SUR LA CÔTE DES PIRATES / LES EMIRATS DU GOLFE ARABIQUE
documents recueillis et enregistrés par Karen et Alain Saint-Hilaire
ON THE PIRATES' COAST / THE EMIRATES OF THE ARABIAN GULF
documents collected and recorded by Karen and Alain Saint-Hilaire
Disques Alvarès, 1974, C.471
I never had this album but I was looking for it when I found it on Discogs from an unknown provider. Like all albums published by the French label Alvarès this one was never reissued. At the time this could be a good introduction to these musics from the Arabic gulf. Since then more discs have been published on prestigious label like VDE-Gallo or Ocora.
I already mentionned French ''sound hunters'' like Kremer, Bitter or Barbaglia and here we have a couple I dindn't know. Alain St-Hilaire died in 2013; he was a filmmaker particularly attracted to the Near and Middle East although he went to Africa and Canada. He went to the Emirates in 1964 where he managed to film the last pearl divers. I suppose the music on the album was part of his films. He also published a book written with his wife Karen about their first trip in 1964.
Different types of music : classical and urban with nay, qanun and 'ud , country music with bagpipe or music of descendants of black slaves with tambura. Some pieces are shortened.
