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.

NEW RELEASES OUT NOW: This World Is Unreal Like A Snake In A Rope DVD and Eat the Dream: Gnawa Music from Essaouira LP

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This World Is Unreal Like A Snake In A Rope

 DVD SF073

A film by Robert Millis. Folk cinema from the eternal never-ending collage that is INDIA. A journey through the ancient Southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu featuring Hindu trance ceremonies, street music, festivals, nagaswaram improvisations, impossibly loud cities, ancient temples, processions, devotions, decay, fireworks, abstractions and more. India is impossible to know: it is impossibly old and impossibly new, impossibly rich and impossibly poor, quiet and chaotic. Offered here is one perspective, raw, captured live and in the moment, with an emphasis on India's complex and mesmerizing sounds. DVD features bonus photo gallery with over 100 images. 50 minutes/Color; digipack; all-region DVD; NTSC format. Limited one-time edition of 1000 copies.

ORDER FROM FORCED EXPOSURE

Eat the Dream: Gnawa Music from Essaouira 

LP SF071

Recorded and compiled by Tucker Martine in 1994, the bulk of this album features the magnificent results of a chance meeting between Martine and the late, great master of Gnawa music, Maâllem Boubker Ghania (1927–2000), who kindly offered to organize a several-day informal recording session in his home. Martine began rolling tape as musicians came and went throughout the sessions. These spectacular recordings from Essaouira Morocco are interwoven here with other encounters including a wedding procession in the streets of Marrakech, snake charmers of the Jemma El Fna with their rhaitas, calls to prayer with children playing while James Brown echoed off of the labyrinthian walls, Moroccan radio dial surfing and more.

The Gnawa are a mystical brotherhood whose ancestors migrated from West Africa to North Africa approximately 500 years ago. After integrating into the local Berber and Arabic societies, a unique cultural blend resulted which is reflected in their music. Their complex liturgy borrows both from the traditions of mystical Islam and African Shamanism. The Gnawa's trance-inducing music accompanies rituals such as the healing of psychic disorders and scorpion stings, Ramadan celebrations and animal sacrifice. Participants in these all night rituals are invited into an ecstatic state. The primary instruments of this tradition are the krakebs (a pair of metal clappers) and the guimbri (or sintir), a three stringed lute with a camel skin covering and a body carved from a log. The one short string and two long strings are made of goat gut.

Limited Edition LP housed in a heavy-duty tip-on jacket with insert containing additional photos of the musicians and Tucker Martine’s liner notes.

ORDER FROM FORCED EXPOSURE

SUBLIME FREQUENCIES is a collective of explorers dedicated to acquiring and exposing obscure sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers via film and video, field recordings, radio and short wave transmissions, international folk and pop music, sound anomalies, and other forms of human and natural expression not documented sufficiently through all channels of academic research, the modern recording industry, media, or corporate foundations. SUBLIME FREQUENCIES is focused on an aesthetic of extra-geography and soulful experience inspired by music and culture, world travel, research, and the pioneering recording labels of the past including OCORA, SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS, ETHNIC FOLKWAYS, LYRICHORD, NONESUCH EXPLORER, MUSICAPHONE, BARONREITER, UNESCO, PLAYASOUND, MUSICAL ATLAS, CHANT DU MONDE, B.A.M., TANGENT, and TOPIC. SUBLIME FREQUENCIES PO BOX 17971 SEATTLE WA 98127 USA

S.F. FILM SCREENING: The Pierced Heart & The Machete

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SUBLIME FREQUENCIES PO BOX 17971 SEATTLE WA 98127 USA

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The Pierced Heart and the Machete

The Pierced Heart and The Machete (70 min) is a film by Olivia Wyatt exploring two Haitian Vodou religious pilgrimages that take place each year in mid-July. The first pilgrimage is for Erzulie Dantor, Vodou goddess of love, art, and passion.  Worshipers from all over the world descend upon the town of Ville-Bonheur, in the  southwest region of Haiti, to worship, celebrate, and bathe in the sacred waterfall, where Dantor resides. The second pilgrimage is for Dantors' husband Ogoun, Voudou god of war, iron, and healing. His pilgrimage takes place at the end of July and is in the northern part of Haiti in the town of Plaine du Nord. Practitioners bathe in a mud pool and make sacrifices for Ogoun.  Each part of the film shows through worship and celebration the similarities of each pilgrimage and the varying characteristics of these two spirits.  It will be released on Sublime Frequencies  in the Fall. 

Info for screening 

Date: 

Saturday June 2nd

Show  Times: 

7 pm , 8:30 pm, and 10 pm 

location:  

Spectacle Theater

124 South 3rd St. 

Brooklyn, NY

Buy Tickets:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/250741

After Party

Zebulon 

258 Wythe Avenue 

Brooklyn, NY 

Doors @ 8

Monvelyno Alexis  - 9:30 pm

Wetchenn P'chenn  - 10:30 pm

 (former member of Boukan Ginen)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0b0Idi7U9Q

DJARARA 11:00 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkekigwTnW0

DJ Deep Roots 

Radio Comedy 90.5 FM (Broadcast from Flatbush to NY and Haiti)

Out Soon...Eat The Dream: Gnawa Music From Essaouira LP

Eat The Dream: Gnawa Music From Essaouira LP

various artists SF071 LP 

This record was originally released on CD as Eat The Dream: Moroccan Reveries On Tinder Records In 1996 (Tinder CD 42825032). Original label out of business/CD out-of-print. Recorded and compiled by Tucker Martine in 1994, the bulk of this album features the magnificent results of a chance meeting between Martine and the late, great master of Gnawa music, Maâllem Boubker Ghania (1927-2000), who kindly offered to organize a several-day informal recording session in his home. Martine began rolling tape as musicians came and went throughout the sessions. These spectacular recordings from Essaouira Morocco are interwoven here with other encounters, including a wedding procession in the streets of Marrakech, snake charmers of the Jemma El Fna with their rhaitas, calls to prayer with children playing while James Brown echoed off of the labyrinthian walls, Moroccan radio dial surfing and more. The Gnawa are a mystical brotherhood whose ancestors migrated from West Africa to North Africa approximately 500 years ago. After integrating into the local Berber and Arabic societies, a unique cultural blend resulted which is reflected in their music. Their complex liturgy borrows both from the traditions of mystical Islam and African Shamanism. The Gnawa's trance-inducing music accompanies rituals such as the healing of psychic disorders and scorpion stings, Ramadan celebrations and animal sacrifice. Participants in these all-night rituals are invited into an ecstatic state. The primary instruments of this tradition are the krakebs (a pair of metal clappers) and the guimbri (or sintir), a three-stringed lute with a camel skin covering and a body carved from a log. The one short string and two long strings are made of goat gut. Limited edition LP housed in a heavy-duty tip-on jacket with an insert containing additional photos of the musicians and Tucker Martine's liner notes. 

SUBLIME FREQUENCIES PO BOX 17971 SEATTLE WA 98127 USA

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Hayvanlar Alemi Tour Dates Spring 2012 / Tour 7"

Hayvanlar Alemi Live Dates 2012

05 May - Lausanne (CH) Le Bourg
08 May - Milan (IT) Lo-Fi (w/Sir Richard Bishop)
10 May - Geneva (CH) Le Cave 12 à L'Ecurie
16 May - Paris (FR) Les Instants Chavires
18 May - Berlin (DE) Koplos Festival
19 May - Aarhus (DK) Pop Revo Festival

Booking for Hayvanlar Alemi, please contact:
john.qujunktions@gmail.com 
www.qujunktions.com
vimeo.com/qujunktions

There will be a limited edition tour 7" single

Yekermo Sew 7"

SF 070 EP

SUBLIME FREQUENCIES PO BOX 17971 SEATTLE WA 98127 USA

http://www.sublimefrequencies.com/

Out Now: CD version SF060 - Saigon Rock & Soul: Vietnamese Classic Tracks 1968-1974

This is the CD version of the out-of-print 2LP. The long-awaited foray into the Vietnamese rock, pop and soul sound of the late 1960s and early 1970s is finally here. Saigon Rock & Soul delivers the goods international retro collectors have been searching for in vain for many years -- and it delivers beyond belief. Every song is a mini-masterpiece, be it heavy acid-rock psychedelia, horn- and guitar-drenched funk grooves, or gripping soul ballads reflective of life during wartime. The tracks that form this collection cut a window into a rich musical Vietnamese music scene that has long been obscured, and for the most part, forgotten. As the scope of electrified Vietnamese music from the 1960s and 1970s begins to be revealed, it becomes evident that this was among the heaviest and most eclectic musical scenes of Southeast Asia at the time. These songs tell of war, love and what war does to love. All of them were recorded in makeshift studios and even U.S. army facilities while the Vietnam War raged -- and were issued by a handful of Saigon record companies on vinyl 45s and reel or cassette tapes. Westernized forms of music in Vietnam had appeared during the latter 19th century, and especially during the early 20th century, under the influence of the French colonizers. Tan Nhac (trans. "modern music") always incorporated both domestic and international sounds, and continued to develop alongside Western musical trends. During the 1960s and 1970s, pulp ballads were being recorded by leading crooners of the time who alternated between modern and traditional forms of regional music. When the electric guitar hit the streets of Saigon, Vietnamese renditions of contemporary instrumental trends such as surf-rock, beat and twist soon emerged, followed by some pretty deep soul sounds inspired by Motown radio hits as well as funk grooves brought on by James Brown and his contemporaries. By the mid-1960s, Vietnam had been ravaged by war for years. American G.I.s had become a standard fixture in Saigon, as did many of the cultural artifacts they brought with them. This certainly included the music. The sounds of rock and roll dominated the radio waves, and Saigon nightclubs were teeming with new sounds. Musically, The Shadows and The Ventures soon gave way to The Beatles and The Rolling Stones as an enthusiastic set of young Vietnamese rockers signed on to the lifestyle, always eager to hear the latest musical trends the G.I.s would bring in on LP or tape. This era saw the birth of a vibrant rock scene, yet rock music and anything that came close was commonly referred to as "soul" in the Vietnamese genre-listings. Like many cultures in Asia, Vietnamese music is recorded, marketed, listened to and disposed of in a relatively quick manner. This level of advanced ephemera ensures a degree of difficulty when trying to unearth and discover cultural histories. Literally, most of the music heard here has been brought back from the dead. Artists featured include some of Vietnam's most popular at the time: Elvis Phuong,Hung Cuong, Mai Lei Huyen, Le Thu, Thai Thanh, Giao Linh, Mai Lei Huyen and the CBC Band. Features 70 minutes of classic original recordings compiled by Mark Gergis with extensive liner notes.

SUBLIME FREQUENCIES PO BOX 17971 SEATTLE WA 98127 USA

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ERKIN KORAY San Francisco In Store Meet & Greet / Record Signing

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  Saturday, April 7, 2012 - 3:00pm until 4:00pm
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Aquarius Records & Sublime Frequencies are pleased to present legendary Turkish musician

ERKIN KORAY in person at AQ records, SF.

In his first and only promotional event within America to date, Mr Koray will be visiting Aquarius HQ to meet fans, and sign copies of his recent Sublime Frequencies release Meçhul – Singles & Rarities. 

This is a rare and unique opportunity to meet the true godfather of Turkish rock and psychedelia - an iconic guitar hero and songwriting genius with a voice of gold, who has carved out his legend across the last five decades. 

Erkin Koray was responsible for founding his country's first rock and roll group in 1957. Forging western sounds with his own inimitable musical mastery, he self-produced singles and LPs throughout the 1960s and 1970s that shook and altered Turkish society.
Erkin didn't stop at rock and roll. Over time, he began to find inspiration in folk sounds from Turkey's Anatolian interior, and radio broadcasts received from Egypt and Lebanon. He looked to the east from his west-leaning Istanbul perch, and began incorporating these sounds into his own work. This amalgamation was as unprecedented and unorthodox in Istanbul at the time as rock and roll itself had been in the 1950s. The resulting hybrid sound ignited what became known as the Arabesque music movement in Turkey – which continues to this day.

While Erkin has recorded and performed tirelessly throughout the years, both as a solo artist, and with the powerful groups he formed, his extensive back catalogue only began to be explored by the international community in the 1990s.

He is now recognized as one of the foremost global leaders of psychedelic, folk rock, pop and balladry. His music has stood the test of time more than many of his western contemporaries and influences have managed to, and his prolific work ethic has not ceased. He continues to live and breathe music, performing epic concerts, and continuously plotting new recordings and strategies. His vision and integrity, coupled with his pronounced world views and inherent musical greatness, have made him the unique and magnificent living legend he is today.

After years of bootlegged reissues on the market, Koray has been engaged in a decade-long battle to win back the rights to his own music both within Turkey and internationally. 

In 2011, Sublime Frequencies worked together with Mr. Koray to present Meçhul – Singles & Rarities (SF067), compiled by Mark Gergis and culled from the personal archives of Erkin Koray. It stands as the first collection of its kind, authorized and approved by the artist himself. 

The album features tracks that have been previously unheard and/or unavailable in the west. Ranging from the sublime to the surreal, these tracks offer an essential glimpse into the extensive repertoire of the great Erkin Koray.

Aquarious Records

1055 Valencia Street  San Francisco, CA 94110

(415) 647-2272

SUBLIME FREQUENCIES PO BOX 17971 SEATTLE WA 98127 USA

http://www.sublimefrequencies.com/

S.F. 2009 Interview Podcast: Hisham, Alan and Mark

Sublime Frequencies – Music from the Backyard Melting Pots

Melting Pot ist eine Metapher für Orte, in denen verschiedene kulturelle Einflüsse zusammenfliessen und etwas neues ergeben, die Hinterhöfe sind im übertragenen Sinne die abseits gelegenen, unbekannteren Regionen der Welt, in denen Sublime Frequencies ihre Klänge sammeln. In der Aufzeichnung einer Diskussion stellen die Nordamerikaner ihre Arbeit vor. Als global traveler dokumentieren die Mitglieder des Kollektivs – Alan Bishop, Hisham Mayet und Mark Gergis – lokale Klangbilder zwischen Nordafrika und Südasien. Radiocollagen und eine stetig wachsende Platten- und Audiokassettensammlung von historisch-traditionellen Klängen bis hin zur urbanen Musikkultur dieser abgelegenen Orte bilden das wertvolle Archiv von Sublime Frequencies. Es soll ungefiltert und unverfälscht die westliche Welt erreichen, um einen (musikalischen) Dialog zwischen Osten und Westen, Nord und Süd, den glitzernden Shoppingmalls der Industrieländer und den versmogten Hinterhöfen zu eröffnen.

Dabei kritisieren die Mitglieder von Sublime Frequencies etablierte Mainstream-Strukturen: ihre Arbeit formiert eine Gegenfluß zu den Strom an Kultur, mit denen amerikanisch und europäisch dominierte Medien- und Musikkonzerne den Rest der Welt zu betonieren. Sie finden sich nicht damit ab, dass ihre Projekte in Schubladen gesteckt werden: weder akzeptieren sie wissenschaftliche Definitionen noch die üblichen kommerziellen Konzepte unabhängiger Plattenfirmen. Ihnen geht es um die ursprüngliche, rohe Musik – und sie zollen ihr in ihrer Originalität Respekt.

Im Podcast stellen Sublime Frequencies ihre Arbeit, ihre Motivation und aktuelle Projekte vor. Die Diskussion fand anläßlich von Structures Node 1: Global Alchemy im Juni 2009 statt, eine Veranstaltung der Club Transmediale.

Podcast interview is in English

Link for podcast below...

http://www.bln.fm/2009/07/sublime-frequencies-music-from-the-backyard-melting-pots/  

Von Andreana Slavcheva ⋅ 1/07/2009

SUBLIME FREQUENCIES PO BOX 17971 SEATTLE WA 98127 USA

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NOW OUT! GROUP DOUEH: ZAYNA JUMMA LP

SF066

LP Vinyl Gatefold Edition - Group Doueh's latest record is here and the plot continues to thicken! From the gorgeously cracked yet all-embracing opening drum roll of Zayna Jumma (the title track), it's evident this band is hell bent on redefining the sound of its influences and in turn, shape the future sound of its surroundings. It's musical alchemy in its purest, most remarkable form, pushing at the boundaries of geographical divergence while simultaneously speaking to the shared resonances between Western rock rhythms and the pulse of the Saharan trance tradition.

Since its inception, Group Doueh's ability to craft pop hooks from a foundation of saharoui roots music has been a manifestation of sheer song craft and innovation. The tracks on Zayna Jumma are a deeper excavation of the group's forged terrain: a collision of contemporary Afro-Saharan grooves balanced with the searing modalities of Doueh's desert origins, finally nuanced by the transcendental pop/rock/desert blues elements honed from gestating in the fringes of the Sahara desert. 

For the latest installment of this Dakhla family's musical dynasty, Doueh recruits his next eldest sons El Waar (synth) and Hamdan (drum kit) , and wife Halima is augmented by three female backup singers. The band keeps evolving and this album reveals its newest phase - that of a formidable ROCK unit. 

The songs on this record were recorded in 2010, a busy year for Doueh, maintaining its day job as the go-to group of the Saharan wedding industry while still managing recording sessions and a tour with Tony Allen (Fela Kuti's long time drummer). On the heels of this momentum, Zanya Jumma is released to coincide with the group's 2011 spring/summer tour of the UK, Europe and a first ever US tour. 

This band continues to redefine the musical landscape and keep listeners amazed and transfixed. It's the perfect ecstatic music for the impending apocalypse, a rogue sound rooted in the past and yet boldly harnessing the aural possibilities of the landscape ahead... go ahead and jump aboard. Recorded on location in Dakhla, West Sahara in 2010 by Hisham Mayet.

SUBLIME FREQUENCIES PO BOX 17971 SEATTLE WA 98127 USA

http://www.sublimefrequencies.com/