专辑简介

For years I have listened to music from my country with a slight envy of the fact that unlike my mother I never grew up to watch or see live Somali singers. Music from the Horn of Africa to me meant either fast and ceremonial or slow and hard to digest their meanings. But it wasn't long till i came across UK based Somali artist Aar Maanta and his stage opener of an album Hiddo & Dhaqan and suddenly my eardrums were at bliss. The album was packed with great songs such as "Saafi" (which up to know finds itself being repeating on my shuffle) provided me a sort of a window as to who Aar Maanta really was and the kind of of music I expected from him. His ability to play different instruments such as the Oud gave me a glimmer of the folklore aspect to his music. Forward to 2011 and suddenly Aar Maanta is back, this time it is "ifraax"! The melody of this song was the first thing that struck me, the load of it so heavy on my ears. "Ifraax" is a fabulous female Somali name, which means joy or happiness. But the song turned it into a beautiful soul track that starts off as cool and calm but then builds up and suddenly you're in the midst of an epic journey on the shore lines of Mogadishu. I believe this is a taster of what is to come and no doubt the excitement is loaded heavily on us all. By Sagal Sheik-Ali.