Middle Eastern Heavens : Ihsan Al-Munzer – Belly Dance Disco | Ernesto Chahoud

Middle Eastern Heavens : Ihsan Al-Munzer – Belly Dance Disco

by Ernesto Chahoud

supported by

Mr.Automatic Great comp of Lebanese disco from the 70s. Favorite track: Jamileh.

Shadow J. Brown Industries The synths and scales are so cool. I feel like I'm in the desert with sunglasses when I hear this album. Such an amazing discovery. Sheila Vand's instagram page sent me here!! Favorite track: Jamileh.

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Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Please note: the vinyl remaster has been cut at '45rpm for superior sound quality, so please ignore instructions to the contrary on the original 1970s artwork.

Vinyl tracklisting:

Side A
A1. Girls of Iskandariah
A2. Night Entertainer
A3. The Joy of Lina

Side B
B1. Dance of Tenderness
B2. Jamileh

Side B
C1. A New Candle
C2. Once a Year

Side D
D1. A Flower of My Imagination
D2. A Night At The Station
D3. Love of Laura

Includes unlimited streaming of Middle Eastern Heavens : Ihsan Al-Munzer – Belly Dance Disco via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. ... more

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Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Includes unlimited streaming of Middle Eastern Heavens : Ihsan Al-Munzer – Belly Dance Disco via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 3 days

Purchasable with gift card

£10 GBP or more
Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

£8 GBP or more

1.	Girls of Iskandariah 02:36	buy track
2.	Night Entertainer 02:24	buy track
3.	The Joy of Lina 04:36	buy track
4.	Dance of Tenderness 04:05	buy track
5.	Jamileh 04:12	buy track
6.	A New Candle 04:57	buy track
7.	Once a Year 03:29	buy track
8.	A Flower of My Imagination 02:35	buy track
9.	A Night At The Station 03:10	buy track
10.	Love of Laura 03:38	buy track

about

The first release in Ernesto Chahoud’s ‘Middle Eastern Heavens’ reissue series for BBE Music, we are delighted to present Lebanese maestro Ihsan Al-Munzer’s 1979 album ‘Belly Dance Disco’.

In late 70s and early 80s Beirut, Lebanese organist, composer and arranger Ihsan Al-Munzer made a series of pioneering synth-driven fusion albums that reimagined Middle Eastern music. The records came at a pivotal time in Lebanon’s musical history of avant garde experimentation that was blossoming, just as the country’s 15-year civil war took hold.

Ihsan Al-Munzer’s first release as a solo artist, ‘Belly Dance Disco’ aimed to fuse ‘Western’ modern music and bellydance to make it more accessible to the local audience in the late 1970s. “I wanted to put a mixture of European beat with Arabic percussion, but I made the European rhythm and harmony very easy to listen to for the Arabic ear – soft and understandable” says Al- Munzer. Today, the composer’s music has made the return journey back to the West; with tracks on the album featured by hip hop artists such as Mos Def, who sampled Al-Munzer’s composition ‘Joy of Lina’ on his 2009 song ‘The Embassy’.

The 10-track album was released in 1979 on the legendary Voix De L’Orient label, which was also home to pioneering Lebanese composers The Rahbani Brothers. One of the earliest artists to introduce the synthesizer to Middle Eastern music, Al-Munzer leads the band, playing the main melody lines on the Kawai Organ and Solina String Synthesizer. Three of his original compositions feature on the album, alongside creative re-imaginings of Turkish and Arabic folklore and modern classics, pushing the boundaries of bellydance music to chime with the international scene.

Al-Munzer’s five titles from the 1970s and 1980s are part of BBE’s ‘Middle Eastern Heavens’ reissue series, a collection of groundbreaking productions from Lebanon, curated by Lebanese DJ, compiler and music researcher Ernesto Chahoud.

Notes by Natalie Shooter, a music journalist and researcher based in Beirut, edited by Will Sumsuch.

credits

released January 31, 2020

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