The music of Noori & His Dorpa Band brings very special sounds to European ears that have not yet been heard in this part of the world. The band comes from the city of Port Sudan on the Red Sea on the east coast of Sudan and belongs to the Beja people, who have not only been at the forefront of the struggle for political change, but also have an ancient musical tradition. Here, Noori and his band present long-forgotten melodies in the modern guise of an electrically amplified band. The music is unfailingly warm, relaxed and swaying, and with guitar, bass, saxophone and percussion, the instrumentation is not really unusual at first. What is more exciting though is the way the instruments are played. First of all, there is a special home-made instrument made of an electric guitar combined with the Sudanese tanbur, a traditional four-stringed instrument. This unique tambo guitar, with its pearly melodic progressions, sounds similar to the North African Tuareg blues guitars played by bands like Tinariwen, originally from Algeria. But the Dorpa Band also incorporates influences from surf rock, bossa nova and reggae. The airy saxophone playing is reminiscent of the sound of the Ethiopian Gétatchèw Mèkurya, and the bass and percussion team also brings Latin American elements into the collective music. Despite its stylistic diversity, the fantastic mix never sounds overloaded or contrived, but always uniform and cohesive. »Beja Power!« is probably the first release by the Beja people outside of Sudan, but hopefully not the last!
Edison Machado & Boa Nova
Edison Machado & Boa Nova
Far Out