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To What Strange Place: The Music of the Ottoman​-​American Diaspora, 1916​-​30

by Canary Records

supported by
icarus4
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icarus4 Lovely album from beginning to end.

★★★★☆ (4/5) 👍 Favorite track: Bate Koritsia Sto Horo.
Robert Bloemkolk
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Robert Bloemkolk If you are into prewar blues, like I am, or into those wonderful oldtime 78 folkrecords, transporting sounds and music from the beginning of the last century, unveiling worlds too ancient and strange to ever comprehend, get into this compilation. It's a treasure chest. And unlike anything you have heard before. Our human history may be soaked in grief and blood but lucky for us there is solace to be found in the most human of all cries: music. Too much? Maybe. But there it is. Favorite track: Bate Koritsia Sto Horo.
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about

Download includes 13 page booklet of notes, track-by-track.
Before the "Golden Age" of Americana on record, immigrants from the dissolving Ottoman Empire were singing their joys and sorrows to disc in New York City. The virtuosic musicians from Anatolia, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Levant living in the U.S. who recorded between WWI and the Depression are presented here, across two hours of music, along with an additional near-hour of masterpieces they imported as memories on shellac-and-stone. The intermingled lives and musics of Christians, Jew, and Muslims represent Near Eastern culture as it exists within the U.S. a century ago.

***** "...spend a little time with it and the joys, sorrows, yearnings and pride of a life spent far, far away from home will creep into your soul."
-Record Collector

"...as essential to an understanding of American music as anything else." - Amanda Petrusich, Pitchfork 8.3

"Like [Harry] Smith, Nagoski is a Walter Benjamin visionary, using his collection of 78s to hallucinate a history that actually happened but which remains hidden beneath official dogma and nationalisms.” - Marcus Boon, the Wire

“Our highest award is five stars but in my opinion, you could double
that for this priceless collection. I’m convinced this perfectly produced set is destined to win some huge award this year because it’s absolutely faultless.”
-RedLick

“I was entranced; I was fascinated. It is one of the most worthwhile
purchases you will make this year. I went and got mine; I think you
should, too.”
- Henry Rollins, KCRW

“*****”
-The Scotsman

“‎a massive treasury of world music roots, providing context,
contemplation, and wonder over the course of just a few hours.”
-Short and Sweet NYC

credits

released September 25, 2015

Compilation, sound transfer and restoration, and notes by Ian Nagoski.
Released at a 3CD set in 2011 by Tompkins Square. With many thanks to Josh Rosenthal for making this download release available. An edited version was released as 3 LPs by Mississippi Records.

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Canary Records Baltimore, Maryland

early 20th century masterpieces (mostly) in languages other than English.

An hour in clamor and a quarter in rheum.

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