Copenhagen Jazz Festival & DR Koncerthuset present family concert with anglo-egyptian vocal star.
Natacha Atlas’ music has spanned much of the globe for these last two decades, exploring all facets of electronic music and finding unique and very personal ways of merging them with Maghreb music, the Arabic music of North Africa. Many Middle Eastern and Arabic artists have explored pop music, indeed. But none of them have had anything on Atlas, who’s daring approach to musical exploration has led her to work with as many diverse talents as legendary bass player Jah Wobble, Sinead O’Connor, film composer David Arnold, and Robert Plant, amongst others. In her own right, Atlas is a fearless, genre-bending experimenter of music, on par with the likes of other musical masterminds like Bjork, Annette Peacock, Laurie Anderson, and Kate Bush. To date, the singer has released nine proper full-length studio albums (not including the remix albums and compilations), in addition to appearing on the works of various notable artists....
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Copenhagen Jazz Festival & DR Koncerthuset present family concert with anglo-egyptian vocal star.
Natacha Atlas’ music has spanned much of the globe for these last two decades, exploring all facets of electronic music and finding unique and very personal ways of merging them with Maghreb music, the Arabic music of North Africa. Many Middle Eastern and Arabic artists have explored pop music, indeed. But none of them have had anything on Atlas, who’s daring approach to musical exploration has led her to work with as many diverse talents as legendary bass player Jah Wobble, Sinead O’Connor, film composer David Arnold, and Robert Plant, amongst others. In her own right, Atlas is a fearless, genre-bending experimenter of music, on par with the likes of other musical masterminds like Bjork, Annette Peacock, Laurie Anderson, and Kate Bush. To date, the singer has released nine proper full-length studio albums (not including the remix albums and compilations), in addition to appearing on the works of various notable artists.
Atlas’ first proper forays into popular music happened by way of her involvement with two very significant bands that helped to give ethnic music a real push into the pop-conscious Western world: Transglobal Underground and Jah Wobble’s Invaders of the Heart. Both bands featured Atlas’ supple, sensuous voice to wonderful effect and let much of the world hear the almost primal passion of an Arabic vocal in a newly revitalized context. Atlas, however, would truly hit her stride when she struck out on her own. Often with the help of members of Transglobal Underground on production duties, the singer showed us how versatile Middle Eastern music could be with her albums. Her first solo release, Diaspora, was a haunting and shimmering mix of North African, Middle Eastern and even East Indian music that was grounded in a base of pop, reggae and hip-hop. Atlas would flip the formula on its head with her follow-up, Halim, an album that favoured a much more live approach of Egyptian instrumentation with the electronic elements relegated to the background. Subsequent albums found Atlas tipping the balance either way between Western and Middle Eastern elements and she steadily built up a fan base on the strength of her live shows, which further expanded upon the new and exciting dimensions of her recorded material.
Musically and geographically, Natacha Atlas has always been an itinerant. The Anglo-Egyptian singer has spent more than a decade fusing electronic beats and North African and Arabic music, finding links between seemingly disparate musical genres, exploring new and different sonic settings and working with a wealth of like-minded collaborators from across the world along the way. The resulting body of work is both a triumph of true multiculturalism and a testament to the richness and accessibility of Arabic culture. It is, indeed, an oeuvre unlike any other.
Presiding over it all, of course, is Atlas’s extraordinary voice. Meltingly sensuous and gloriously passionate, delicate with melisma and microtones, it bridges Middle Eastern and Western styles with instinctive ease. Her last 2 albums, 'Ana Hina' and 'Mounqaliba', showcase this beautifully: a contemporary classical affair that places this god-given instrument centre stage. A throwback to Arabic music’s Golden Era of the late 1950s and 60s, to the sounds and idols that shaped Atlas’s youth. Albums that looks to the past while imagining the future, buoyed by some of the best classical and traditional musicians working today.
Career highlights include Top Ten in France in France with her Arabic-style version of the Francoise Hardy classic "Mon Amie La Rose" from the 1999 Gold album "Gedida", winning Best Female Singer at the French 'Victoire de la Musique' awards in 2000 and most recently winning Best International Artist at the newly formed MEDIMEX conference in Bari, Italy.
Copenhagen Jazz Festival og DR Koncerthuset præsenterer familiekoncert med engelsk-egyptisk vokaldiva.
Natacha Atlas har i de seneste to årtier markeret sig som en krydskulturel superstjerne, der har fundet unikke måder at opdatere den egyptisk sangtradition og Maghreb, den arabiske musik fra Nordvestafrika. Man kan hverken karakterisere det som jazz, verdensmusik eller pop, men snarere et stærkt personligt udtryk, som er rejst på tværs af hidtige grænser for musikkulturer.
Hendes ekstraordinære og kraftfulde stemme gennemstrømmer alt hendes musik med en passion og unik brug af melismer og mikrotoner, som bringer den arabiske tradition i forbindelse med Vesten. Efter en årrække med inspiration fra den elektroniske musik og den engelske triphop, så er Natacha Atlas på de seneste udgivelser søgt tilbage til den arabiske og mellemøstlige gyldne æra fra 1950’erne og 1960’erne, blandet med fortolkninger af Françoise Hardy og Jacques Brel - og optræder derfor også med et akustisk band fra Egypten og Europa.
Natacha Atlas er født i Bruxelles og opvokset i England - men hun har stærke marokkanske, egyptiske og palestinensiske rødder på sin fars side, som blev født i Jerusalem af en britisk mor. Efter at have rejst rundt i Tyrkiet, Grækenland og Mellemøsten flyttede Atlas tilbage til Belgien som 24-årig og begyndte sin professionelle karriere som sangerinde og mavedanser. Den nu 50-årige sangerinde fik sit gennembrud som en del af engelske grupper som Transglobal Underground og Jah Wobble's Invaders of the Heart, og har udgivet ni soloalbums og spillet koncerter over hele verden, hvor hendes musik blandt andet er blevet til frugtbare samarbejder med Sinead O’Connor, Robert Plant, Jah Wobble og filmkomponisten David Arnold.
Den 16. november kan man opleve Natacha Atlas i en særlig eftermiddagskoncert i DR Koncerthusets Studie 2 med materiale fra hendes seneste udgivelse “Habibi: Classics and Collaborations”, som består af udvalgte fortolkninger fra hele Atlas’ karriere.
Den engelsk-egyptiske sangerinde har altid været en favorit hos det danske publikum - og hun har blandt andet givet bjergtagende koncerter på Copenhagen Jazz Festival i Østre Gasværk, Images of Middle East og i Store Vega, sidstnævnte som GAFFA anmeldte til seks stjerner med ordene “en koncert, der er en af de bedste, vi nogensinde har hørt på dansk jord inden for verdensmusikken”.
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