World Music | Musicosity

World Music

Dhafer Youssef

A small seaside town in Tunisia in the 1970s. A boy walks along a deserted shoreline picking up the odds and ends he finds lying around: A broken fishing net; a few discarded sardine cans; spokes from an old bicycle. His heart and mind are full of music and he wants to play. It's as much as his father can do to put food on the table for Dhafer and his seven brothers and sisters. There certainly isn't spare money for music lessons, let alone for an instrument. So Dhafer makes his own oud, the traditional middle-Eastern lute, using whatever he can find.

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Faiz Ali Faiz

Faiz Ali Faiz (born 1962 in Sharaqpur, Pakistan) is one of the main singers of qawwali, a devotional musical expression of the Sufis, a mystical offshoot of Islam. Faiz Ali Faiz comes from a family of qawwals from seven generations in Pakistan. He started his professional career in 1978, at age 16, creating at the same time his own qawwali ensemble. Though Faiz is from Lahore, he practices the doaba style from eastern Pakistan. He stated in recent interviews he has been influenced by Sham-Chaurasi, a famous Khayal singing school where Ustad Salamat Ali Khan belongs to.

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Afro Celt Sound System

The Afro Celt Sound System is a musical group which fuses modern dance rhythms (trip-hop, techno, etc.) with Celtic and African influences. It was formed by Grammy-nominated producer-guitarist Simon Emmerson, and is considered to be somewhat of a world music supergroup, often having a wide range of guest artists on their albums. Their albums have been released through Peter Gabriel's Real World Records, and they are also reportedly the best-selling band on the label...

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Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu

Blind from birth, Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu is from the Gumatj nation and his mother is from the Galpu nation, both from North East Arnhemland. A former member of Yothu Yindi, now with his own Saltwater Band, whose members are all from Galiwin'ku on Elcho Island. Gurrumul's beautiful voice sings the songs of his Gumatj country.

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Gurrumul Yunupingu

Australia has produced very few, if any, popular singers of such extraordinary talent that their voices seem to be a gift from the gods. Not until now. Listen to Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu as he sings in Galpu, Djambarrpuynu, Gumatj - and, occasionally, in English - and you will instantly surrender to the greatest voice this continent has ever recorded. Blind from birth, he is not an Aboriginal musician singing protest songs against a rock, reggae or folk-country backing.

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Babylon Circus

Babylon Circus is a ska punk band from Lyon (France) formed in 1995 and consisting of ten members. They have released 5 albums, the most recent being 'La Belle Étoile' (2009). Official Website

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