Karim Baggili – Apollo You Sixteen (Take the Bus, 2016)
Apollo You Sixteen is the title of the fifth album by Belgian multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and composer Karim Baggili. His music style is deeply influenced by flamenco and Arabic music. It’s a very vibrant form of world music mixing acoustic instruments with rock style drum set and electric bass as well as dance beats.
Karim Baggili’s main instruments are the flamenco guitar and the Arabic ud. His first instrument was the guitar. He bought his first ud at 20 during a trip to Jordan.
The musical pieces switch back and forth from high energy, high speed flamenco to Arabic rooted sounds plus some delightful laid back pieces with Spanish classical and jazz influences as contrast. There is one song “Exitimuse” that strays away from the rest, venturing into what I would define as Europop. Maybe they had commercial radio in mind.
The lineup on Apollo You Sixteen includes Karim Baggili on guitars, ud, vocals and bass; Youri Nanai on bass; Vivian Ladrière on percussion and drums; and Mohammed Al Mokhlis on violin. Guests featured: Karoline de la Serna on vocals; Silvano Macaluso on piano, keyboards and programming; Houssem Ben El Kadhi on kawala (cane flute); and Ahmed Khaili on darbuka.
Karim Baggili was born in Belgium in 1976 and has Jordanian and Yugoslav ancestry. He’s a self-taught guitarist. He started with the electric guitar at the age of 16. At 20, he learned flamenco guitar techniques and acquired his first ud. In 2000, Karim won the first prize at the “Open String Festival” in Osnabruck, Germany.
Karim works on numerous projects as a composer or arranger for albums, documentaries and short films.
His previous albums include Douar, Cuatro con Cuatro, Lea & Kash, and Kali City.
Buy the digital version of Apollo You Sixteen
Buy the Apollo You Sixteen CD
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.
