Crescent Moon is a bewitching blend of Western and Near Eastern sounds. Don’t be misled by the presence of synthesizer wizard Steve Roach, or keyboardist/guitarist Brian Keane, or the guest appearance by the rollicking Bulgarian saxophonist Yuri Yunakov—this is an album with clear and deep roots in the ancient legacy of Turkish and Arabic music. In fact, six of the ten tracks are Omar Faruk Tekbilek's arrangements of traditional folk and classical songs from the Arabic, Turkish and Armenian traditions.
Omar Faruk’s newest project also draws on the sounds of Azerbaijani folksong, Persian mysticism, and classical Middle Eastern belly dancing. The Turkish musical mastermind--himself half-Egyptian, half-Turkish by birth--also pays tribute, on the song "Yalel", to the legendary Egyptian singer Omm Kulthum.
Working with many of the same musicians who have made such distinctive contributions to his earlier albums, Omar Faruk creates his own tradition of global music—a sound that not only acknowledges Greek, Indian, and of course Turkish music styles, but also finds a common ground between them. Perhaps his greatest achievement on Crescent Moon is that the album is more than the sum of its parts: it consistently evokes the ecstatic trance of the Sufi dervishes, the biting winds of the desert at night, the rich and exotic scents of an Oriental market. The record cogently mixes an array of musical styles without settling into any one tradition for too long.
Much of Crescent Moon is deeply personal. "Yunnus" is a medley of four Sufi tunes, and reflects Omar Faruk's longtime practice of this mystical branch of Islam. "Adanali" is the name both of a folksong and of the town where Omar Faruk was born. The album itself was released as he marked his 47th birthday—and he reports that the numbers 4 and 7 have had recurring significance throughout his life. (He has 7 brothers; he was fourth in line; the street address of the house in which he grew up was 47; and Crescent Moon is the fourth album he has made with longtime colleagues Arto Tuncboyaciyan, Ara Dinkjian and Hassan Isikkut.)
Like nearly all of Omar Faruk's music, this most personal recording is also easily accessible to Western listeners. By following his own spiritual impulses while ignoring geographic and cultural boundaries, Omar Faruk has forged a pan–Middle Eastern music. Crescent Moon is at once contemplative and exciting, full of lively rhythms and lovely melodies—timeless, and yet very much of our time.
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