Written specifically as a response to the upcoming novel "Home is Not a Country", by Safia Elhillo, this song is a celebration of nostalgia and diaspora. In the novel the lead character, Nima, has a special love for old Egyptian movies which connect her to a past she doesn't know or understand fully. I imagined this song to be coming out of a scene in old Cairo at a cabaret, performed by a Nubian singer who is the first in her family to be born in the big city after the high dam was built. She is displaced and experiences a feeling of diaspora within her country. She is torn between the past world of her family and their stories of home and her new home in the cosmopolitan center that is Cairo. She feels the longing yet doesn't know what it is she exactly longs for because all she knows are bits of stories. I wanted to create a song that reflected that sentiment. So I went to Cairo and produced this song there with some of my favorite musicians out there in order to fully capture the atmosphere I was seeking.

Buy the song - https://alsarah.bandcamp.com/track/yo...​

Buy the book - https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/bo...​

Song Title: Your love is Home / حبك وطن

Lead Vocals, Lyrics and Melody: Alsarah

Qanoon + Keys: Fady Badr

Accordion: Wael ElSayed

Bass: Ahmed Omar

Percussion: Rami ElAasser 

Backing Vocals: Nahid

Produced: Alsarah

Recording Engineer: Muhammed Hassan El Bossiley at 14th st Maadi, Cairo

Mixing and Mastering Engineering: Kamilo Kratc at Soundworks Recording Studios, Queens NY


من طمي النيل معجون بهواك اه اه

لابس الصوميت معقود بحجاب اه اه 

حبك بلاد بدون حدود اه اه 

مكان ميعادنا بين الصخور اه اه

والريح يغني للنخيل اه اه

يوم الفراق مكتوب مصير 


تحت الشباك مريت يا فلان اه اه

وانا خلف الشيش عيوني متابعاك اه اه

شايل معاك الاماني والآمال اه اه

ماشي سواح ولا العوده ما لها ميعاد؟ 


زي البحر عمق الآهات اه اه 

وفي المنام اسمك يقال آه آه 

يتردد بين الأمواج اه اه 

والحور يغني عن الفراق اه اه 


من طمي النيل النيل النيل 


حبك بلاد بدون حدود اه اه 

مكان ميعادنا بين الصخور اه اه 

والريح يغني للنخيل اه اه 

والحور يغني عن الفراق 

يوم الفراق مكتوب مصير اه اه 

يوم الفراق مكتوب مصير اه آه 

يوم الفراق مكتوب مصير آه آه 

ليه الفراق مكتوب مصير 

A rough translation-


From the silt of the Nile you are molded , I love you /long for you

Wearing someet knotted w a protection amulet 

Your love is a country with no borders 

Our meeting place between the boulders

And the wind sings to the palm trees, 

the day of parting is written destiney 


Under the window, you passed ya fulan*

And I'm behind the shutters my eyes following you 

Carrying with you hopes and dreams

are you going a tourist or does the return have no date?


Like the sea so is the depth of my wails 

And in slumber your name is called, echoing between the waves 

And the sirens sing about the parting 


From the silt of the Nile the Nile the Nile 


Your love is a country with no borders 

Our meeting place between the boulders 

And the wind sings to the palm trees

And the sirens sing about the parting 

The day of parting is written destiny 

The day of parting is written destiny

The day of parting is written destiny 

Why is the parting written destiny 


photo by Wael Gzoly. // Video and Graphics by Rana Jubara

حبك وطن // Your love is home

Boddhi Satva (Ancestral Soul Remix) serves yet another legendary Afro-House Remix!! A second time collaboration with Alsarah, (check out Soukura Remixed out via Wonderwheel Recordings) this remix celebrates the original composition while adding Boddhi's special touch that takes the feeling of nostalgia, and roots to the dance floor.

You can buy the song here - https://alsarah.bandcamp.com/track/yo...​

Also follow @alsarah5000 for some exciting news about a remix challenge!


About the Original Song:-

Written specifically as a response to the upcoming novel "Home is Not a Country", by Safia Elhillo (our March 2 via PenguinRandomHouse), this song is a celebration of nostalgia and diaspora. In the novel the lead character Nima, a Sudanese girl raised in the USA by her widowed mother, has a special love for old Egyptian movies which connect her to a past she doesn't know or understand fully. Rather than re-narrate the character's story, I chose to imagine a parallel world and character to it that echos the same feelings. In doing so I hope to connect the common thread of the feelings of diaspora and longing regardless of the physical location.

I imagined this song to be coming out of a scene in old Egyptian movie. It's the late 1970s Cairo at a typical local cabaret/club from that era. I imagined a Nubian singer who is the first in her family to be born in the big city after the high dam was built. She...  more
lyrics
من طمي النيل معجون بهواك اه اه
لابس الصوميت معقود بحجاب اه اه
حبك بلاد بدون حدود اه اه
مكان ميعادنا بين الصخور اه اه
والريح يغني للنخيل اه اه
يوم الفراق مكتوب مصير

تحت الشباك مريت يا فلان اه اه
وانا خلف الشيش عيوني متابعاك اه اه
شايل معاك الاماني والآمال اه اه
ماشي سواح ولا العوده ما لها ميعاد؟

زي البحر عمق الآهات اه اه
وفي المنام اسمك يقال آه آه
يتردد بين الأمواج اه اه
والحور يغني عن الفراق اه اه

من طمي النيل النيل النيل

حبك بلاد بدون حدود اه اه
مكان ميعادنا بين الصخور اه اه
والريح يغني للنخيل اه اه
والحور يغني عن الفراق
يوم الفراق مكتوب مصير اه اه
يوم الفراق مكتوب مصير اه آه
يوم الفراق مكتوب مصير آه آه
ليه الفراق مكتوب مصير

A rough translation-

From the silt of the Nile you are molded , I love you /long for you
Wearing someet* knotted w a protection amulet
Your love is a country with no borders
Our meeting place between the boulders
And the wind sings to the palm trees,
the day of parting is written destiny

Under the window, you passed ya fulan**
And I'm behind the shutters my eyes following you
Carrying with you hopes and dreams
are you going a tourist or does the return have no date?

Like the sea so is the depth of my wails
And in slumber your name is called, echoing between the waves
And the sirens sing about the parting

From the silt of the Nile the Nile the Nile

Your love is a country with no borders
Our meeting place between the boulders
And the wind sings to the palm trees
And the sirens sing about the parting
The day of parting is written destiny
The day of parting is written destiny
The day of parting is written destiny
Why is the parting written destiny
credits
released March 12, 2021
Written/Composed/Performed by: Alsarah
Remixed by: Boddhi Satva (Ancestral Soul Remix)
Qanoon + Keys: Fady Badr
Accordion: Wael Elsayed
Bass: Ahmed Omar
Percussion: Rami ElAasser
Backing Vocals: Nahid
Produced: Alsarah
Recording Engineer: Muhammed Hassan El Bossiley at 14th st Maadi, Cairo
Mixing and Mastering Engineering: Kamilo Kratc at Soundworks Recording Studios, Queens NY

Photo by: Wael Gzoly
Artwork by: Rana Jubara

حبك وطن // Your love is home (Boddhi Satva Ancestral Soul Remix)

Written, Recorded, Produced by: Alsarah
Album: Soul Sudani - EP


Jamilla

Cover/Remix by Alsarah
[original: 1980s Sudanese Public School Assembly line Anthem]
Vocals: Alsarah, Nahid
Lyrics: Alsarah
Produced by Alsarah
Album: Soul Sudani ~ EP

Fi Himaka Rabna Ft. Nahid

Cover/Remix by Alsarah ft. Oddisee
Produced by Oddisee
co-produced by Alsarah
Album: Soul Sudani ~ EP

Vote Ft. Oddisee

Song Name: N/A
Song Type: Chalak music
Song Region: Blue Nile State
Song Occasion: A social gathering at Yousif Batil Refugee Camp in Maban State, South Sudan 2013

The first night I arrived at Yousif Batil camp I left my tent around midnight drawn by the sounds of music coming from many different directions around the camp. I walked towards one direction and through the golden cloud of dust I could see a giant bonfire with at least 100 people gathered around it. They were celebrating an engagement. The musicians were in the center of the circle one man played a large Rababa (referred to as Tanbur in other parts of Sudan, an instrument that can be found up and down the Nile by various names e.g. Entongoli, Krar, Simsimya) made of wood and thick organic strings that I assume came from an animal at some point. The man playing the Rababa sings a call and the women respond to him. Women stomp out the rhythm in the outer circle, young girls make calls and sounds that are integral parts of the soundscape. Running the center of the circle is a man with a long whip who kept flicking the feet of the men stomping and dancing in the middle to make the dance 'hotter'.

Chalak - Blue Nile State

Song Name: N/A
Song Type: Women's Music
Song Region: Otoro, Nuba Mountains

Due to budget and security restrictions, I was unable to visit all the camps with Hajooj Kuka. However we managed to get some very rare and wonderful recordings provided to us by DJ Mosquito from Voice of the Community Radio Station, broadcasting live from Kauda, Nuba Mountains. 

Power Song - Nuba Mountains

Song Name: Mbaye
Written and Performed by: Captain Abass
Region: Nuba Mountains

*Due to time and budget restrains we were unable to gather too many field recordings in the Nuba Mountains region, so instead we requested from our local contacts to gather some of the region's favorites and send them to us to include in the musical collection. This song is performed by one of the region's most popular musician, Captain Abass. 

Mbaye - Captain Abass

Song Name: Christina
Written and Performed by: Jodah
Region: Blue Nile State
Occasion: hanging out in Jodah's tent at Yousif Batil Refugee Camp, Maban State, South Sudan 2013

We spent a lot of time in Jodah's tent with his Rababa and his stories. He was a wealth of traditional music as well as original songs of his own. He even showed us how to make a Rababa from recycled material found around the camp. He was considered an Artist by his neighbors and the extended community. Which I was told is different than being a Player. The people of Yousif Batil kindly broke down the differences for me: A player is someone who can play music; an artist is someone who can improvise, compose, play music and make his own instrument. 


Christina - Jodah

Song Name: N/A
Song Type: Zumbara music
Song Region: Blue Nile State
Song Occasion: A social gathering at Yousif Batil Refugee Camp in Maban State, South Sudan 2013

Like most of the music being played on the camp grounds of Yousif Batil, this was another impromptu gathering of men and women. Forming a large circle a number of different length hallowed pipes are passed around between the men and they blow on it all together creating a choir of notes. Each pipe creates only 1 note, so without a large group its impossible to create the full sound. The tempo is kept by a younger boy holding a gourd, while the players gather around him and tap the tempo collectively. The women create a soundscape of calls and sounds while moving to and away from the smaller circle of pipe (zumbara) players. It creates a wave like effect permeated with clouds of dust. 

This same music can also be found in the Nuba Mountains known there as Waza.

Zumbara - Yousif Batil Refugee Camp, Ingasana Tribe, Blue Nile State

Song Name: Ya Habiba/ Mushkiliti Alhabiba/Jawabek Ya Jameel Janee
Written and Performed by: Jodah 
Backing Vox by: Muna
Region: Blue Nile State
Occasion: hanging out in Jodah's tent at Yousif Batil Refugee Camp, Maban State, South Sudan 2012

Jodah's music was an essential part of why we came out to Yousif Batil camp to record music in the first place. In an early trip to the camp in 2012 Hajooj Kuka ran into Jodah outside his tent strumming on his Rababa and they started talking. Hajooj requested a song and Jodah kindly obliged, he called his friends over from the next tent and within 5 minutes a proper show was taking place with over 50 people gathered clapping and dancing and singing along. Turns out Jodah had a band he performed music with around the camp. The footage from that trip of this medley of songs is what brought me to Yousif Batil camp in 2013. And it was more than worth it. Some of the best music I had heard in a really long time. Which made me question, why didn't I hear this music all the time in Sudan? Why couldn't I find recordings easily? Why couldn't I see it on Sudanese TV?


Ya Habiba/Mushkilti Alhabiba/Jawabek Ya Jameel Janee - Jodah and Muna, Yousif Batil Refugee Camp

La Pena Cultural Center. Oct 1, 2011
Alsarah & the Nubatones Unplugged
"Alkoan Kulu Bidoor" - cover/traditional. arranged by the nubatones.
Featuring:-
Alsarah - L. Vocals
Haig Manoukian - Oud
Rami ElAasser - Percussion
Nahid Elgadi - B. Vocals

Alkoan Kulu (cover)_Unplugged

Alsarah & the Nubatones Live @ The Delancey on Feb. 15, 2012. Featuring live solos by Haig Manoukian on Oud, and Mawuena Kodjovi on Bass and scatt vocals.

Song: "Bilad Aldaheb"// "Land of Gold"
Vocals: Alsarah
Oud: Haig Manoukian
Bass, add.vox: Mawuena Kodjovi
Percussion, Backing Vocals: Rami ElAasser
Soundman: Marco


Soun


Bilad Aldaheb Live @ The Delancey 2:15:12

The revolution in Sudan has inspired a revolution inside of me. From my heart in the diaspora to all my people on the ground sitting in for weeks now outside the military headquarters in khartoum and all around the rest of Sudan . I love you.

Music and Lyrics by Alsarah
Arrangements and performance by Alsarah & the Nubatones
Produced by Alsarah
Recorded by Mawuena Kodjovi at ABCollective Studios
Mixed and Mastered by Kamilo Kratc at Soundworks Recording Studio

Men Ana / من انا

Live Performance in Aswan, Egypt January 2013
Written by Alsarah, featuring The Nile Project Orchestra.
Buy it here - http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/thenileproject


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