Music of The Nile

While we're in historical importance mode, here's something completely different. Following in the tradition of Charles Duvelle is composer and ethnic sound recordist David Fanshawe. This indefatigable explorer has documented traditional music from all over the world, as well as produced records, been the subject of biographical documentaries and composed well-known choral works such as African Sanctus and over 50 scores for film and television.

Music Of The Nile (Arc Music) is actually the companion source album to African Sanctus and contains the original field recordings of African traditional music which were used in that ground-breaking work, a fusion of multiple traditions with the Latin Mass.

Conceived as a sonic catalogue of the African Sanctus journeys which David made from 1969 to 1975 and using the River Nile as the main axis of a gigantic cross that spans Egypt, Sudan, Uganda and Kenya, Music Of The Nile contains 37 pieces of astonishing breadth covering traditional Ugandan dances, a muezzin call to prayer, Egyptian wedding music, solo laments, choral pieces, pulsing African beats of all descriptions, virtuoso performances on lyres, reed pipes, indigenous trumpets, flutes, thumb pianos and various environmental sounds.

Like Charles Duvelle, David Fanshawe's combination of patience, acquired insider's knowledge and judicious selection from amongst hundreds of hours of recorded music has yielded fantastic and varied results. Also the digitally enhanced sound quality is excellent, enabling the listener to savour styles that have since been devoured by the encroaching homogenisation of the modern world.