Journeys Guided by Sound

#Egypt #JourneysGuidedBySound #Pyramid #Music 2023.05.31

Egypt
A Great Heritage Buried in the Earth　2

Looking again at the map of Egypt

First of all, we can see that it is located in the northeast of Africa.

The purple line below should make anyone feel a sense of discomfort at the straight borders that are cut off at a very right angle.
This is also where we sense the aggressive colonial policies of the European powers.

The rightmost peninsula in the orange part of the map below is called the Sinai Peninsula,
It used to be Egyptian territory, but was taken after repeated wars with Israel, which is now located to the upper right of it.

I don’t intend to state much here, but I don’t need to tell you that this area has a tremendous amount of layers of history,
For thousands of years, the surrounding tribes have invaded each other, and religiously, it has been the center of fierce conflict between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Below is a rough division of areas in Egypt.

Below is a map showing the importance of the Nile in Egypt.
It is said to be shaped like a lotus flower stretching upward.

And the following is a map that contains the memory of the period known as Ancient Egypt.
This trip will extend to the place depicted at the bottom, which was said to be the ABU SIMBEL temple, which I will describe in the near future,

First
Contemporary (2013) reality, starting with the city of Cairo.

Cairo

Cairo, the most populous city in the Arab world

It’s a small area in the whole of Egypt

The area is extremely densely populated.

As I mentioned last time, this trip to Egypt was largely made possible by my connection with Ms. Oikawa,
The first half of the trip was spent with her band, “Sentohitoyo”

That “Sentohitoyo”

After the Japanese premiere of Alf Leyla Wa Leyla (One Thousand and One Nights) by Arab musicians from Kansai and Kanto on February 25, 2012, the unit “Sentohitoyo” was born in April of the same year.
In order to spread the charm of Arab music, each member has been trained in Cairo to pursue Arab music.
Members are
Yoshiki Kato oud oud
Shinichi Hata violin violin
Keiko Oikawa violin
Sampeh req req
Abdallah Darabkha Egyptian tabla

Although Mr. Shinichi Hata did not participate in the Egyptian tour this time,
However, he still managed to give a total of three concerts in front of the Egyptian and Cairo children.

It was also the first time for me to hear Sentohitoyo itself perform,
However, I had already shared many things musically with Ms. Oikawa, so the sound was familiar in a good sense, and I could listen to it at ease.

The sight and content of the Japanese performing exquisite instrumental renditions of classical Arabic songs, especially “Umm Kulsoom,” made the hearts of the Egyptians warm, and after the performance, everyone wanted to take pictures with Sentohitoyo, as you can see below.
It is rare to see a Japanese people in person, and if they came all the way from the far east to the far west (or the far east in Africa) to show their respect and love for their old culture, it would be very moving.
Imagine the opposite, if Egyptians in their 30s came all the way to Japan, almost on their own dime, to perform a perfect rendition of a Japanese instrumental by Hibari Misora or Shizuko Kasagi,
I would want to shake their hands and say “Arigatou” lol

However, the PA in the outdoor theater was not proper, or rather, the engineer was not well provided, So, I was asked to stand at the mixer as the PA and adjust the sound!

Of course, I am not a professional engineer, but I have done a little, or rather a lot of that kind of thing in Japan, I tried to bluff my way through the work like an engineer (I’m good at it), as if it were a matter of course lol

Of course, almost no one was paying attention to me, but the experience of watching from the grassy place as they received applause and the crowd rejoiced was not bad.
I have no desire to show off, and I always wish I could contribute to the music,
Looking back, this experience may have served as a good guideline for what to do next.

In a sense, being involved in the field of music as a behind-the-scenes worker is a joy commensurate with one’s age.

There are many performers and artists of extraordinary ability in the world, and more and more younger generations are emerging.

Very few people will be able to stay in the spotlight forever.
Or perhaps even less than one in a million.

Anyway,
The fact that musicians from the Far East, fascinated by this music raised in Egypt, went out of their way to visit Egypt to perform in the Far East, was an inspiration that transcended race and national borders,

After such a precious experience,
Mr. Abdallah, a Darabkha performer, invited us all to go to an oasis in the desert together.

On such a fascinating occasion, and as usual, well-timed lol
Yosuke, who had accompanied me on the previous year’s trip to Brazil, made an appearance!
And he, himself, had a love story (koibana) like Tora-san in the movie as the purpose of this trip….

Anyway, Mr. Abdallah, his wife, and two of us men took a bus departing from Cairo city center to some extent near the desert,
After that, an Egyptian friend of his would drive us to the oasis in a 4WD vehicle.
It was totally unexpected, but we decided to take a ride on the overnight trip.

To be continued…

画像に alt 属性が指定されていません。ファイル名: JUZU-アー写0708.jpg

J.A.K.A.M. (JUZU a.k.a. MOOCHY / NXS /CROSSPOINT)
http://www.nxs.jp/
https://linktr.ee/JAKAM

Born in Tokyo, he started playing in bands and DJing at the same time when he was 15. As a DJ, his innovative and original style and his activities have quickly expanded from huge festivals to underground parties both in Japan and abroad. In 2003, he went on a recording tour with local musicians in Cuba, and since then he has been recording all over the world, and started his own label, Crosspoint, as a new guideline for New World Music.
In music production, he has also produced video works, picture books and art books, and organized the outdoor festival “Jomon and Rebirth” in 2012.
9 consecutive months of vinyl releases in 2015 became a big topic, and his fourth album was released at the end of that year, which led to the worldwide release of his new album on the Berlin/Israeli label Malka Tuti.
HIGHTIME Inc. with DJ TASAKA in 2017, and ZEN RYDAZ, a unit with MACKA-CHIN of Nitro Microphone Underground and MaL of PART2STYLE, in 2018.
In the same year, his music under the name of J.A.K.A.M. was released in analog form on the French label HardFist, which led to a live performance at the huge 30,000-person Nuits Sonores Festival in Lyon, followed by a DJ tour of Europe and Israel.
In 2019, the production of MYSTICS, a unit with Marcus Henriksson and Kuniyuki of Minilogue/Son Kite, which has a worldwide following, will begin, and the long-awaited album will be released in 2021.
His original vision is spreading across all genres and around the world.