The Dwarfs of East Agouza - Bes - Download (2016)

Labels: Nawa Recordings
Review by: Captain Fidanza

First of all, before you start getting your notebooks out and drafting a letter of complaint, the plural of “dwarf” is “dwarfs” not “dwarves” as you might think.

Secondly, this band called themselves “Dwarfs.” I didn’t do it. I’m not making fun of people with that condition which results in reduced height.

This here release is from a trio of improvisational jazz maniacs from Cairo who apparently recorded two or three days worth of material before settling down in a Montreal studio to edit it down to a marketable length.

My knowledge and experience of Egyptian music is rather slight, all I can really compare this to is certain releases from Terry Riley, but that barely scratches the surface of what this is, it being the sort of thing that a two-hundred word internet review could never hope to do justice to.

What I will say is that one of the pieces of music here is called, “Museum of Stranglers” and if that isn’t sufficient to pique your interest then there really is no hope for you.