NEW RELEASES OUT NOW: Koudede - Guitars from Agadez Vol.5 7 inch / Omar Khorshid: Guitar El Chark (Guitar of the Orient) 2-CD

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Koudede:

Guitars from Agadez Vol.5

7 inch SF072

First American release for one of the leading lights from the Agadez guitar scene. Koudede Maman finally steps out of the shadows and delivers two scorching tunes recorded live from the European tour of last year. The sinuous sound of the electrified West African guitar has long mesmerized listeners both at home in the Sahel and abroad, from the explosion of global phenomenons such as Tinariwen and Abdallah Oumbadougou to the recent emergence of the rawer sounds of Group Bombino and Group Inerane. Linking these first and third waves of the Tuareg guitar revolution is Koudede, an enigmatic figure who has stepped out of the shadows as one of the strongest songwriters of the Sahel scene. The Tuareg guitar revolution is inextricably linked to the the all-too-familiar struggle between a nomadic people whose age-old ways of living are bound to the landscape and the rise of modern nation-states and their categorical usurpation of the limited resources in a region. Like the sounds of those who came before and after him, Koudede’s music is forged in the fires of such political unrest and struggle. Born in Agadez (Niger), Koudede grew up in in the dust of the uranium mines of Arlite, between the foothills of the massif of Aïr and the sands of the Sahara. In his youth, Koudede joined the uprising and left Niger to take up arms in the rebel camps of Algeria and Libya. It was here that Koudede discovered the galvanizing force of the Tuareg music scene. From the young visionary who made his first guitar out of a tin can to his current avatar as the heir apparent to the legacy of Ali Farka Toure in West African guitar music, Koudede has blazed forth from a relatively small following in Agadez and Niamey to take the world by storm. His songs are rooted in the poignance of Tuareg lore, speaking of migration, of warrior virtues, of distant camps and difficult loves, and at the same time they reverberate with the modern chaos of warfare and the contemporary Tuareg crisis. This is the truest music of revolution - where the transcendence of historical poetry and the daily grit of human struggle are in dialogue, from verse to verse and refrain to refrain. Sublime Frequencies is proud to present the latest manifestation of Koudede’s musical journey 

- Limited ed. one time pressing of 600 copies.

Omar Khorshid:

Guitar El Chark (Guitar of the Orient)

2 cd SF052

The late Omar Khorshid remains an iconic legend of the Arab world, though he’s received criminally little international acclaim. Born in Cairo in 1945, the glittering age of Egypt's cultural reinvention, Khorshid was soon to become one of its luminaries and most well-known, if short-lived, voices. He is regarded as the greatest guitarist the Arab world has ever known. By the mid 60s Khorshid was established with his group Le Petit Chats, an Egyptian beat group modeled after the prevailing influence of Elvis and the Beatles. It was at this time that one of the reigning figures of contemporary Arabic music, Abdel Halim Hafez, asked Omar Khorshid to join his orchestra. With Baligh Hamdi composing, Hafez with Khorshid in place would create some of the most innovative modern sounds in the Arabic musical canon.

Time with the Hafez orchestra offered Khorshid instant fame, and it wasn’t long before he was asked to play with the queen of Arab music, the voice of Egypt herself -Oum Kalthoum. Over the next few years Khorshid became a well-established and integral part of the Arab musical landscape. He was featured heavily in live concerts, national TV and radio and studio recordings, playing for the leading artists of the day. The guitar had now become an essential ingredient in the Oriental orchestra.

Khorshid began recording albums under his own name for the prestigious Lebanese record labels Voice Of The Orient and Voice Of Lebanon. Working with visionary engineer Nabil Moumtaz at Polysound studios in Beirut, Khorshid would take his music into some of the most progressive musical terrain of its time. The tracks included here in this retrospective are from the prolific span of Khorshid’s career in Beirut from 1973 to 1977. The venerable Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish best encapsulated this time in Lebanon: “unfortunately, it was paradise”.

Khorshid’s prolific instrumental music enjoyed recognition that transcended class and status during the brief period he shone. It’s a testament to his immense talent and some of the finest guitar music the world has ever heard.

 - Double CD reissue of the out of print vinyl addition. 

With an additional ten bonus tracks and a 14 page booklet in a tri-fold digipak.