Showing posts with label karavan sarai. Show all posts
Showing posts with label karavan sarai. Show all posts

Thursday, March 10, 2022

Album Review: The Moon's Within Reach by Karavan Sarai

Review by Abdul Yamani


Karavan Sarai creates world fusion music that traverse landscapes spanning from the Middle East to South Asia. Their debut album Woven Landscapes (2015) along with the band’s follow-up releases Painted Sands (2018) and Torn In Love (2020) all peaked at high positions on world music charts and achieved much critical acclaim. 

On their latest release, The Moon’s Within Reach, Karavan Sarai takes us on a mesmerizing journey inspired by Silk Road pathways and desert sands. Here you’ll discover the spirit of Egyptian, Arabian, Turkish and Indian music fused with the lush electronic creations of two-time Grammy-nominated producer and programmer Carmen Rizzo.

Instrumentalist, vocalist, composer and producer Narayan Sijan describes images of “Sufis playing music, whirling from the deserts of India to the Nile River and the Valley of the Kings in Egypt” and “fire in the sand dunes under a starry night” among his personal encounters and experiences which inspire his musical art-form, and are captured in the album’s two meditatively flowing compositions.

On the extended hypnotic piece, “Longing in the Stars" featuring Tabeah, the Turkish saz is brought into dialogue with the Egyptian oud which are encompassed by ambient textures sustained throughout. Transcendent male and female vocal melodies eventually join along, creating a colorful cultural tapestry that speaks to the depths of the soul as a sonic perfume fills the air with a mystical scent.

~Abdul Yamani for Journeyscapes Radio

For more information please visit Karavan Sarai's website. The Moon's Within Reach is also available at Bandcamp, iTunes and more.