Customer Reviews

Sufi Traveler

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Hearing a snippet of this album on NPR was enough to make me want to hear it in its entirety. This is astonishing music; relaxing and exhilerating, new and ancient simultaneously. Having been fortunate to travel to Turkey, I find this CD very evocative of the magic that is Turkey! Buy this CD today. You'll be listening to it for years. "Feed your head."

The first thing to note about Sufi Traveler is that it is actually two previously released CD's in one. The first is Nar, and the second is Seyahatname. Next of course, is that Mercan Dede is superb in blending authentic rhythms and insturments from his homeland in Turkey with more "Western" electronica and ambient sound. However, this blend does NOT create what I often call, the "White" effect. It doesn't sound like Americans trying to make a Middle Eastern-style recording. It is soothing to the ear of those accustomed to "real" M.E. music, but also welcoming to those who aren't terribly familiar with it. There is one song on the 2nd disk, however, that does have what sounds like a California surfer talking about doing Dervish dance, Whirling. It is a little disconcerting to me, but once he stops talking, I can appreciate the more exotic sound of the music again. I have used these two CDs for prayer and meditation, and wonderfully for social and also Belly dance. They alternate between songs with a slower tempo and soothing flute and strings, to great, heavy drums on others. Very emotionally evocative over all.

I have been listening his albums since a long time and he really performs his philosophy of 'counter points in sufism where the idea is everything in the nature exists with its counter points. here techno and tradiitonal rythims create excellent harmony out of counter points'

Floating lyrical melodies, violin arabesques, sensuous rythms, leading us throught sinuous corridors into the eastern mediterranean light!

This is one of the best efforts at creating world music I've ever heard. Incredibly syncretic and very genuine. The compositions are all accessible to a western listener yet still maintain a middle eastern spirit. The arrangements are subtle and sophisticated, employing a wide range of instruments. There are some truly brilliant performances on this album. I have only just recently learned of Mercan Dede, but I will definitely be looking at his other releases.