Hovannes K.’s Take on Oriental
Blame it on our history, culture or our need to be lissom… We have taken on the oriental dance from the Arabs and have held onto it ever so tightly. We dressed up the belly dancers, praised their musicians and watched their performance in awe. The men got hypnotized with flirtatious circles of the love handles. The women grew envious with the daring moves of their comrades.
Up until Hovannes K. (of the famous Buddha Bar in Paris) took on the oriental dance music, it was merely an instrument to an incredible performance carried on by a seductive belly dancer. For the audience, the music was a myth, impossible to handle without the presence of a professional dancer who can live up to its perfection. Together with Claude Challe, Hovannes produced songs like White Darbouka, Disc’Oriental and American Dream (Different Gear Mix) that makes oriental more approachable.
This incredible music man takes the single beat on a darbouka, smashes it up with violins and electronica and crashes them into the voice of an opera singer to produce something so modern yet undeniably traditional. The listener travels to an undisturbed Utopia, finding the very nerve that awakens euphoria.
It is a shame that I can’t find any information on Hovannes anywhere on the web. There is rumour that he is half Turkish. Still I am obliged to thank him for making the oriental beat even more enjoyable and making my little sister’s entrance to her engagement party so special.
[...] the best work of Hovannes K. Finally found a way to post the song here. (You might have to click on the link below twice to [...]