downloads:
Third Migration mix by mukul
Field mix by Equal-i
for availability of the SUVARA LP contact RADIO FRO

lit., "horseback rider"; a song genre from Khorezm expressing spiritual and lyric poetry

Suvara, a project initiated by independent radio station FRO 105.0 FM in Linz, aims to nurture meetings between the traditional music of recent immigrants and the contemporary electronic music scene in Austria. The CD and LP consists of remixes and reinterpretations of traditional Afghani music performed by Rafi Hanif and his party. These musicians were displaced from Afghanistan and arrived in Austria in August 2001. The thirteen reinterpretations are by both established and emerging artists from Austria and the UK.

The idea for the project arose out of an impromptu recording session of the Afghani group by Mukul, in the basement of FROís headquarters in Stadtwerkstat, following the first Suvara event and associated DJ/VJ workshops (June 2002). It was felt that the obvious talents of the young producers and of the traditional musicians would be best expressed together through a remix project. Files from a second recording session were made available online by Radio FRO, and mixes were submitted over several months.

The mixes range in style from introverted, string-laden ambient pieces through slowburning hiphop, to heavy rhythms for the dancefloor massive. Some are first-time productions, others by well-established names such as Asian Dub Foundation.

Something that many of the producers have evidently borne in mind is thatÝa remix or reinterpretation must be a remix of something. The original song must still live in the new work (beyond a mere sample of a vocal hook, say), yet the work has to also express something of the remixerís ‚ a mood, a narrative. In those cases where the border between the the original material and the new has been left or made indistinct, the resulting pieces have been the richer for it.

downloads of Rafi Hanif's recordings:

http://www.fro.at/show_news.php?show_n_id=91