Radio Tarifa - Temporal
1997

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The Quality Music Project

Biography -

Radio Tarifa is one the outstanding world music groups of the turn of their time. Their name derives from the town of Tarifa, which is the part of Spain nearest to Morocco. The group's mixture of Spanish and Arabic music is not itself new (see Juan Peña Lebrijano. for example). What is new is that instead of simply fusing musical styles as they currently exist, Radio Tarifa goes back in time to the common past of those styles, back to before 1492 when the Moors and Jews were exiled from Spain, and imagines a shared style that might have evolved had history been different, including not just elements of Spanish and Arabic music but also other musics of the Mediterranean, of the Middle Ages, of the Caribbean. This invented style is not only fascinating in its own right, but sheds light upon the real styles of Spain, most notably flamenco. Until the success of their first album Rumba Argelina, Radio Tarifa was not a full-fledged performing band, but a nucleus of three musicians who brought other performers into the studio as needed. This nucleus consists of Spaniards Faín Sánchez Dueñas (percussion and other instruments) and Benjamín Escoriza (vocals) and Frenchman Vincent Molino - sometimes listed as Vincent Molino Cook - (winds). Arranger Dueñas might fairly be described as the leader and theoretician of the group. He and Molino founded an early music group, playing music from the late Middle Ages and Renaissance) called Ars Antiqua Musicalis, although this group was never commercially successful. Later Dueñas met Benjamín Escoriza, a troubadour flamenco singer raised by Gypsies. The last piece was in place. Rumba Argelina was a work of love and vision and experimental daring recorded in 1993, released in Europe by World Circuit Records in 1996 and finally landing on American shores in 1997 via a collaboration of World Circuit and Nonesuch. The critical and popular success of Rumba Argelina made it possible for Radio Tarifa to put together a full-fledged touring band, which has crossed both Europe and the United States, as well as enabling a follow-up album Temporal, which means "Storm." This second album, from 1997, moves in the direction of the roots of flamenco and is less pan-Mediterranean than its predecessor and was also a success. Cruzando el Rio appeared in spring 2001.
-- All Music Guide

Reviews --

Started around 1990, Radio Tarifa is a Spanish ensemble that has come into its own as a purveyor of pan-Mediterranean musical styles from across time. With a penchant for traditional gypsy pieces from Persia, North Africa, and their homeland, Radio Tarifa provides musical proof of the continuity of gypsy music throughout the world (a fact explicated in the film Latcho Drom with equal effectiveness). For their second release, Temporal, the ensemble concentrates on traditional material from Iberia, with pieces culled from Galician, Andalucian, Castilian, and Flamenco culture. Reflecting the distinctly Middle Eastern influence -- via Moorish culture -- in Spanish music, many of the cuts here feature such Persian, Arabic, and North African instruments, including the tar lute, ney flute, and derbouka clay drum. The group also use Greek and Indian instruments, not to mention both medieval and modern devices like the crumhorn wind instrument, organ, and electric bass. This rich mix is topped off by some excellent vocal performances. Another fine title in the group's small but stellar catalog.
-- All Music Guide

Amazon.com's Best of 1998.

With Mediterranean instruments like the oud, derbuka and ney, Radio Tarifa collapses recognizably Arabic sounds with flamenco rhythms, playing with a flair reminiscent of a traditional Balkan wedding band. (The Spanish ensemble also tackles a 16th-century Sephardic tune and a 12th-century French procession.) Central to Radio Tarifa's charm is the rough-edged voice of Benjamin Escoriza, whose throaty elocution makes his Spanish a terrific blur of clarity and wavering timbre. Aside from the Mediterranean percussion--supplied mainly by the differently-pitched hand drums--Radio Tarifa also dots its grooves with Afro-Cuban inflected bongos and an electric bass, making this global concatenation particularly delightful.
-- amazon.com

Track List
01- La Tarara
02- Las cuevas
03- Canción Sefardí
04- Baile de Almut
05- Solea
06- Tangos de la condición
07- Conductus
08- Temporal
09- El Mandil de Carolina
10- Vestido de flores

Artwork, EAC log and CUE sheet included.

Audio format: FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) 
http://flac.sourceforge.net/index.html 

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