Underlying the political and religious differences that have provoked centuries of unrest in the Middle East and North Africa is the landscape—an austere region of desert and mountains, transected by great rivers: the Nile, the Tigris, the Euphrates. This environment, along with centuries of cultural exchange, accounts for a rough musical unity across countries and ethnicities. Thus the music of Turkey, Israel and Palestine has similarities with the Arabic and Berber music of North Africa, and the Persian traditions of Iran.
Today, progressive artists working within these traditions have created a Virtual Middle East, a cultural blend that effectively ignores ethnic, religious and political differences, and brings us an image of what a peaceful future in the region might sound like.
On this transmission of Hearts of Space, soulful sounds from the Virtual Middle East, on a program called DESERT SOUL. Music is by MICHEL BANABILA, DHAFER YOUSSEF, MARJAN VAHDAT, NIYAZ, ARCHETRIBE, and ANOUR BRAHEM.
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