Middle Eastern Sounding Music

Check out Voice of the Seven Woods, In the Labyrinth, Arabesque, Aktuala or Broselmaschine.

I really dig that mysterious, mystical sound that Middle Eastern music has. Even the generic movie soundtrack stuff has always struck a chord with me, the imagery it evokes is quite powerful and with all the turmoil in that region it almost gives the music a dangerous feel.

Edit: Peter Gabriel's Passion is a great movie soundtrack with a Middle Eastern flavour;  tracks like Cantara and The Lotus Eaters by Dead Can Dance; the aforementioned Dream Brother by Jeff Buckley; Pink Floyd's Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun; Kashmir by Zep; Opeth's Atonement, all have a definite Middle Eastern flavour.



Edited by Novalis - March 25 2008 at 06:48

For some sweet mid-east/fusion check out Anour Brahem's first few albums.  They're very good.  He plays a variety of instruments I believe but mostly Oud.  Jan Garbarek plays on his second album.  Good stuff. 

Also check out Hamza El Din for some more Oud music.  He is absolutely amazing.  Great player and singer.  His early recordings are more traditional in sound, while his last album has more of a western influence, but still deeply rooted in his Egyptian classical training.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was from Pakistan, so mid-east-ish.  He's got the flavor you're looking for though.  Great singer.  You probably won't find a bad recording of his.  If you want something of his that has a western touch check out the Mustt Mustt album. Michael Brook adds his interesting guitar work to them.

Also search for Setar and Dutar music.  A lot of it come from Iran and is very cool. 

Richard Thompson experimented with mid-east sounds as did Jeff Buckley (on occasion: Dream Brother, What Will You Say).

Anyways try those for now.