Afghan Ensemble / Songs From Afghanistan
Album: Songs From Afghanistan   Collection:World
Artist:Afghan Ensemble   Added:Jan 2004
Label:Arc Music Inc.  

A-File Activity
Add Date: 2004-02-16 Pull Date: 2004-04-19 Charts: Reggae/World
Week Ending: Apr 18 Mar 21 Mar 14 Mar 7 Feb 29 Feb 22
Airplays: 1 1 4 1 1 2

Recent Airplay
1. May 16, 2016: Everything A to Z week 43
Ai Doostan
4. Apr 14, 2004: Shades of Green & Purple (in Brownian Motion)
Ai Bote Berahm
2. Sep 24, 2004: No Cover, No Minimum - On The Silk Road
Dokhtare Kuchi
5. Mar 17, 2004: Night Music with an Accent
Dokhtare Bagh
3. May 11, 2004: Sun in Libra Moon in Pisces
Milade Ali
6. Mar 12, 2004: No Cover, No Minimum
Dokhtare Bagh

Album Review
Gabe
Reviewed 2004-02-09
The styles vary but what’s unvarying is the fundamentalist fanatics’ denunciation of all this music. Strike a blow against repression and play this CD. This heterogeneous folk music of Afghanistan, sung in Dari, encompasses styles and influences from the tribal music of Afghanistan’s provinces to Arabian ghazals to Pakistani qawwalis to just a bit of the Persian music of Iran. Vocals, harmonium, drums, and lutes predominate. The songs are sometimes melancholy, sometimes celebratory, always with an undercurrent of devotion (though whether to lovers or Allah remains unstated), and always beautiful and keening in that way that Persian and qawwali music are. To the producers’ credit, they explain that the translated versions of the lyrics appear trite and mundane while the same words in their native language are quite poetic and evocative on several levels. Not that that’ll be an issue for your show.

1. Catchy and lively
2. Stately slow, an atypical ghazal
3. Slow, pensive
4. A veritable pop tune, a love song, with both male and female verses
5. Song of longing for lost one, literally “sun””, poetically … probably lover
6. A swinging folk song about a nomad girl
7. Strictly religious praise, pretty tune
8. Soaring melody
9. From the notes: this “traditional song has almost become a national anthem in Afghanistan. It expresses the desire to do a pilgrimage to Mazar-e-Sharif, and tells about the beauty of the nature along the way.” So think of it as the Afghan analogue of “America (The Beautiful)” and consider the romanticism inherent in all such patriotic songs celebrating the wonders of the mother/father/homeland.
10. Slow, sad song
11. An upbeat vocal duet extolling the the beautiful girls of Kabul; “I would die for a glimpse of the jewels behind your veil / You are like a flower, your neck so pale”; Oh, pale-necked flower in the burqa …
12. Harmonium and drum give this a very Indo-Pakistani flavor while the melody is utterly captivating

Track Listing
1. Ai Bote Berahm   7. Milade Ali
2. Bahare Shauq   8. Nuri Nuri
3. Dokhtare Bagh   9. Molla Mamadjan
4. Zim Zim Zim   10. Che Shawad
5. Khorshid Gouna   11. Dokhtare Kabul
6. Dokhtare Kuchi   12. Ai Doostan