Omar Faruk Tekbilek Dance For Peace (sufi Selections) (2011)

Crescent Moon is a set of diversely fluid desert ambience with Middle Eastern and Mediterranean influences. Multi-talented multi-instrumentalist Omar Faruk Tekbilek created this massive soundscape with assistance from Brian Keane.

Omar Faruk Tekbilek - Tree Of Patience (2006) {White Swan WS 0071 rec 2004}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 390 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 130 Mb
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© 2006 White Swan Records / Alif Records | WS 0071
World / Ethnic Fusion / Middle Eastern Traditions

On his first album in several years, Turkish multi-instrumentalist Omar Faruk Tekbilek stays mostly with what seem to be his primary instruments: the ney and the kavala, both of them end-blown flutes from his native region. What might give the experienced listener pause is the fact that the press materials describe Tekbilek as a "peacemaker and a virtuoso." If there's one thing listeners have learned, it's that musicians who regard themselves as "peacemakers" tend to be more concerned with peace than with music – and while peace is surely more important than music, a desire to promote peace doesn't often translate into CDs that are worth buying.

Peaceful Choir by harpist Lavinia Meijer and chamber choir World Choir of Peace is a relaxing musical journey through the manifold colors and sounds of contemporary choral music. Renowned international composers have contributed entirely new works or arrangements for this unique recording project, including Sir Karl Jenkins, Grammy-nominated composer and pianist Hauschka, San Fermin mastermind Ellis Ludwig-Leone, composer icon John Rutter, Estonian pop-violinist Maarja Nuut and German soundtrack composer David Reichelt (8 Days). The album includes 15 world-premiere recordings and music by house-hold names such as Ola Gjeilo, Eric Whitacre, Max Richter, Hans Zimmer and Arvo Pärt.

Thom Yorke's Atoms for Peace involves longtime Radiohead engineer/producer Nigel Godrich (Ultraísta) and bassist Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers), as well as two session veterans in drummer Joey Waronker (R.E.M., Ultraísta) and percussionist Mauro Refosco (Forro in the Dark). For their first public performance, back in 2009, they performed Yorke's Godrich-assisted 2006 album The Eraser in its entirety, as well as some fresh material. Over three years later, they've come up with this, a product of jam sessions formed – by Yorke and Godrich – into a uniform nine-track album. It sounds more like a fleshier successor to Yorke's first solo album than it does a first step, and it's presented that way, from Stanley Donwood's woodcut illustrations to the band's name – the same as a track title on The Eraser.

There is no string quartet that has ever been written that can compare length and diversity with Terry Riley's Salome Dances for Peace. Morton Feldman has written a longer one, but it is confined to his brilliant field of notational relationships and open tonal spaces. Riley's magnum opus, which dwarfs Beethoven's longest quartet by three, is a collection of so many different kinds of music, many of which had never been in string quartet form before and even more of which would – or should – never be rubbing up against one another in the same construct. Riley is a musical polymath, interested in music from all periods and cultures: there are trace elements of jazz and blues up against Indian classical music, North African Berber folk melodies, Native American ceremonial music, South American shamanistic power melodies – and many more. The reason they are brought together in this way is for the telling of an allegorical story. In Riley's re-examining Salome's place in history, he finds a way to redeem both her and the world through her talent.

Here’s a genuine rarity: Ferdinand Rebay (1878-1953) has been hitherto unknown outside a small circle of guitar connoisseurs, but that should change thanks to this attractive set of sonatas and dances, all receiving their first recordings at the hands of two talented young Italian musicians. Rebay was Viennese born and bred. In 1901 he entered the piano class of Joseph Hofmann at the Vienna Conservatory and studied composition with the eminent pedagogue Robert Fuchs, who counted Mahler, Wolf, Sibelius and von Zemlinsky among his students. Four years later, when leaving the Conservatory with a distinction in composition, Rebay's catalogue already numbered around 100 works, including a piano concerto dedicated to Prof. Hofmann. He continued to compose prolifically, mainly in the area of vocal music, producing around 100 choral works, 400 Lieder and two operas.