I’m trying to find a certain type of vocalist that I’ve heard on the radio, but I don’t know the names or even the genre other than “world music”. Let me describe what I want to get… and please bear with me as I bare my unworldliness and cultural chauvinism. I’ll know it when I hear it, I just need some names to run thru iTunes search.
It features a male soloist, low tenor, singing in a language I can only identify as “middle eastern”, I suspect Persian, Turkish, or maybe even Central Asian. It’s very calm, spiritual, no exotic vocal effects… not that stereotypical wailing like a muezzin prayer call. It’s almost like a prayer or benediction, the rhythm is slow and almost unmetered, chord changes are infrequent, sometimes there’s almost a droning quality to it. It would probably be found under the “world music” section but is perilously close to “new age”.
As an example, listen to “Chidananda” by Deva Premal, and imagine it being sung by a man, and not Indian.
Please please help me, I got this sudden obsession to get my own copy of this stuff, but I don’t even know what it is.
My description was kind of rambling and vague but I did say no exotic vocal effects. I do like the throat singing though.
In the ballpark, and that’s good… but what I’m looking for is not Indian. Also it is has a bit more reverb and a kind of “floaty” quality wheras the Krishna Das was more direct and earthy-sounding. But thanks for taking a stab.
That’s an extremely close match. That one is a Western-sounding thing with a small-room quality to it. The style I’m looking for has a lot more reverb, giving it a kind of floaty feeling, and closer to a pentatonic sort of mode. I’m pretty sure the guy was an authentic foreigner, too.
Keep those suggestions coming. When I find a match I’ll be sure and post it here.
The closest thing I’ve found so far is an album called “Loveland” by Jai Uttal but the rest of his stuff is kind of different. This is driving me crazy, if anybody has more suggestions please let me know.
Wild guess; how about Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan ? He was a Pakistani Master Quawalli singer. He died awhile back, but was in vogue, and appreciated by many popular Western musicians, including Peter Gabriel, Eddie Vedder, and Jeff Buckley, and gets some airplay still, so you might have heard him on the radio.
Wow, I didn’t know he died. I remember that piece he did on “Dead Man Walking”. He’s not the guy I’m looking for though… too high-pitched and energetic… but thanks for taking a stab.
