Elias Rahbani - Dance Of Maria

01 - Douaa - Haditouni (Habibi Funk 015)

Probably two to three years ago we received a message from Hassel Dehaes, who shared a 7” vinyl he had found in Belgium with us, asking whether we knew anything about it. We were immediately electrified by the immense beauty of the song and tried to find out anything about the artist. That turned out to be not very easy. Eventually, we managed to get in touch with the artist’s daughter Reem Mitten who helped us license the song from her mother and was also happy to contribute the following text about her mother’s musical career.

„My Mother's journey in music first started off when she was 17, still only a student at Lycée Dar Essalam Rabat, going by her Maiden name Douae Abd al-Rahman Hassani (now Douae Mitten.) Her only experience in music was that of a spectator, eyes for her mother, the singer, Bahija Idriss and her father, Al-Rahman Al-Hassani, a composer. My Mother's first experience in music was with the song “The way of lovers” in Egypt 1984. It was a melody composed by her father and the lyrics were written by journalist and poet Omer Battisha. This was the first time my mum had ever worked with a band, which essentially resulted into a room filled with esteemed musicians and herself. By the time, my Mother had only ever sang in front of her school friends. “The way of lovers” was originally composed for Mayada Hanawe. Due to creative differences she didn't end up singing the song. Somehow my grandmother Bahija Idriss had suggested to my mother’s father, that mum could go to Egypt, where her father had been residing, to sing the song. During that trip to Egypt, she had the honor of meeting Mohamed Abdel Wahab and that is what would be the beginning of my mothers musical journey.

“Parlez moi de lui” came to fruition due to a family visit to Belgium. A music producer there had contacted my grandfather to ask, if his daughter wanted to do a cover of the joyous french song “Parlez moi de lui.” My mother then proceeded to translate the entire song into Arabic in one evening. The following day, she was recording the song. Another important experience!

Although music was my mother's passion, her career did not exceed more than a few songs. It had been a short and sweet experience but her life took a different direction. She came on to be a stewardess for Emirates airline having many different and amazing adventures. Shortly after a couple years she went on to meet my father Alan, an amazing Irish man. They moved to London, where they still reside, and had four children, me included.“

Text by Reem Mitten

Habibi Funk 015: Douaa - Haditouni

pre-order: https://habibifunkrecords.bandcamp.com/album/musique-original-de-films

هل تريدون الاستماع الى ما كنا نشتغل عليه الفترة الماضية ؟ يمكنم الآن أن تطلبو مسبقا إصدار " حبيبي فانك " الثالث، حيث سنأخذكم معنا هذه المرة بأنغامنا إلى الجزائر. إن أحمد مالك بمثابة إينيو موريكوني الجزائر، إذ ألف و أنتج معظم موسيقى الأفلام الجزائرية في السبعينيات. موسيقى رائعة، مفعمة بالأحاسيس و غير اعتيادية. بعد موافقة تامة من أهل الراحل، يمكنكم و أخيرا الاستماع للمرة الأولى إلى إحدى إنتاجاته، أو النقر على الرابط من أجل طلب مسبق.

I still remember the first time I heard Ahmed Malek. It was 2012. Back then I didn’t know much about Arabic music, but I was about to leave Berlin for a couple of weeks to go to Tunisia. I was working as a project manager for a music recoding session which ended up being released by Jakarta Records as the “Sawtuha” release. I knew I would have some time off during my stay and I was certain that I would dedicate some of this time to diggin. I asked some people whether they knew of any titles that I should look for. Roskow, who also ended up re-mastering this release, told me about an Algerian composer called Ahmed Malek whose music was also released in Tunisia. 

Fast forward three years: Arabic records have become my number one hobby and luckily I got my hands on a copy of Ahmed Malek’s “Musique Originale De Films” album. I already knew some of the tracks but listening to the music the way it was originally released, and not as a crappy Youtube version, made me fall in love with Malek’s compositions all the more. It manages to create this very special mood: melancholic and reflective, emotional and touching, but never depressing. Even without having seen any of the pictures created for this, it immediately brings visuals to one’s imagination. 

Around that time I became captivated with the idea of reissuing some of Ahmed Malek’s music. I knew some people had tried to locate his family but, but with no success. In the end it was an incredible amount of luck that made it possible for you to read these words and listen to this record. I had a DJ gig in Beirut playing old Arabic records and I mentioned my passion for Ahmed Malek’s music to a friend. She said she knew one person in Algier, and as much as it would be a shot in the dark, she could ask her if she had an idea of how to find Malek’s family. Two weeks went by before I heard back, and what I got was incredibly good news. Her Algerian friend was the neighbor of Ahmed Malek’s daughter! I’m not a spiritual person, but it felt like the universe wanted to see this release happen. 

I started to speak with Henya, Ahmed Malek’s daughter and she was more then happy with our idea. She assured us that her father would have loved the plan as well. She provided us with tons of awesome material, from great photos, to unseen video footage and unreleased tracks; she also told us more about her father’s life: 

Ahmed Malek was born on March, 6th 1932 at Bordj El Kiffan, Algiers. He was the oldest son of a family of 3 brothers and one sister. He went to work at a young age in factories to help his father to raise the family. His mother died when he was 12. It was then that decided he wanted to become a musician, and after graduating school he studied at the Algerian Conservatory. He gained recognition for his craft from an early stage and won several prizes and medals nationally and internationally (The "Premier grand prix des arts et des lettres de la composition" in 1972, the golden medal at the "Panafrican Festival" in 1976, and the "Prix du mérite national pour la composition musicale" in 1987). He was the conductor of the "Algerian Television Orchestra“ for many decades and represented his country at international events such as the Expo In Japan, Canada, Cuba and Spain. He passed on the 24th of July, 2008, at his home in El Mouradio, Algiers.


Habibi Funk 003: Ahmed Malek - Omar Gatlato (Unreleased version.  Pre-order link is description)

** OUT ON 30 JUNE 2017 **
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Piranha turns 30!

Can I get a Witness? Yes, we can! Get a witness and listen to music from all over the world, one piece at a time, in a single scintillating session of two and a bit hours.

Local roots and international hybrids. Tradition and avant garde. Spiritual ecstasy and zest, political activism, purely psycho-physical dance crazes: Piranha Records has had it all for 30 solid years now – and counting!

From Nubia to Cairo

Ali Hassan Kuban - Mabruk (Congratulation)

Elias Rahbani - Dance Of Maria (1974) (1)

pre-order: https://habibifunkrecords.bandcamp.com/album/habibi-funk-007-an-eclectic-selection-of-music-from-the-arab-world

"The first time I talked to Mohamed, he told me about how he left his hometown in Algeria to go to France. Shortly after he started telling me about how he met a zouk band in Paris that pushed him to open up to a different culture and mix different styles of music. Mohamed Malek was born near Oran in Algeria but left in his twenties. For Mo- hamed the huge dynamism and multiculturalism around the Parisian cultural scene did certainly play a major role in his own perception of music and expanded his influences. Since he started creating his own music, Mohamed knew that he wanted to break boundaries in order to freely express himself. He wrote and recorded many tracks among which some were shown to the world and others were kept secret. He also performed in Paris for many years, in bars or in public spaces even though music wasn’t his main source of income.
Hearing all those stories made me realize something about his art. In fact Mohamed‘s music is like a crossroad between the gloom of a sad ending and the sparkle of a new beginning‚ „Rouhi Ya Hafida“ is a song about the loss of love but the mingle between the disco beat and the Arab lyrics manage to take the song to a very powerful level. Most of Mohamed‘s work, including „Rouhi Ya Hafida“ is highly poetic. He also recorded many other songs in different styles going from acoustic to zouk or mysterious Arab experimental electronic styles in both French and Arabic. Mohamed never told us about those pieces but Jannis did find some very special tapes between the ones he keeps in his tiny but well-stocked music room. A space where he hides all of his work and for sure some of his dearest memories. Today despite his age Mohamed‘s hunger for music still pushes him to play and write songs. We are also working on releasing the afore-mentioned electronic tapes from Mallek Mohamed in the near future."
written by KhedijaDhaoui

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Pre Order

Mallek Mohamed - Rouhi Ya Hafida (Habibi Funk: An ecclectic selection of music from the Arab world)

Mazouni - Ecoute moi camarade

Habibi Funk is back with another album from Casablanca. Completely unreleased album which was recorded in Morocco in 1973 by three generation family band. A unique blend of Gnawa, Funk and Rock. Traditional Moroccan music meets electronic guitars and dense layers of percussion by a band that used to run in the same circles as Fadoul (And actually wrote one of his songs).

Pre-Order

Attarazat Addahabia & Faradjallah - Al Hadaoui الهداوي (Habibi Funk 011)

MOULATE SALEF
Conversation between a man and his love, a woman with long braided hair. This song is more of a stylistic exercise. Romanticism in the literary sense: in the following verse there are 8 words in Arabic that express the same idea of betrayal. (in Arabic, different words)
(man speaks)
"I'm afraid your heart will betray me,
causes me pain and betrayal,
I'm afraid that this love will torment me, and I'll be betrayed again.
(...)  "

Attarazat Addahabia - Moulate Salef مولات السالف

Art Farmer:Soul Sides

label, dj and platform for a wide range of underappreciated music from north africa and west asia

Habibi Funk 003: Ahmed Malek - Omar Gatlato (Unreleased version. Pre-order link is description)

habibi funk - حبيبي فنك