Customer Reviews

Ojala

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The artistry of Karman Hooshmand and Javier Palacios offer a blending of ethnic vocals and intense personal musical stylings to delight all world music enthusiasts. The sounds of old world (and not so old) lyrical compositions are made manifest in a refreshingly unexpected and titilating fusion, clearly separating these musicians' genre from that of many of today's popular fusion groups. Their collaboration in "Ojala" (God Willing) brings to mind the imagery of modern day troubadours (not French or Italian, instead Persian and Spanish) who relate love stories, romance and longing in their own soulful and sultry interpretations, self-accompanied by instruments definitive of their individual ethnic backgrounds and complimenatary to each other's musical prowess.

"Ojala" is the first collaboration between Spanish and Persian music which has stayed true to both generes while bringing the listeners the best of both worlds. The use of Ud (an instrument used in Middle Eastern music) throughout the CD, and the Spanish/Farsi lyrics shows their true undrestanding of what it means to collaborate musically. The Mexican born Javier Palacios and Irnaian born Kamran Hooshmand's love and knowledge of their music comes across beautifully in this project. Although there is something for listeners of all languages on this CD, there is at times a mood of the old 70's Iranian pop music that many Iranians grew up with.
By what seems to be an easy combination of the two generes, Ojala manages to transcend the boundaries and reach the audience with some great music. These guys definitely play it like they mean it, and it shows.

When I listen to your CD for the first time I was so excited that I called all my friends who like both Latin and persian music and told them about Ojala. It is a wonderful mixture of Latin and Persian and very creative as well. I really enjoyed your music and wish to hear more music from you.