Towards a 'Fourth world music'


That photograph is of the Egyptian American composer and musicologist Halim El-Dabh. I am indebted to cellist Paul Rah for pointing out an invaluable interview with Halim El-Dabh on the website of Music & Literature, a non-profit organization devoted to publishing and promoting the work of artists whose work has yet to reach its deserved audience. The interview which discusses, inter alia, the genre of 'Fourth world music' - a label used for music that combines avant-garde electronics with world music influences - can be read via this link. Halim El-Dabh's early non-electronic work Juxtaposition No. 1 can be sampled in the video below and his more abrasive Michael and the Dragon for electronics via this link.




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