I have always loved the sound of Djivan Gasparyan's music. He plays the duduk, a double reed instrument related to the oboe. It's got a great melancholy, other-worldy feel to it.
I took the "other-wordly" idea to make a mix of music that is vaguely foreign sounding, at least foreign to my American ears. The music is Middle Eastern, Asian, African, Eastern European and Indian.
I go back to a familiar source for some of the sounds, the Shortwave Music blog of Myke Weiskopf. Whether it's the night call to prayer in Bulgaria or Qur’an recitation from BSKSA Saudi Arabia, Myke has great recordings that everyone should take the time to investigate.
The times in the tracklist are rough. Sometimes there are two or three tracks playing at once & not all are listed in the tracklist. I also messed with a few tracks, adding stretched audio as a backing track or adding reverb.
At various times haunting, beautiful, calming or hypnotic, the music in this mix will hopefully stir your imagination.
T R A C K L I S T :
00:00 Djivan Gasparyan - You have to come back to me02:22 Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Michael Brook - Night Song06:20 Hildegard Westerkamp - Gently Penetrating07:00 Night call to prayer in Draginovo, Bulgaria09:20 Peter Nooten & Michael Brook - Suddenly II10:25 Maya Beiser - I was there15:00 harmonic fx15:50 Gamelan Madu Sari - thinly roundly18:15 Ayub Ogada - Kothbiro22:00 Jon Hassell - Frontiera22:30 Hildegard Westerkamp - Into the labyrinth22:55 Geir Jenssen - Camp 2, world music on the radio23:30 Gamelan Madu Sari - Dreams he is a ball of fire or a hummingbird26:30 Peter Gabriel - Wall of Breath28:15 Galata Mevlevi - Nay Taksim29:40 Hildegard Westerkamp - Soundscape of cities, Delhi30:10 Forrest Fang - Garuda31:15 Jon Hassell - Tramonto33:00 Qur’an recitation from BSKSA Saudi Arabia34:20 Lamp of the Universe - Heru, part 136:55 U Srinivas & Michael Brook - Think41:30 Anouar Brahem - L'oiseau45:45 Djivan Gasparyan - dle vaman49:30 Peter Gabriel - A sense of home51:14 end