behind the pairings of the Bengali superstar Uttam Kumar and his numerous heroines, most notably being the actress Suchitra Sen, whose singing voice she became.

Very recently, a Bengali television channel had organized a twin recital of golden hits of Sandhya Mukherjee and Manna Dey. Sandhya, 78, and Manna Dey, 90, sang unfettered for two hours to a packed audience that remained enthralled and cocooned in the golden era of Bengali music in cinema and in modern songs.

*Note that "Mukherjee" evolved from the Sanskrit Mukhopadhyay (Bengali: মুখোপাধ্যায় Mukhopaddhae). Mukhopadhyay is from the purer Sanskrit form Mukhyopadhyay (in Sanskrit Mukhya - chief, Upadhyay - teacher, not necessarily a religious teacher). In modern parlance, the two are often used interchangeably, much like other such pairs (Banerjee/Bandhyopadhyay, Chatterjee/Chattyopadhyay), with the latter being used primarily in religious contexts.


Some detailed reading on the history of Bengali music here and here

The languid and dreamlike song the record begins with can be heard on youtube here

Music ▼+

M.S. Subbulakshmi - At Carnegie Hall - 1977

M.S. Subbulakshmi - At Carnegie Hall 1977

Oriental Records - BGRP 1009-11 - P.1978

M.S.S Subbulakshmi & Party in Concert 

Disc 1

Side A

A1 Sri Maha Ganapati - Muthuswamy Dikshitar - Gowla - Misra Chapu

A2 Vandeham - Tirupai Annamacharya - Hamsadhvani - Kanda Chapu

A3 Sobillu - Tyagaraja - Jagan Mohini - Roopakam

Side B

B1 Rama Rama Gunaseema - Swathi Tirunal  Simhendra Madhyam - Adi

Disc 2

Side A

A1 Muruga Muruga - Perisami Thooran - Saveri - Misra Chapu

A2 Narayana - Purandaradasa - Suddha Dhanyasi - Kanda Chapu

A3 Raga Alapana - Kambodhi

Side B

B1 O Rangasayee - Tyagarja - Kambodhi - Adi

B2 Tani avartanam (Percussion solo)

Disc 3

Side A

A1 Devi Brova - Syama Sastri - Chintamani - Adi

A2 Ikanaina - Tirupati Narayanaswamy Pillai - Pushpalatika - Adi

A3 Bhajan

Side B

B1 Bhajans

1

2

3

4 Kandu Kandu

5

B2 Benediction

Radha Viswanathan, vocal support

Kandadevi Alagiriswami, violin

Guruvayur Dorai, mridangam

Flushing

[I am sorry that there is no split tracks the LP-sides have been converted as one file per side. Unfortunately I do not have the time at the moment to do so but maybe some fortunate extra time in the future will let me finish these chores and then I will replace these files. I am confident you can enjoy these ones in the meantime …]

Music ▼+

Musique de Tchokwe in Zaïre - rec. Barbara Schmidt-Wrenger

Musique de Tchokwe in Zaïre - No. 11
rec. 1973 by Barbara Schmidt-Wrenger
Tervuren - Réference 6803073 - P.1977




Side A

A1 Tshiyanda 3'25
A2 Tshiela 4'30
A3 Mayenge 3'15
A4 Kalukuta 3'10
A5 Kulenge sa mwata 2'40
A6 Miaso ya jita 2'50
A7 Miaso ya ulo 2'30



Side B


B1 Miaso ya tshisaji 2'20
B2 Miaso ya ndjimba 2'40
B3 Miaso ya ndjimba 4'05
B4 Ndeji 1'35
B5 Musheta 2'20
B6 Mahamba 0'55
B7 Mungonge 2'30
B8 Uyanga 2'10
B9 Wali 2'40




I feel that there is little I have to say about this recording as with the other volumes this record comes with a multilingual book of almost 90 pages. I find that this series really is worth a wider circulation and that they are very important documents that most likely even the Tchokwe has no access to themselves.

Music ▼ +
Book (not yet available)

Polyphonies de Sardaigne - Bernard Lortat-Jacob

Polyphonies de Sardaigne

Bernard Lortat-Jacob

Le Chant du Monde - LDX 74760 - P.1981

Side A

Side B

The Conference on Arabic Music in Cairo 1932

Original label from one of the 78 rpm's

Recordings from the

Conference on Arabic Music held in

Cairo 1932

The conference on Arabic music was held in Cairo 1932 on the initiative of baron d'Erlanger and under the presedency of King Fouad I in the presence of several great musicologists, composers and orientalists, uniting the best of the classical and popular music styles performing musicians of the Maghreb and Asia Minor. After recordings made under the direction of Béla Bartòk and Mansûr Awad in connection with the conference, the Gramophone Company published noncommercially more than one hundred sixty 78 rpm discs. That is more than 320 sides of approximately 3 minutes each.

Finally in the 1990's some reissues from this vast body of recordings made at the Cairo conference 1932, previously only accessible to a few specialized scholars was made available on CD for the enjoyment and scrutiny of a wider audience . The ones that I know of will be posted here. I have decided to make the long out of print reissues of these early 78 rpm recordings available again to a wider o a possibly wider group of listener than has been reached before. These recordings are too precious to be forgotten in some attics of institutions or remain rare precious unobtainable objects in private collections.

This is truly beautiful music that constantly is worthy of finding new listeners.

First out is this boxed 2 CD collection that was published with a very informative book in several languages. This edition a long out of print and there has to my knowledge not been issued again. It was hard to get a copy already in the beginning of the nineties. I hope you enjoy this effort and should you sit on any other material visual printed or audio please share it with me. See also the end of this post for a list of what will be forthcoming.

Congrès du Caire 1932 Vol.1-2
APN 88 - 9-10 - P.1988


(Institut du Monde Arabe et Phonotheque National du France)

APN 88 - 9

Disc 1

01 Abûdhiyya 4:45 Musique Savante de Bagdad / Irak
02 Maqâm Ibrâhîmî 20:50 Musique Savante de Bagdad / Irak
03 Pasta 5:54 Musique Savante de Bagdad / Irak
04 Taqsîm Santûr 3:02 Musique Savante de Bagdad / Irak
05 Taqsîm Jawza 3:00 Musique Savante de Bagdad / Irak
06 Taqsîm °ûd 2:59 Musique Savante de Bagdad / Irak

The Iraqi ensemble of Mohammad al-Qubbanji (1901-1989)

(as you see he died only one year after this re-issue so you see 

why there is no year given in the booklet.)

07 Mawwâl & Taqtûqa 5:35 Musique Populaire / Égypte
08 Chant De Mariage 5:27 Musique Populaire / Égypte
09 Air De Procession Des Pèlerins 2:45 Musique Populaire / Égypte
10 Samâ°î Bayyâtî Thaqîl 3:11 Musique Populaire / Égypte
11 Chant & Danse de Bedouins 3:32 Musique Populaire / Égypte
12 Zâr Sa°îdî 4:42 Musique Populaire / Égypte
13 El Zâr Nubien 4:50 Musique Populaire / Égypte

Disc 1 total time: 71:31

The Egyptian ensemble of Mohammad al Arabi (1885-1941)

are represented here with some of my favourite tracks.

APN 88 - 10

Disc 2

01 Tawshiya 6:01 Musique Citadine De Tlemcen / Algérie
02 Shughl Basît 6:01 Musique Citadine De Tlemcen / Algérie
03 Mawwâl Il Taghtiya 2:55 Musique Citadine De Tlemcen / Algérie
04 Inshâd Baytayn Taghtiya I 3:03 Musique Citadine De Tlemcen / Algérie
05 Hawfî 3:08 Musique Citadine De Tlemcen / Algérie
06 Batâ'ihî 3:08 Musique Citadine De Tlemcen / Algérie

The Algerian ensemble of the singer el Hajj al-Arabi Ibn Sari (1883-1965) 

who also played Ud, Rabab and Qanun.

07 Bughya Tawshiya 4:57 Musique Savante De Féz / Maroc
08 Shughl Basît 6:16 Musique Savante De Féz / Maroc
09 Mawwâl Il Taghtiya 2:55 Musique Savante De Féz / Maroc
10 Inshâd Baytayn Taghtiya I 2:43 Musique Savante De Féz / Maroc
11 El Inshâd Baytayn Il Taghtiya II 2:25 Musique Savante De Féz / Maroc
12 Mawwâl 2:29 Musique Savante De Féz / Maroc

The Moroccan Ensemble of Umar Faid al Juaydi (1873-1952)

that participated at the Cairo conference. 

The singer Muhammad al-Shuwayka (c 1890-1940) 

is the man with the rabab. Originating from Meknes

he also sang in the Fes tradition. There are only six tracks in 

this set but I will post a record with twenty tracks of this group later. 

13 Istiftâh & Musaddar 4:27 Musique Citadine De Tunis / Tunisie
14 Abyât & Batâ'ihî 7:02 Musique Citadine De Tunis / Tunisie
15 Qasîda 3:01 Musique Citadine De Tunis / Tunisie
16 Muwashshah & Zajal 3:22 Musique Citadine De Tunis / Tunisie
17 Chant De Circoncision 2:43 Musique Citadine De Tunis / Tunisie
18 Danse De La Ghayta 2:52 Musique Citadine De Tunis / Tunisie

Disc 2 total time: 70:13

The Tunisian ensemble of Muhammad Ghanim (c 1880-1940)

Arabic front

Comment:

There is some duplication on other releases with reissued material from this conference but I stronlgy recommend you to get this volume as well because of the very informative and nice accompanying trilingual (french, english and arabic) 200+ pages volume:
«Congres du Caire 1932 - La Musique Arabe Savante & Populaire» Paris.

After a preparation period from 15-27 March the conference on Arabic Music 

was held in Cairo from the 28th of March - 3'rd of April. 

As can be seen from the picture above, there were many illustrious participants.

One of the driving forces behind the Conference, held under the auspices of 

King Fouad 1 of Egypt,was baron Rodolph d'Erlanger, who in the end was unable to attend 

due to illness that was to take his life a few months afterwards.

Some of the participants and organisers were composers Bela Bartok, 

Paul Hindemith, Aloïs Haba, Henri Rabaud, music critic Emile Vuillermoz, 

musicologists Erich Morris von Hornbostel, Robert Lachmann, Curt Sachs, Egon Weilesz, 

and orientalists baron Carra de Veaux, Padre Xavier Colangettes, Henry George Farmer, 

Alexis Chottin,

In the picture above you can also find one (maybe two) 

of the few female participants.

For the rest of republished recordings from the conference known to me see this list. I will, in due time, post all those remaining volumes here as well. If you have information about any other reissues than the ones mentioned in the list please let me know. When done with the above I will also attempt to post some related material.

I will also add a bibliography and try to list all the recordings at a later date.
Anyhow more will come in due time.

Again, I have kept you waiting for what should have been a complete post.

My sincere apologies!

I am really truly sorry, this post went out of the house before it was ready! Again I was overly enthusiastic about the free time I might get on my hands but also again was overwhelmed by my workload to the point that I forgot that I had set a publishing date for this post that turned out to be premature! I had the best intention, I assure you, to supply links to all the music files and the accompanying book in pdf and to provide a lot more information to the post! I finally got it done this weekend. I hope you don't mind that I did not delete the post since a few kind people had already commented on it! Again, please excuse the once again prolonged wait. 

Now all the files are also here below! The optimized pdf will be here later but all the scans for the record in high resolution are already here! 

The scans is probably what always takes the longest time to prepare for most of the posts.

Anyhow here they are in a rather unnecessary high quality considering the original 78 rpm.

So also the non-lossy files are included should you prefer to make single channel mono in another tighter bitrate. All the documentation is included in each file below so the files are rather big. 

Maybe I should have separate files for the documentation only. 

Leave a comment if you have any problems with them,

Music 320 ▼ + (702 mb)

Music flac ▼ + (916 mb)

Music from Yemen Arabia • Samar

Music from Yemen Arabia 
• Samar
Lyrichord - LLST 7284



Side A

A1 Leish Teguig 5'20
A2 Al Sabah 6'55
A3 Keef Faish 11'15

Side B

B1 A'Zaffer 21'30

Hassan al Zabeede, ud - track A1, A3
Salim Ibrahim, derbooga - track A1, A3

In the evening, Yemeni friends gather to talk, listen to music, smoke tobacco, chew the narcotic leaf quat and drink scented water and ginger spiced coffee. They call this time Samar, the “delicious time”, “luxury time”, “the time when happiness becomes longer”.

North Yemen lies in the southwest corner of the Arabian peninsula facing the Red Sea. Apart from the humid coastal plain called the Tihama, it is a mountainous country with plateaux ranging from 4,000 to 9,000 feet. About ninety percent of the population are agriculturalists growing coffee, the narcotic quat, grain, fruit, and vegetables. Mountain Yemen was the site of the ancient civilizations of the Minaeans, Sabaeans, and Himyarites. The Queen of Sheba or Saba came from Yemen. Yemen adopted the Islamic religion in the 7th century AD. In the north there are the Zeidi Shia-Muslims, and in the south and the Tihama the Shafei Sunni-Muslims. North Yemeni society is almost entirely tribal and many of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the country are tribal leaders.

Mohammed al Kawkabani, qanun - track A3, B1
Saad al Kawkabani, ud - track A3, B1




Music ▼ +

Music from Yemen Arabia • Sanaani - Laheji - Adeni

 Music from Yemen Arabia
• Sanaani - Laheji - Adeni
Recordings from 1973 by Ragnar Johnson
Lyrichord - LLST 7283



Side A

A1 You Said That You Would Forget Me 12'30
A2 Wa Seed Ana Lak Min Al Khodan 6'45
A3 Ana Mush Areemak 6'45

Side B

B1 Tabal Samar 7'40
B2 Wa Mogarred Bi Wadi Aldoore 6'50
B3 Ya Sabooh al Enab  10'25




Hassan al Zabeede, ud - track A3, B1
Salim Ibrahim, derbooga - track A3, B1



Mohammed al Kawkabani, qanun - track A1, A2, B2
Saad al Kawkabani, ud - track A1, A2, B2

These records from Yemen (the second will appear shortly) have really captured that very feeling of time standing still without any particular need to struggle forwards. It is confident in itself and needs neither progress nor improvement. I post these records to satisfy a long standing request by a very special friend and hope that they shall find their way to his and and all others sensitive ears. There is much information about the songs on both record sleeves and the text below is only a brief intro. I hope you enjoy!


North Yemen lies in the southwest corner of the Arabian peninsula facing the Red Sea. Apart from the humid coastal plain called the Tihama, it is a mountainous country with plateaux ranging from 4,000 to 9,000 feet. About ninety percent of the population are agriculturalists growing coffee, the narcotic quad, grain, fruit, and vegetables. Mountain Yemen was the site of the ancient civilizations of the Minaeans, Sabaeans, and Himyarites. The Queen of Sheba or Saba came from Yemen. Yemen adopted the Islamic religion in the 7th century AD. In the north there are the Zeidi Shia-Muslims, and in the south and the Tihama the Shafei Sunni-Muslims. North Yemeni society is almost entirely tribal and many of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the country are tribal leaders.

read more on the sleeve

Music ▼ +