Under the leadership of Jaafar Nimeiry and his music-friendly regime of Jaafar Nimeiry, the Cold War’s ideological battles situated in Sudan’s capital city of Khartoum allowed for orchestras from both North Korea and the United States to train, perform and even develop infrastructure. Pairing with the existing Nubian musical traditions that dated back to ancient times, the world of Sudanese music exploded with a historically unprecedented fusion of elements from otherwise unrelated sources. Long, complex compositions oozed with layered multi-instrumentation and vocal performances unparalleled in passion. While Sudan did indeed have a small vinyl industry in the early 1970s, most Sudanese music was issued on cassette, which were successfully manufactured in copious numbers during this golden era, and then subsequently destroyed to nearly the same magnitude under dictator Omar Al-Bashir.
Today, I’m excited to present a new mix – an artefact of a musical age filled with a vitality and promise that seems a distant cry to Sudan today, once again torn apart by war, strife and famine.
As is the case with most Sudanese music, the cassettes used for this compilation were not sourced from Sudan proper – they hail from the Son of the Pharaoh Egyptian store on Calgary’s multicultural 17th avenue. On a summer day almost exactly six years ago, a total of 20 cassettes were uncovered, and each one has finally been made available digitally on my YouTube, @atertiary78. This compilation streamlines my favorite songs from the lot into a continuous 16-track experience nearly two hours long! All tracks were ripped directly from my own stash of hissy, well-loved cassettes and feature a wide variety of Sudanese music, ranging from the unquestioned greats like Abdel Karim el Kably or Muhammed Wardi to previously undigitized gems like Noura or lyre player Mohammed Karamallah. This humble project is sure to please fans of similar compilations done by Ostinato Records, Domino Sound or David Murray’s ShellacHead, and is available to listen for free on Bandcamp.
I've also made a download link for the continuous mix as a single-track. This version has some sound reduction, is replaygained and has fades. Check it out here:
mega.nz/file/LW5hxabR#DhJMXaPq60WlMgrDtqr3zbSm7jZJVtZvW-54uao3IYI