Born in Sudan, raised in Yemen and based in Brooklyn, Alsarah is an ethnomusicologist and stylish front woman of this five-piece band who are destined to be filed away under the all purpose 'world music' label.
Themes of migration and lost roots have a topical, even controversial, significance in this day and age. Having experienced displacement at an early age, the singer has more than a passing interest in 'songs of return' which are rich in nostalgia for lost lands.
Alsarah says however that her music is only Sudanese in the sense that she is from Sudan and prefers to call the sound "East African Retro Pop". There is certainly no hint that her music is driven by protest or rooted in violence or intolerance.
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Looking a born star and singing in her native tongue, this 'traditionally inspired' album instead offers a joyous, danceable solution to our troubled times.
Alsarah's website
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