- country:Israel
- style(s):World
- label:Mintaka
- gender:female
- instrumentation:vocal
- artist posted by:Unique Gravity
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Mor Karbasi, still a tender 22 year old, burst upon London’s global music scene earlier this year with the release of her first album “The Beauty and The Sea” – heralded by fRoots and later The Guardian – whose Robin Denselow wrote…..
“This album establishes the London-based Israeli singer Mor Karbasi as one of the great
young divas of the global music scene, alongside the likes of Mariza or Yasmin Levy”
Mor Karbasi sings in Ladino, Spanish, Hebrew and on rarer occasions, English. Fortune has brought her a wonderful singing voice and she puts it to most excellent use - as Ian Anderson at fRoots puts it…
“She’s able to effortlessly switch from a breathy intimacy to that hard edged, intense open
throated style…..pulling you deep into songs, taking the senses and emotions on an addictive
roller coaster .”
Mor has been winning fans to Sephardic music with her wide-ranging repertoire – from traditional songs dating from or inspired by the Jewish culture of fifteenth-century Spain to striking new Ladino-influenced compositions of her own. Mor is bringing some of these songs back to a wider public. “We don’t want Sephardic music to be a museum piece covered in dust,” she says. “We’re not trying to revive it; it’s not dead. We’re trying to make it more accessible to a broader range of people.” Her own writing has been considerably shaped by her interesting Sephardi lineage: descending from Moroccan and Persian Jews. She has been and indeed still is, an avid supporter of Flamenco which also adds a strong flavour throughout her songs. Her mother played Moroccan piyyutim (liturgical poems) and sang Andalucian Jewish ballads at their home and continues to be a constant influence on her young daughter.
This heritage already made for an inspirational Middle Eastern melting pot, when Mor met British guitarist Joe Taylor three years ago. Joe is a gifted guitar player already recognised as such within his band Blackbud, (signed to Independiente - label to Tinariwen and Travis). The Times, as well, are converts, their David Sinclair referred to Joe’s group as “stunningly inventive” and to Joe as “a guitarist with a quicksilver touch, an encyclopaedic knowledge of chords ….and an outstanding command of rhythmic and harmonic nuance”. His compositional input, delicate instrumental flourishes and musical direction add a modern dimension to the whole atmosphere and is an important element in the artistic offering which is Mor Karbasi..