Longa Vienna Marwan Abado & Ensemble

• 1Inn Kanaa Li / When it is Granted07:07
• 2Longa Vienna03:27
• 3Blue Mashrabiya / Blue Window Grilles05:13
• 4Ya Rabb / Oh God of Rain05:57
• 5Connecting five04:34
• 6Taqsim in Maqam Rast Yakah / Free Solo Improvisation in “Rast Yakah” Scale03:15
• 7Samai min Alquds / Samai from Jerusalem06:22
• 8Arabioun Basitoun / A Simple Arab05:53
• Total Runtime41:48

Info for Longa Vienna

Palestinian-born musician Marwan Abado has been living in Vienna for almost forty years. The album "Longa Vienna" comes out shortly before his celebratory look back at these years. "Longa" is the name of an oriental musical form that was brought to the Ottoman Empire from Romania by the Roma people around the middle of the 18th century. It was a dance music form that announced the end of a concert at a fast tempo. Arab musicians and composers, who were part of the Ottoman Empire at the time, adopted this form and continued to cultivate it as an element of the Arab instrumental music tradition. "Longa Vienna" is a musical journey through Vienna - the cultural melting pot of the metropolis becomes audible, the pulsating life of the big city, colourful, poetic and densely woven musical stories resound. Viennese sound of the present, interpreted by Marwan Abado, oud and vocals, Maciej Golebiowski, clarinets, Arnulf Lindner, bass guitar, Peter Rosmanith, percussion and as a guest the Syrian singer Dima Orsho.

Marwan Abado, oud
Dima Orsho, vocals
Maciej Golebiowski, clarinet
Arnulf Lindner, double bass
Peter Rosmanith, percussion

Marwan Abado
was born into a Christian Palestinian family in a refugee camp in Beirut (Lebanon). In 1985, Abado fled the civil war zone to Austria and continued his musical training here with the Iraqi Oud master Asim Chalabi. In Vienna he found a new home as a musician, singer, composer and poet. Abado's instrument, the Oud (Oriental short-necked lute), has a similar importance in Arabic music as the piano does in Western culture.

His compositions are based on the classic form of representation of Arabic music, TAQ'SIM, which is not subject to any temporal laws and is based on the musician's inner impulses. Emotional texts (from his own pen or from other contemporary Arabic poets) place Abado's compositions in a poetic context. Marwan Abado is one of those musicians who prove that Austria, a music country, is rich in inspiration and encounters.

Dima Orsho
Culturally nuanced, Dima Orsho's music combines influences from classical to jazz to Middle Eastern music. Her musical performances are constantly evolving and becoming more and more sophisticated. In Mülheim and Münster, Dima Orsho returns to her origins in the multi-ethnic music of Syria and sets out with her trio on the trail of the music of the Eastern Mediterranean, Kurdistan, Armenia and Iran. Own compositions are just as much a part of the program as new arrangements of traditional melodies and songs.

Dima Orsho (born 1975 in Damascus) is a trained opera singer (Boston Conservatory) and clarinetist (Damskus High Institute of Music). The Hamburger Abendblatt once described her singing as “the most beautiful thing human vocal cords can produce.” Dima Orsho, born in Syria, lives in the USA and at home in the world, is a solitary figure in the international music scene and a musical crosser par excellence. Perhaps the fascination of her music is due to the fact that she not only studied singing but also the clarinet and can bring the sensitivity of an instrumentalist to her singing, which adds to the magic of her performances.

Booklet for Longa Vienna