For this edition of New Sounds, sample some music from the Near East. We’ll hear music from composer and master of the oud, Marcel Khalife. His latest, “Taqasim,” a three-part work, is an instrumental tribute to the the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. Khalife, with these wordless improvisations, takes the lower register of the oud and Peter Herbert's upright bass and brings Darwish's world of the Palestinian people's dispossession and exile to all, reaching for a place where devilish subtleties lie, and where speech is limited. Also on the program, there’s music from Abed Azrie, an Iranian native now residing in Paris who sets to music Arabian poems with strong mystical leanings. Plus, there’s unaccompanied solo flute music (Turkish ney, North Indian bansuri) by Huzur Nawaz, who has played for and directed music for the Mevlevi dervishes. And lots more.

PROGRAM # 2618, New Music (Mostly) From the Near East (First aired on 12/14/06)

ARTIST(S)	RECORDING	CUT(S)	SOURCE
Abed Azrie	Aromates	Laughing [4:30]	Nonesuch #79241 www.nonesuch.com
Marcel Khalife	Taqasim	Part one, Finale [8:30]	Connecting Cultures #50034 www.choicemusic.nl
Abed Azrie	Aromates	Murmur Of The Breeze [5:00]	See above.
Sheik Ahmad Al-Tuni	Live, Fez Festival, 2001	Song to Sidi Aboul Hassan, excerpt [13:00]	This performance not available but Al-Tuni's CD "Sultan of All Munshidin" is available online through Amazon.com*
Huzur Nawaz	Inner Steps	Yearning [3:00]	Available at CDbaby.com OR huzurnawaz@hotmail.com
Hamza El Din	Eclipse	Your Love Is ever young, excerpt [11:00]	Rykodisc #10103 www.rykodisc.com*