I’ve been thinking about posting this as AOTW for a while. It’s something I’ve never mentioned on RR, I think, but I find it fascinating. The concept of Radio Tarifa, a band from Spain (I’m sure our Spanish correspondents know more about them than I do…) is that they are broadcasting from a radio station in Tarifa, the Southern tip of Spain. The music accordingly combines elements of all the music you might find in that area – Spanish, North African, Arabic – plus they toss into the mix some other types of music as well (there’s more than a tad of Cuban influence, I believe). An amazing array of instruments shows up on the album – guitar, tar (persian lute), buzuki, derbouka, ney, crumhorn, tenor and soprano saxophone, electric bass, electric organ…

I’ve always been fascinated by parts of the world that see a lot of different cultures coming together – by the food and the art and the stories that emerge – and this is an example of that. It’s an odd mix, but it really seems to work.

It’s in the box.

Here’s their website.

Here are a few tracks…

Lamma Bada

“a straight reading of one of the most oft-played tunes of the Arab world…retaining the song’s modal structure (ie, all the instruments, even the bass, playing the same line at once)

La Canal

Nu Alrest

An adaptation of a song by a medieval troubadour named Walter von der Vogelweide, “dominated by the crumhorns and the melancholy tenor of Javier Raibal…”