One of the newer installations in the journeys of the National Geographic: Destination series, this album focuses on the vast collection of cultures surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. Given the breadth of possibilities, this is a vast undertaking. Luckily, it's handled quite well by the compilers, giving just a taste of each of the cultures that they can include in the course of a single album. The journey starts out on Majorca with a dramatic vocal piece from Maria del Mar Bonet. From there, it passes through Algeria with ...
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One of the newer installations in the journeys of the National Geographic: Destination series, this album focuses on the vast collection of cultures surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. Given the breadth of possibilities, this is a vast undertaking. Luckily, it's handled quite well by the compilers, giving just a taste of each of the cultures that they can include in the course of a single album. The journey starts out on Majorca with a dramatic vocal piece from Maria del Mar Bonet. From there, it passes through Algeria with the cultural fusionist Abdelli and back across to Greece for a piece by Kristi Stassinopoulou. An overland trip to Turkey provides some fine oud work from Lamak, and back across the overland route, Miguel Funi and David Serva team up for an outstanding bit of flamenco song. Crossing the strait brings a piece of Moroccan song with some good call and response, and back across again to Tirana allows one to hear a nice bit of gypsy song. Some high-speed, modernized bouzouki follows, followed itself by Ali Hassan Kuban's Nubian sounds. After a soulful Israeli ballad turns into a nice dance song, the album finishes on a stereotypically Italian accordion tune. Given the enormity of the task, the compilers have done quite a fine job here collecting the various sounds of an extremely diverse region. Give it a listen. ~ Adam Greenberg, Rovi
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