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Al compas del mundo, programa #64 - Mother Of This World

A beautiful and jarring selection of field recordings and cassettes from early ‘80s Cairo. Compiled and mixed by Jim Haas from sounds and music collected during a trip to Egypt in 1982.


 



TRACKLIST rebroadcast on RadioActiva Feb 9, 2023


01 confluence of early morning muezzins - the beautiful chaos that is Cairo


02 street musicians - drummer, mizmars, firecracker, rooster, Cairo


03 Mitaal Enawy - Bellail Bellail; Dunya al-Fan Music Center advertisement


04 al-Sheikh Sawdeeq - Wa-Allah ya ghawaly (Bedouin)


05 radio drama, cool organ


06 Said Darweesh - Hellay halla (an expression of the worker's happiness)


07 Sawlih Abu Bakr - Zifat al-'Arees (Nubia)


08 Beyoumy al-Margawy - title unknown


09 Cairo street market and traffic sounds


10 Abdel Halim Hafez - untitled blues


11 Abanob and Dalia - Coptic Folk - Ancient Egyptian New Year


12 Coptic speaker المتحدثين باللغة القبطيةالمصرية القديمة


13 Coptic song - from the Pharaonic Institute for Coptic Music


14 Fatma Eid - Hassanen wa Mohamaden - song promoting family planning


15 radio soap opera


16 al-Tanbura - Nahnu al-Bamboubiya, from the album Friends of Bamboute (Port Said); soccer announcer - not one goal, but two!


17 family party song; vintage Egyptian film music: Ismahan, Laila Murad, Muharram Fouad, Ismail Yassin, al-Thalawy, Shadia, Laila Murad


18 Abu Dura' - al-Rab wahid


19 President Hosni Mubarak (1982); miliitary band playing Egypt's national anthem; anonymous sheikh - Islamic religious song


20 Abu al-Wifa al-Suhagy and Intisawr Magdy -Ihna ma'ak


21 shortwave broadcasts recorded in Cairo


22 Mohamed Gamih and Atif Mersal - ney and drum


23 Howaida Abu al-Khul (Bedouin) - Shayif lak shoufa


24 radio tomfoolery and musical snippets


25 Hussein Bashir - Samar al-loon (Nubia )


26 anonymous - Zar, sufi music from Southern Egypt


27 Musicians of the Nile - Mawwal-doha and Rais al-bahr


28 Wedding music and word game (Cairo)


29 anonymous - Egyptian Bedouin music from the Sinai Peninsula


30 Fauzy al-Gamal - Ya azeeza (Ismailiya)


31 anonymous song recorded off the radio, Cairo


32 recorded live at the Siwa Oasis, Western Desert


33 Sheikh 'Abdu al-Naby al-Zaman - religious recitation


34 wedding celebrations in Southern Egypt - modern and traditional; zagrouta (ululation)!

##############################

And now a poetical interlude from our sister site editor Jack Vaughan. This was inspired by the original broadcast.


>> Abanob saw Dahlia
>> spiriting away in the horn drone and honking
>> Of Cairo Street traffic in 1982
>>
>> She
>> was laughing.
>>
>> The workers were happy
>> They been  paid
>> her face on the Taxi
>> window screen.
>> White teeth smiled
>> as lightning.
>>
>> They were planning a family
>> while listening to the radio soap opera
>> The dial was
>> Golden but abanob
>> Could not stop dialing
>> His name meant
>> Likes mobs
>>
>> When Dahlia bolted
>> She lamented
>> your absence brings me sorrow she said, so why was she running?
>>
>> Running To Aswan
>> Brimming
>> Wanting
>> The army band
>> playing
>> Dahlia
>> Honey is that you?

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