"Chebba" - Esther Ankri  (1991)

SHANTISAPANA | Root Radio 02/01/2022

Whenever Rogér's name came up in conversations, it nearly automatically ended up in a praise of his outstanding musical talents. Right off, it caught my interest because neither had I heard of Rogér Fakhr nor could I find any infos about him on the internet. So Issam recounted how they even used to be flat mates for some time and constantly working on music together. Eventually their collaborations came to an end after Rogér emigrated to the USA. In fact, I got to know he initially was on tour as part of Fairuz's band in the US and just decided to stay there ultimately. At some point, Issam mentioned how he had actually kept some of Rogér’s music on tape in his basement but also he couldn’t play it to me before Rogér would green light that. 

As the story goes, at that period of time a multitude of projects were ongoing and I somehow missed out of inquiring further. Yet Rogér’s name kept on coming up in conversations with musicians of the same generation in Beirut steadily. No matter whether it was Ziad Rahbani, Munir Khauli or anyone else talking about him, every single mention would almost inevitably be followed by a huge praise for his music and approval of his talent. 

The disparity between him being so highly appreciated amongst his peers, while somehow simultaneously not being part of the researchable musical history of Lebanon (at least to me!) of the last decades, baffled me and at some point I just asked Issam for Rogér’s contact. After we exchanged some emails and he ended up sending me a selection of music recorded in the late 1970s in Beirut. While some of that material had never seen a release, others were released on his album “Fine Anyway” - back in the time, he had hand copied around 200 cassette copies of that album. 
To put it short: I was blown away! The music was a mixture of folk with touches of other genres. Maybe one could also refer to it as “singer-songwriter”, since all of the songs were Roger’s own compositions. Songs of unique beauty both musically as well as lyrically. At the same time they gave me the feeling of them being somehow time and space isolated capsules. Nothing really revealed, where they could’ve been recorded and without knowing it was Beirut, my first guess maybe would have rather been California, sometime in the 1970s. The immersive effect of his compositions and voice are just incredible. I was stunned and proposed Rogér to work on a re-release, which he politely declined, saying he had no interest in this music being reissued. 

Fast forward a year or two, Beirut had been rocked by the horrible explosion of it’s port on the 4th of August 2020. We (everybody at the label) were truly shocked and after the initial paralysis had vanished and we managed to check in on friends, whether they are ok or in need of something, thoughts on how to help with the rescue and relief efforts happening locally developed. Not being physically able engage with the support groups on site, we figured it would be the most evident idea to put together a compilation featuring some of the Lebanese musicians we had met and adore such as Ferkat Al Ard, Munir Khauli, Toufic Farroukh and Abboud Saadi in solidarity. We managed finalize the compilation within 24 hours and after we were nearly done I thought why not at least let Rogér know about it. He called me back within an hour, excited to be part of the project. In the meantime, his perspective on the idea of reissuing his music had shifted and he was welcoming the idea to make his music heard by a new generation. 

All songs written, arranged and composed by Rogér Fakhr. 

The album was licensed from Rogér Fakhr. We pay 50% of the profits of this release as royalties. Only project related costs are deductible from the gross income, research and travel costs come out of our own share. Publishing rights were not included in our agreement.

Habibi Funk 016: Rogér Fakhr - Such A Trip Through time

Libyan Reggae at its peak grooves courtesy of Benghazi-born Ahmed Ben Ali. After working with Ahmed on the 12” hit “Subhana” (Habibi012), Habibi Funk is back with a full-length release focusing on Ahmed’s releases from the mid 2000’s. The tracks on the LP represent a blisteringly deep collection of heavy reggae rhythms and synthesized grooves from a singular creative force, inspired as much from Jamaican sonics as from Libyan folkloric styles, as Ahmed says, “it’s the Libyan style, not some bullshit.” 

Our first and major contact with Libyan music began five-or-so years ago, when we were invited to visit an abandoned tape factory in Tunisia. We have talked about this influential visit more at length for the Free Music release (Habibi021), if you’re interested. Anyhow, the place was astonishing. It had a room full of unused - but already printed - inlay cards for tapes and three large rooms spreading over two floors of unsold stock. A rough guess would be more than 100,000 copies already dubbed with music, many of which were produced for the Libyan market. On top of this the owner, Hechmi, also told us of another 200,000 blank tapes held in a separate unit. Much of the music we found there was clearly influenced by Jamaican music, and we soon realized how popular Reggae music had been in Libya since the 1970’s. 

Reggae in Libya has dominated the charts since its arrival in the 1970’s and flourished with some of the pioneers of Libyan reggae such as Ibrahim Hesnawi, Najib Alhoush and The White Birds Band. Composers like Ahmed Fakroun and Nasser Mizdawi also played around with the genre, although they did not dedicate their sound to it. When we started researching into more contemporary recordings, we quickly came upon Ahmed Ben Ali. Ben Ali is a Libyan singer and producer, whose YouTube channel at the time contained four songs (we later learned they had been uploaded more than ten years prior). Despite the fact that these songs seem to be pretty popular, the channel became inactive a few months after its launch. In the comment section you could read appreciative feedback, not only from Libyans but also people from all over the world who seem to share a common passion for Ben Ali’s sound. 

Generally speaking, there is not really a blueprint on how to find the musicians with whom we would like to re-release music. In this case, we did consider visiting Libya, but in the end, it turned out not to be possible for a number of reasons. We focused our efforts on online research, and eventually we were able to connect with Ahmed by phone. 

Contextualizing his own style, Ben Ali points out that, “The Libyan folkloric rhythm is very similar to the reggae rhythm. So, if Libyan people listen to reggae, it’s easy for them to relate because it sounds familiar. This is the main reason why reggae became so popular here. [...] We played the reggae Libyan style, it’s not the same as in Jamaica. We added our oriental notes to it and if you mix both it becomes something great.” With a bit of laughter, he adds that “...to me it’s still original reggae, it’s the Libyan style, not some bullshit.” 

The album was licensed from Ahmed Ben Ali. We pay 50% of the profits of this release. Only project related costs are deductible from the gross income, research and travel costs come out of our own share. Publishing rights were not included in our agreement.

Habibi Funk 022: Ahmed Ben Ali - Subhana

i'm actually very open to djing this stuff. lemme know if you have an event that might fit..

https://soundcloud.com/habibifunk

check out part one of the mix here:
https://soundcloud.com/jakarta-records/jakarta-radio-001-jannis-of

i got to travel a lot in north africa in the last years thru touring with blitz the ambassador and the studio session with oddisee for sawtuha in tunisia. while being there i did some digging and found some incredible music from the 60s and 70s. some of the music in this mix has zero info on the net, was never sold on ebay and has not been "rediscovered" yet. others are somewhat classics in the field of „arabic groove“. the music in this mix comes from morocco, libya, eggpt, algeria, lebanon and syria. 

photo by robert winter.

"Habibi Funk 002 Mix" by Jannis of Jakarta Records (Mix of Arabic 60s & 70s vinyl)

pre-order: https://habibifunkrecords.bandcamp.com/album/azmanah-salb

taken off the forthcoming fadoul lp on habibi funk. more infos and pre-order coming soon.

fadaul is maybe our fav discovery from traveling north africa. his raw and energetic recordings are pretty stand alone in the arab world. we have invested quite some time into research but we were not able to find too much infos about this guy. a mystical figure.



Habibi Funk 002: Fadaul (Fadoul) - Sid Redad (Pre-Order link in the describtion)

🎤 [Intro – Spoken]
And Jah looked upon the world,
and His heart was heavy.
For man built towers,
but forgot the sky.


---

🎤 [Verse 1]
I walk with the sorrow of God in my chest,
burning through cities that call themselves blessed.
They praise the gold, they kill the meek,
they trade the truth for something sleek.

The angels turn their faces down,
the prophets scroll through hollow sound.
We call it faith — but it’s just fame,
and we wear His name in vain.


---

🎤 [Chorus / Chant]
Fire in the holy rain,
Jah cry again —
not for revenge,
but for what we became.

The sorrow of God ain’t weak —
it’s thunder learning to speak.
When love turns cold,
the sky remember heat.


---

🎤 [Verse 2]
I seen temples made of glass,
reflecting greed like holy mass.
Preachers dancing in designer shoes,
while children bleed from borrowed news.

And Jah said nothing —
’cause silence was loud.
He waited for one heart
still unbowed.


🎤 [Final Chorus – Chant]
Fire in the holy rain,
Jah cry again —
not for revenge,
but for what we became.

The sorrow of God still speak,
through drum, through bass, through weak.
When love turns cold —
the lion don’t sleep.
---

🎤 [Bridge / Spoken Flow]
And the Lord regretted,
that He had made man on earth,
and it grieved Him to His heart.
But I — I feel that grief as flame.
I turn it to rhythm,
to remember His name.


---

🎤 [Final Chorus – Chant]
Fire in the holy rain,
Jah cry again —
not for revenge,
but for what we became.

The sorrow of God still speak,
through drum, through bass, through weak.
When love turns cold —
the lion don’t sleep.


---

🎤 [Outro – Whisper]
And Jah looked again…
and saw one spark still breathing.
He smiled.
Then thunder laughed.

Psalm 109

Very amusing Cumbia style remix from our dear friend Yuriy Gurzhy, enjoy the music and learn some German!

Dabke Deutschland - Yuriy Gurzhy Remix * FREE DL *

On croyait le grand raï mort avec le ­déclin de Khaled, Cheb Mami et con­sorts, dans le meilleur des cas réduit à quelques performances vocodées dans les boîtes à chicha des périphéries urbaines. Et voilà qu’il renaît par la voix rauque et enfumée d’un quadragénaire parisien originaire de Sidi Bel Abbès, en Algérie. Trois ans après El Mordjane, disque déjà prometteur, Sofiane Saidi est de retour, accompagné cette fois par Mazalda, un groupe de musiciens lyonnais avec lequel il a déjà électrisé les scènes françaises. En studio, guitares rock et synthés analogiques aux tournures mélismatiques invitent à tournoyer sous les étoiles (el ndjoum en arabe), sur un groove vintage mouillé d’une réverbe intimiste et chaleureuse, qui rappelle moins le raï des années 1990 que celui de la décennie précédente. Car, au-delà de la fête, plus cosmique que stroboscopique, Sofiane Saidi renoue surtout avec l’âpreté des origines, mélangeant batterie et derboukas, flûte électronique et flûte de roseau traditionnelle. Adaptées de vieux morceaux raï, ses chansons suintent le blues, celui que les bergers noyaient autrefois dans la bouteille sous les oliviers. La reprise du Saïda de Cheikha Rimitti qui clôture le disque — un chant de l’exil lancinant — donne des frissons.

| Airfon/Carton Records/L’Autre distribution.

Anne Berthod

El Ndjoum 

02_El Ndjoum (arr. Ammar 808)_

Mazouni - Ecoute moi camarade

02 - Al - Ghali Feat. Sara El Rawy

Root Radio is an independent radio based in Istanbul broadcasting from all around the world. The project's purpose is to create a community where artists, crate diggers, activists, and passionates can experiment, contribute, share, and expand the project itself.

Contact: Rootradiolive@gmail.com

SHANTISAPANA | Root Radio 02/01/2022

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