Exile Amplifies Insight
Listening Post 370. Art takes us deeper into headlines and history: We wouldn’t have the same understanding of the Spanish Civil War without Guernica; Les Misérables is a lens on the trials of nineteenth-century Parisians. Like Picasso and Hugo, the Iraqi-Egyptian singer-songwriter Nadin Al Khalidi is an artist for whom exile amplifies insight. She channels personal experience and the stories of voiceless people to illuminate the world as she has seen it: Encounters and destinies of refugees and immigrants, their nightmares and dreams, their loved ones and lost ones. In her first twenty years she fled Iraq twice and Egypt once, ultimately landing in Sweden. Harnessing musical crosswinds, she studied violin and western music, and found inspiration from Joan Baez, in Baghdad—and then came to appreciate Arabic music in her adopted homeland. It was in Malmö that she met the five Swedish musicians who would join her in Tarabband—a name merging tarab (Arabic for “ecstasy in music”) and band. Yekhaf (I Intimidate Him) is the ensemble’s fifth album, the songs pulled from the poetry and peril of recent Middle Eastern life, and carried by Al Khalidi’s magnetic voice. The title track is a meditation on affection and anxiety in a loving relationship (video 1); while Wenak (Where Are You?, video 2) is an Arabic channeling of saudade. For some a cruel fate, for others reprieve: The elegiac Bein il Galub Wel Ain (Star of Baghdad, video 3) recalls a martyr who disappeared during a demonstration, leaving a void between the Tigris and the Euphrates; and King of the Desert (video 4) describes a tense escape through a wilderness that nevertheless reveals natural wonders. Traversing distances of concrete and sand, peering through the haze of past and future, Tarabband projects stark reality and tangled emotion onto a compelling soundscape, taking us into the heart of human drama. (Aztral Productions)
Tarabband: Yekhaf / I Intimidate Him
طرباند – يخاف
Nadin Al Khalidi: Vocals, Algerian mandole, guitar
Filip Runesson: Violin
Andreas Hourdakis: Guitar
Cassius Lambert: Bass
Valter Kinbom: Percussion
Fredrik Gille: Percussion
Related post. Tarabband: Ashofak Baden, Listening Post 59, August 9, 2016. https://worldlisteningpost.com/2016/08/09/tarabband-ashofak-baden/
Yekhaf / يخاف / I Intimidate Him
Lyrics: Nadin Al Khalidi/Music: Andreas Hourdakis
(From the Arabic lyrics)
A new situation/An unfamiliar move
A strange energy/Are you intimidated by me?
Days go by, then when meeting/Mountains of fear arise and your fire fades out
You’d think it all over again for hours
Hesitant, you say “I’ve missed you”/Just for a moment, then your hunger is fed
If you’d listen you might understand me/Don’t go too far with your thoughts
Be kind to me, I’m your loved one
Don’t treat me like a stranger/and keep being intimidated by me
Days go by, then when meeting/Mountains of fear arise and your fire fades out
You’d think it all over again for hours
Hesitant, you say “I’ve missed you”/Just for a moment, then your hunger is fed
Be kind to me, I’m your loved one
Don’t treat me like a stranger/and keep being intimidated by me
I intimidate him!
Wenak / وينك / Where Are You?
Lyrics & music: Nadin Al Khalidi
A sunshine within you/My guardian and soul twin
Words of yours are my crown, my tunes/Your scent heals the wounds within
Fascination, your presence is an inspiration/My strength, my torch and destination
When you are far I am not fulfilled/A soul release in your embrace
Your words are peace, warmth and grace/In the absence of hope you are a pillar
A guide through the hardest days
When you are far I am not fulfilled
A glowing tattoo carved in my soul/A heart of light, may it never faed
When you are far I am not fulfilled
Bein il Galub Wel Ain / بين القلب والعين / Star of Baghdad (Between Heart & Eye)
Lyrics & music: Nadin Al Khalidi
He went missing/Last seen at the square
Yet memories of him/Remain everywhere
He’s gone, the dearest one of all/Joy won’t call
His soul drifted way too far
Between the two rivers/He faded, like a shooting star
Above the sky I’ll write his name/Baghdad his home, where his soul remains
Now that he’s gone with no return
Eight hearts of love/Are not enough to contain
His soul drifted way too far
Between the two rivers/He faded, like a shooting star
King of the Desert / ملك الصحراء / Malik al Sahra
Lyrics: Nadin Al Khalidi, Hazem Wefy, Hind Hamed/Music: Filip Runesson
Out of reach, covered and veiled/Two thousand stars
Daydreams and sweetness/A rug of sand and glowing coal
Eyeliner, magic and healing/Hypnotizing
Lost are our souls
(wandering are our hearts)
Déjà vu, every night
I am captured by you
The gate of dawn, a new age is born/The sound of the sky, an eagle, a throne
Affection awakes/Winds they blow
Lost are our souls
(wandering are our hearts)
Déjà vu, every night
I am captured by you
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