REVIEWS FOR FIN'AMOR ALBUM
NewFolkSounds.nl - October 2020
Lamia Bedioui & Solis Barki - Fin'amor
"...Anyone who, when listening superficially, only hears a patchwork of styles, ignores Lamia's solid visionary foundation. There is order in the apparent arbitrariness. Need it be said that her ultimate message is to make the voice of tolerance resound?..."
Bart Vanoutrive
Folkmagazine.be - #3 2020
Lamia Bedioui & Solis Barki - Fin'amor
"...It all may seem like a patchwork of styles when listened to superficially , but it is in fact reflecting Lamia's thorough vision. There is certainly some order in this apparent chaos. Need it be said that her ultimate message is to make the voice of tolerance resound?..."
Bart Vanoutrive
Keys and Chords.com - April 2020
Lamia Bedioui & Solis Barki - Fin'amor
"...Her voice is perfectly in balance with Solis Barki's extensive and controlled instrumentation...The re-release of Fin'amor is a rightful crowning achievement for both exceptional talents..."
Marino Serdons
World Music Central.org - April 2020
Lamia Bedioui & Solis Barki - Fin'amor
"...Fin'amor is an album for voice and a wide range of global percussion and mysterious sounding instruments. Lamia Bedioui and Solis Barki selected a set of songs in various languages from various musical traditions throughout the world..."
Angel Romero
FolkWorld.eu - #71 2020
Lamia Bedioui & Solis Barki - Fin'amor
"...Lamia Bedioui is currently the most interesting voice in the Mediterranean...The search for a cultural ideal in the Mediterranean is currently in the core of the album "Fin'amor" which she recorded with Solis Barki..."
Karsten Rube
Folker - #1 2020
Lamia Bedioui & Solis Barki - Fin'amor
"...With vocals and percussion they emphasize mainly on folk music from different regions..."
Ines Korver
Le Canard Folk - #411 April 2020
Lamia Bedioui & Solis Barki - Fin'amor
"...The troubadours of the Middle Ages invented the term " fin'amor " meaning perfect, constant, ideal love. A utopia. Lamia Bedioui wonders whether singing a Sephardic lullaby, a Palestinian wedding song, a revolting and sarcastic Rai song, a Provencal song, a Gregorian chant and a classical Egyptian song on the same album is not also a utopia. This in addition to that armor of instruments played by Solis Barki - going from the Brazilian berimbau to the Australian didgeridoo via the Tibetan singing bowl - indeed constitutes an impressive challenge..."
Marc Bauduin
Lira - #1 2020
Lamia Bedioui & Solis Barki - Fin'amor
"...Barki has made many arrangements with about thirty distinct percussion instruments and some wind instruments. Jingle bells are ringing while frame drums, darbuka and daouli are building rhythm, but in the center there is always the clear voice of Bedioui..."
"...she has no problem expressing herself in other languages or with different ways of singing..."
Rasmus Klockljung
MixedWorldMusic.com - February 2020
Lamia Bedioui & Solis Barki - Fin'amor
"...This diversity of traditional styles could produce an album that is not an unity, but it is the voice of Lamia Bèdioui who provides a great musical coherence. Solis Barki does the same with the various rhythm instruments, but also with didgeridoo, berimbau, gong and others..."
Rik van Boeckel
popmagazine heaven - March/April 2020
Lamia Bedioui & Solis Barki - Fin'amor
"...The unadorned instrumentation and Bedioui's enchanting voice, set against a wide range of percussion instruments, mostly based on the earthly sound of the didgeridoo, create a beautiful unity in which all those different styles fit together nicely and convincingly..."
Pieter Wijnstekers
Songlines - March 2020
Lamia Bedioui & Solis Barki - Fin'amor
"...In this fascinating project disparate music is woven together creating a passionate medley of traditional songs ,classic compositions and improvisation...
The chemistry between Bedioui's voice and Barki's percussion is central to this record..."
Shukri Habib Ali
Jazzquad.ru - December 2019
Lamia Bedioui & Solis Barki - Fin'amor
"...In each case, Lamia seems to travel in time and space, transforming to a person from one or another ethnic group, presenting talentedly and extremely convincingly.
...Solis, in his highly congenial accompaniment, uses not only percussion, but also wind instruments - from the Jewish ritual horn of the shofar to the didgeridoo of the Australian aborigines, not sticking to any regional restrictions at all. And the same with quasi-Gregorian choral from Braslavsky, sounds to the accompaniment of the Cretan lyre in the album. So, Fin’amor music gets a new, universal character. This is genuine world music..."
Leonid Auskern
popmagazineheaven.nl(online) - December 2019
Lamia Bedioui & Solis Barki - Fin'amor
"...Since this daring album sings courtly love in such a variety of styles it definitely deserves more attention than it has received.
The full richness of this world classic in the making only really comes to the fore in the revival..."
Eric van Domburg Scipio
BabElMed.net - December 2019
Lamia Bedioui & Solis Barki - Fin'amor
"...A voice to which Lamia Bedioui knows how to give all the subtle tunings, in the same way that a percussionist can perform from the most muffled to the most dynamic... Minimal compositions and interpretations - voice, percussion, berimbau or digeridoo sometimes - like a return to History, like a return to tradition, like a thread that has never been cut ,since the 13th century..."
Nadia Khouri Dagher
Rootstime.be - November 2019
Lamia Bedioui & Solis Barki - Fin'amor
"...In short: on this CD you’ll find songs from many eras and many corners of the world, allowing the duo to show what the human voice is capable of, and how carefully thought-out percussion can interact with that. This results in almost 60 minutes of fascinating music. Open yourself to the music, and you will hear a singer who can do just about everything with her voice: hit and caress, tell, pray and shout, seduce and lure..."
Dani Heyvaert
REVIEWS FOR ATHAMRA ALBUM
Rootstime.be - July 2017
Lamia Bedioui & The Desert Fish - Athamra
''...In times, when we're told that the sea is about the only means to keep hoards
of possible conquerors at bay and has sadly become the graves for many people.
In such times this is a CD that is very welcome..."
Dani Heyvaert
Folk Bulletin.com - March 2017
Lamia Bedioui & The Desert Fish - Athamra
''...A very good CD, among the most interesting, which has homogeneity due to the
skill of the musicians and Lamia Bedioui's expressive voice which is comfortable in
different idioms and wins the listener over with her rich repertoire..."
Alessandro Nobis
Schubladenfrei.com - August 2016
Lamia Bedioui & The Desert Fish - Athamra
''...With her expressive vocals Lamia Bedioui takes the listener on a musical journey..."
"...A multi-faceted,cross-cultural album that invites one to listen rather than dance,
but its no less exciting for that..."
Florian Hessler
Athinorama.gr - June 2016
Lamia Bedioui & The Desert Fish - Athamra
''...A collection of music and human stories that become a part of one history,
one music..."
"...Music and songs from different places and times, following the same path..."
George Charonitis
WeltMusik-Magazin.de - January 2016
Lamia Bedioui & The Desert Fish - Athamra
''...The music in the album sounds as if it comes from a homogeneous culture area..."
"...It from this that one perceives how smooth the transition is..."
Norbert Jager
FolkWorld.de - November 2015
Lamia Bedioui & The Desert Fish - Athamra
''...The Desert Fish accompany Lamia Bedioui's songs with carefully selected eastern
instruments.The Cretan lyra accompanies her bewitching voice, as does the oud,
the medieval lute and the African water drum. Lamia Bedioui's songs are stories
of a modern Scheherazade..."
Karsten Rube
Qantara - October 2015
Lamia Bedioui & The Desert Fish - Athamra
''...Hearing the music makes the listener want to run out and don early 20th century
nautical gear to travel around the mythical ports where these emotionally laden,
anonymously songs were first sung..."
Meriam Azizi
Lira - October 2015
Lamia Bedioui & The Desert Fish - Athamra
''...You can say that folk music is rotated one turn toward art music and Lamia sings in a little theatrical style..."
Hans Helling
Songlines - October 2015
Lamia Bedioui & The Desert Fish - Athamra
''...Knitting together songs from Morocco, Tunisia , France, Italy, Spain, Greece and
Turkey could be problematic, but the carefull selection and clear sence of ensemble forms them into a satisfying whole.It's helped along in this regard by the voice of Lamia Bedioui, which suits the material admirably..."
"...Finally, there's the playing of members of the Desert Fish ensemble on an eclectic (largely) Mediterranean group..."
"...the disc is a vicarious enjoyable musical holiday..."
Maria Lord
Folker - October 2015
Lamia Bedioui & The Desert Fish - Athamra
''...Her voice matures balancing on the charming interplay of captivating arrangements between the depth of a Diamanda Galas and the playfulness of an Angelo Branduardi.
Fabulous!!..."
Stefan Sell
Rootsworld.com - September 2015
Lamia Bedioui & The Desert Fish - Athamra
''...Lamia Bedioui...along with her Desert Fish present stunning sequence of story telling in music that circles the Great Sea...She has a voice that can handle these challenges and she takes on each of the traditions in Athamra...As a vocalist Bedioui soulfully masters each tradition, seemingly at home in each ...the Desert Fish provide the setting that moves seamlessly from one port to an other,exploring the traditional repertoire..."
"...Bedioui seemingly has no limitations on her ability to take on projects demanding cultural and music versatility.Nor do the Desert Fish...The sea can be a highway or a barrier.This is an engaging project which,in a time of great economic divisions and divides between cultures, attempts to bridge those divides..."
David Cox
Parool.nl - September 2015
Lamia Bedioui & The Desert Fish - Athamra
''...A flawless technique, a rich palette of tonal colors and means of expression ,
flawless ability to sing in different languages, but most of all intelligence, humor and a
lot of guts. The Tunisian - Greek singer, Lamia Bedioui has got it all, but above all something essential that it is difficult to capture in words, call it "a bewitched frenzy..."
"...In collaboration with her partner musicians, on the quanun, lyra, percussions
and guitar, Bedioui delivers fantastic Mediterranean songs..."
Saskia Tornqvist
La presse Tunisie - September 2015
Lamia Bedioui & The Desert Fish - Athamra
''...Athamra means fruit and it is the fruit of the dream - the quest of princess
Badr El Boudour - and the fruit of the labor, the fruit of a beautiful musical proposition..."
Asma Drissi
Blogfoolk.com - July 2015
Lamia Bedioui & The Desert Fish - Athamra
''...This album seems to be a sort of link in which Bedioui travels through the places that have been most sung of and presents traditional musical expression in a very personal way...If the structure of the album and the choice of some pieces might seem understandably rhetorical, the manner in which they were played and performed is decidedly not..."
"...The performances are refined to the point that they raise the sounds, reflections and atmospheres of the music to a level where listening, feeling, metaphor and emotions (without references to places or traditions) became substantive.
The performances are truly integrated and listening to them causes one to be caught up in them ever more..."
Daniele Cestellini
Musicframes.nl - July 2015
Lamia Bedioui & The Desert Fish - Athamra
''...Each song with its own style excellently accompanied by her quartet,
The Desert Fish, on ud, guitar, mandolin, qanun, Cretan lyra and various percussion instruments . Wonderful how Lamia puts to the soul into her music...''
''...She switches easily from Tunisian love song (with great qanun intro) to the Occitan song "Mau Marideia" from Marseilles. Particularly fine is " I pirati a palermu "
written by Rosa Balistreri , the voice of Sicily..."
"...A fine collection from far away which sounds so nearby and harmonious..."
Mattie Poels
fRoots - July 2015
Lamia Bedioui & The Desert Fish - Athamra
''...Lamia Bedioui, a Greek-based Tunisian singer is versatile and pitch-perfect
while her band, The Desert Fish, manage to coax an interesting variety of new sounds out of their traditional instruments...''
''...You can't fault the originality of this music.Lamia respectfully reflects the origins of her source material whilst infusing her own creativity and personality into the recordings..."
Mark T
Epochi - May 2015
Lamia Bedioui - Athamra
''...Athamra,songs and musical fragments of a fairy-tale world, a great story told by Lamia Bedioui with the participation of a very good musical group, The Desert Fish,
in this work...''
''...With the new work, Lamia Bedioui shows us that she is not only an exceptional singer, but an imaginative Oriental teller of tales, who can make us dream even in this noisy and rational times we live in..."
Leonidas Maridakis
Avgi - April 2015
Lamia Bedioui & The Desert Fish - Athamra
''...Lamia Bedioui combines three cultures , north African, Arabic and Greek,
which cover the entire eastern and southern areas of the Mediterranean and their music. She transforms her profound, experiential knowledge into deed, and, with the help of her amazing vocal technique and a group of exceptional musicians,
The Desert Fish, she has created a CD that brings all of these musical traditions to the present in an exemplary manner."
Thanos Mantzanas
REVIEWS FOR FIN'AMOR ALBUM
fRoots - Μay 2014
Lamia Bedioui / Solis Barki - Fin'Amor
''...Greek-based Tunisian singer Lamia Bedioui treats the traditions she draws
from with the musical respect they deserve while still maintaining her own sound
throughout. Although the album contains pieces from ,or influenced by , a wide
range of cultures , none of the tracks seems to jar with the others; instead , they
work together in a style that smoothly changes and transitions throughout the
duration of the album...''
''...Fin’Amor really is a well-made and well-thought-out record.Give it a chance and
don’t be put off by the blurb-it delivers far more than it promises .''
Jim Hickson
La Presse Tunisie - January 2007
Fin'Amor, Lamia Bedioui's first album
Anthropology of voice
“…primeval, minimalist, abstract are the words that come to mind while listening to Fin’ Amor…a return to one’s roots…Lamia Bedioui is an artist who knows very well how to locate sounds. Sounds that she deals with in her own singular way, with her voice and sensibility…her sensibility is her strong point…”
“…she seeks to find again the authenticity of primeval musical expression, a music which existed before musical instruments. She explores and seeks the origins of things…”
“…her repertoire says a lot . Lamia dares when stakes are high and pushes her boundaries and abilities…”
Asma Drissi
Jazz&Jazz - December 2006
Lamia Bedioui - Solis Barki
In search of musical absolute
“…Within the framework of erudition, experience, and good taste that seems to distinguish them, Bedioui and Barki made the following smart move. Instead of resorting to the assistance of an orchestra (what orchestra could easily have performed such different pieces?), with faith, they invested in themselves (their voice and the percussion instruments, that is), thus eliminating even the slightest possibility that they would miss their target. It is only by abstraction that such a fringe repertory could be subjected to the demands of a recording project..."
“…the superb vocal presence of Lamia Bedioui must be noted (powerful on the lower notes, mighty in the high, having mastered the techniques of diplophony, trilling, vibrato…) and, naturally, the imagination and simplicity of Solis Barki’s playing which easily and boldly responds to the pressing demands of this venture…”
Fontas Trousas
Epsilon - November 2006
Lamia Bedioui - Solis Barki
Fin'Amor
"…Coexistence is also the key word here. And tolerance, and respect for what is different . Palestinian and Sephardic, Berber and Gregorian chants, classical Arabic composers and troubadours from 12th century Europe, traditional lyrics from Yemen in the music of Lamia Bedioui. Her deep voice and Solis Barki’s spirited percussions, the superb orchestration on a primal, global song for the ideal, perfect love: in other words, the medieval title of the disc…"
Giorgos Christodoulopoulos
REVIEWS FOR LAMIA BEDIOUI
Outsider Musica - May 2012
Live at Torino Jazz festival 2012
“…when, to the already superb abilities of the trio (saxophone: Pramatton, double bass: Marchesano and drums: Stolfi), one adds the extraordinary voice of Lamia Bedioui, the result cannot but be uplifting. It is exactly the voice of this Tunisian artist, able to combine dramatically and with her personal passion, the Middle Eastern tradition with an exploration of new voices tending to experimentation…”
Lorenzo Gianneti
Difono - July 2005
Savina Yannatou - Lamia Bedioui
Two worlds sailing together (interview)
“…Our voices are very different, but that was the most important thing that made me suggest a collaboration. On stage with Lamia, I feel that two different worlds are sailing together…” Savina Yannatou
Michalis Koumpios
fRoots - May 2003
Savina Yannatou & Primavera en Salonic - Terra Nostra
"...Another excellent female vocalist , Lamia Bedioui , sings on a number of the songs in Arabic..."
Chris Williams
Los Angeles Times - May 2003
Savina Yannatou & Primavera en Salonic - Terra Nostra
"...with singer , Lamia Bedioui adding a Middle Eastern quality to five of the 20 tracks..."
Don Heckman
La Presse Tunisie - December 2001
Songs and rythms of the Meditteranean
“…Besides the vivid temperament of her voice, Lamia has, above all, a particular interpretative ability that arises on the one hand from her knowledge of the technique which a song requires, and on the other, from her personal manner of internalising the diversity of the culture of the Mediterranean…”
Asma Drissi