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World music, anyone?


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I'm looking to broaden the scope of the music I listen to. I've liked a lot of the world music I've heard as background music in a restaurant or in soundtracks like Guild Wars: Factions and Guild Wars: Nightfall, and even something like the Lord of the Rings movie soundtracks use all kinds of unique instruments. I don't really have anything much in my collection though that would really be called world music, and I'm not even sure where to start. From the bits and pieces I've heard, I'd probably favour middle eastern and far eastern music, but I'm open to anything. Suggest away!

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I need to get Calling All Dawns; it's been on my list for a while. I've got both of Jillian's albums. David Arkenstone isn't really what I'm looking for though; I'm thinking more along the lines of authentic, non-western music as opposed to western artists who sometimes have world music flair.

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Yanni's definitely my idol, and one of the artists I'm mostly inspired by. He likes to say his style's contemporary instrumental, but his production is all about mixed world music, sometimes with electronica stuff. His group consists of awesome instrumentists from different countries and cultures, and I love how this leads me to think about different people as being different instruments that form a unique kind of music.

But heh, there's also Angelique Kidjo, Ivete Sangalo, Gypsy Kings, and if you're looking for eastern music there's Tony Mouzayek, Amr Diab, Ajda Pekkan (I mean, the old music she has), Khaled, Abdelli...

I don't know much about far eastern music. What I hear from there's mostly C-Pop ;P

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I'll toss out a few suggestions...

Qawwali is one genre I really like (Pakistan-origin), and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, to me, had the greatest voice ever given. A couple of resources:

NPR Bio

Site with some videos/translations

Mustt Mustt,

(er, ignore the comment thread)

Rai is another genre I used to listen to a bit (North African origin, more of a mix of contemporary and folk), not as much these days though. If you've heard Cheb Mami or Cheb Khaled, they're sometimes well-known elsewhere.

Wiki article

,

Altan Urag is one band I like (Mongolian folk-rock), but I can't get any of their albums in the US... I just know them from having worked on the soundtrack to Mongol:

Blue Mark

RaKH II

I listen to some French hip-hop and R&B--the main artists/groups I like there are Sniper (now disbanded), Tunisiano (was part of Sniper), and Zaho. Latin American pop/rock is something I've been listening to for decades now, same with Japanese rock and hip-hop. But all of those genres are probably way more accessible and easier to find out about from others. KF

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