So a few months back I realized that for some reason this ethno-ambient stuff is both popular and old enough that people are selling it on the cheap on sites like amazon and half.com. So, I decided to pick up some stuff. Most notably is this album: Seven Veils by Robert Rich, which he dropped back in 1998 (look how cheesy the cover is! I included a pic of the CD itself which is, thankfully, significantly more awesome). If you're familiar with Rich than you'll know that he is a super genius multi-instrumentalist and, more recently, modular synth guru. And he predominately writes ambient/world music (kinda like his contemporaries Steve Roach, Alio Die, etc). Seven Veils is one of the most kick ass middle eastern-tinged albums I've come across. I think that the reason I dig it is because it's not just some white guy playing traditional world music, but it's a unique and interesting blend of dark-ish ambient/drone combined with elements of traditional world music (in this case the middle east) music. I don't remember the exact instruments and types of percussion used on this album off-hand, but I know that Rich actually plays pretty much all of them, or at least employs a talented session member to play it. So it's all real shit here; no synth emulations or sample packs. Anyway, bottom line is that if you like dark ambient/world/new age/whatever music than cop this one immediately. You can find it on amazon for pretty low prices.
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