Hamza El Din - Hamza El Din - Escalay (The Water Wheel) '1971/1998

Tracks list

       An album of Northern African music played on the oud (a fretless,
long-necked string instrument that's the predecessor of the European lute,
common in North African and Middle Eastern music), 1971's Escalay: The Water
Wheel is not only the most popular album by the Nubian-born soloist Hamza El
Din, it's arguably the best-known album of traditional Egyptian folk music in
the west, thanks to its position as one of the early releases in the hugely
popular Nonesuch Explorer series. Side one, a remarkable 21-and-a-half-minute
composition, is a tone poem built on one subtly pulsing drone that rises and
falls continually, creating hypnotic layers of harmonics occasionally broken by
El Din's wordless calls. Some American minimalist composers, particularly Steve
Reich, have claimed a strong influence in their own music from traditional North
African styles; for a listener familiar with the minimalists' work, "The Water
Wheel" makes the connection plain. Side two consists of two shorter pieces, the
enchantingly melodic "I Remember," originally written by Egyptian composer
Mohammed Abdul Wahab for electric guitar but here played on the traditional oud,
and the self-explanatory "Song With Tar," an original in the Nubian folk
tradition on which El Din accompanies his vocals with clapping hands and the
beating of a tar, a traditional tambourine-like drum native to Nubia. This is
not "folk music" in the purist sense, as all three tracks are composed music,
but Escalay: The Water Wheel is a fascinating document of the musical traditions
of Egypt. ~ Stewart Mason

Tracklist:
1.01 - Hamza El Din - Explorer Series: The Water Wheel (LP Version) (21:39)
1.02 - Hamza El Din - Explorer Series: I Remember (LP Version) (11:55)
1.03 - Hamza El Din - Explorer Series: Song with Tar (LP Version) (4:44) 

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