X Darawish is a music group that plays world music and was founded in Bari, Italy in 1997. The group consists of Stratos Diamantis, Enzo Leone and Dimosthenis Tsamis. Stratos and Enzo met at the end of the nineteen eighties at the University of Bari as both were members of the group Al Darawish. With Al Darawish, they recorded two records, Al Darawish in 1992 (by Il Ponte Sonoro) and Radio Dervish in 1996 (by Il Manifesto) for which they won the Cagnony Quality Reads Award for the use of accordion in Italian pop music by Stratos Diamantis.
When Al Darawish broke up in 1997, some of the members started the group Radiodervish, while Stratos and Enzo gave life to the group X Darawish with Angelo Pantaleo, Rocco Draicchio, Kostis Maravegias and Domenico Ricco. In the same year they won first prize at the Pop and Rock Festival of Athens, that was organized by the radio station Rock FM, the music school Filipos Nakas and FM Records.
In 1998, they recorded their first album “Una Ratsa Mia Fatsa ” (FM Records), which was released in Italy in 2000 by Il Manifesto and in the rest of Europe by Koch International with the participation of Vassilis Saleas on the clarinet and Andreas Pappas on percussions. In the same year they also released the video clip from the single “Narghile,” directed by Nikos Soulis. The song “Narghile” was chosen by the French radio station RFI Musique in the collection for “Top Of European Pops”. X Darawish represented Greece and Italy in the same group with U2 and the single “Sweetest Thing” of Ireland.
X Darawish have appeared in hundreds of television and radio shows, have given over six hundred concerts in all of Europe and have taken part in different festivals like Carpino Folk Festival in Italy in 1997, Caterpillar Festival in Italy in 1998, Yea Festival in Greece in 1998, Dranouter Folk Festival in Belgium in 1999, Suoni Dal Mondo In Riva Del Garda in Italy in 2001, Festival Of Argos in Greece in 2003, Festival Mediterraneo Of Conversano in Italy in 2005 and the Festival Musiche Dal Mondo in Italy in 2006. They have shared the stage with musicians like Bob Dylan, Nick Cave, James Taylor and Elvis Costello.
Their recording Domino was released in Greece in April 2008 by Kathreftis company.
Discography
Una Ratsa Mia Fatsa (FM Records, 1998)
Domino (Kathreftis, 2008)
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.
