Silan

I recently bought this CD for (literally) next to nothing, sound unheard. Yup, I "took a flyer" on this, as they say. More on that later. Let me admit upfront that I was not familiar with Yair Dalal, who apparently has released a ton of albums over the years. This particular album was recorded with The Al Ol Ensemble, and stems from 1998."Silan" (7 tracks; 66 min.) opens with "Acco Malca", a short, upbeat New Age-ish tune that immediately reminded me of the Windham Hill sounds from back in the 1980s of all things. In that sense, this track is not representative of the album s a whole, but it's still a nice little tune. Next comes one of the three tracks on here that each approach almost the quarter hour. "Arrarat" is an epic track featuring oriental singing (without lyrics), with great guitar work and a breathtaking clarinet solo. In the very helpful liner notes, this track is described as "a musical journey that starts in Asia and continues inwards to the Middle East". The title track follows, and it is a stunning 9 min. oriental violin solo by Yair Dalal, without any other orchestration whatsoever. Outstanding. The appropriately named "Trance" starts out with another clarinet solo, only to eventually make way for great melody and even an instrumental chorus of some sort. "Dikklat Nour" opens with a beautiful sitar solo, and is eventually joined by other instruments, including a gorgeous flute solo, and another violin solo to boot. It's my favorite track of the album. "Min Hamidbar" is the only song on here that features lyrics (sung by Yair Dalal). The album closes with "Adon Haslichot", which is a perfect capsule of the album: it's long, epic and features a full middle eastern/oriental musical flavor.I was shopping the clearance bins at one of my local record stores here in Cincinnati a while back, and saw this album for sale for one buck, yes one buck! At that price, I'm willing to try just about anything. I was intrigued enough that I picked it up, sound unheard. So glad I did. As it turns, I absolutely LOVE this album, and have been playing it a lot since I bought it, and in fact there is no question that this is one of my best purchases of the past year (and worth a whole lot more than what I paid for it). I'm quite certain that I will also check out some of Yair Dalal's other recordings. Meanwhile, "Silan" is HIGHLY, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Yair Dalal exemplifies a rare mixture between conflicting trends in music: traditional versus modern, Eastern versus Western and Jewish versus Arabic. He also explores musical traditions of different countries like Iraq, Turkey and India, besides Jewish traditional music. Most of the pieces presented here are of charming beauty and very colourful and great instrumental arrangement.Although Dalal is not as skillful in playing the violin as in musical composition, his taqsims on the Middle Eastern violin are very haunting. The Al Ol ensemble membres are very skillful players. The recording quality is not perfect, but it is not "bad" - as the previous reviewer sais - either.I highly recommend this CD for anyone interested in Middle Eastern/Eastern music.

Unlike his first CD's , Silan is not a solo one , with the backup of Al Ol Ensemble (great sound) , Dalal is getting closer to the western eastern oriented music lovers . This rainbow coloured train (you may call it Trance Ararat or Orient ..), takes you all the way from Israel to Turkey , Iran , India and some other exotic places . Each tune takes you to another place , so relax , don't forget your nargila and cup of strong black coffee , the pleasure is all yours .

Hi I liked the artists music, but the problem is with the recording quality. Except for the first track the remaining track were unclear.Thanks