Rasm Almashan – Yemenia (Soliton, 2019)
Rasm Almashan celebrates her Yemeni roots on Yemenia (released in 2019 and internationally distributed in 2020). The outstanding Polish-Yemeni vocalist grew up in Yemen and spent a lot of time interacting with East African migrants. She collects all these impressions and musical influences to deliver a captivating album of modern world music rooted in Arabic, African and western musical influences such as irresistible funk jazz, soul, rock, and reggae.
The wonderful lead and backing vocals are in Yemeni Arabic and English. Topics include immigration, childhood memories, everyday life in Yemen, a tribute to the influential Yemeni-Israeli singer Ofrah Haza, joy, the devastation of war, and love for her family.
The band is excellent and Yemenia provides plenty of instrumental opportunities to highlight the ud, electric bass, keyboards and percussion.
The lineup includes Rasm Almashan on lead and backing vocals; Adeb Chamoun on riq, daf, darbuka, and bendir; Mateusz Szemraj on ud; Pawel Dobrowolski on percussion; Bartozzi Wojciechowski on electric bass; Adam Lemanczyk on keyboards; Grzech Piotrowski on saxophone; and Stanislaw Slowinski on violin.
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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.