Omri Hason & Kadim Shati - Dmchr71508 - World - by Double Moon

As unhappy as we all are with the genre term “World Music“, it is the only word that is available when you need to classify music. But this term is too fuzzy to communicate an idea of the music of Omri Hason and his band Kadim. “Shati“ not only crosses geographic and music borders, but also the limits of periods and the course of time. Especially the origin of the musicians bears witness to roots of this work of music, which we experience on this CD. Omri Hason’s forefathers come from Yemen, but he was born in Israel. He had his first experiences with music in the circle of his family with the Darabuka from Yemen. Later, he learned to play other instruments such as the frame drum. He especially began to learn to play the rhythm music instruments of other cultures when he moved to Switzerland as a young man. For example, he learned to play the zarb from Djamchid Chemirani. He also was happy to include new developments such as the Pentajon and Hang. This curiosity also characterizes the second rhythm musician; Ramesh Shotham, one of the most important Indian musicians in (not only) Europe for many years, complements the rhythm work of Hason molded by the Middle East with Indian sounds and patters, e.g., on the Mridangam. Zoltán Lantos is from Hungary, spent many years in India and has dealt intensively with the rhythm and melodies from the subcontinent. But his violin playing still bears witness to his Western classical training - and that is something extremely positive! Sandhya Sanjana from Bombay has lived in Holland for quite a few years and complemented her Indian classical training with modern voice classes in pop music and jazz there. On the other hand, the Dutchman Maarten Meddens contributes a sound with his Fender Rhodes, which is clearly part of Western music; he wouldn’t suddenly deny his origins in this round... As a result, “Shati” not only unifies music traditions and instruments, but it also combines them with objects generating sound that were only developed in the 20th century; it does not limit itself in any way to reproducing traditional music in an original fashion, but instead transports it to contemporary times, which have been influenced by pop music and jazz. Such a great achievement in fusion is only possible by a band, which has found a common path in innumerous concerts and over many years such as Kadim. The concerts of the band, who have been playing together for 10 years, have already taken the musicians to numerous countries in Europe and the rest of the world, and - as this record proves - enthuse listeners to give long rounds of euphoric applause.