michoud - 5-14-2009 at 04:15 AM
Hi all
I wan t to introduce you to my new work.
I was living in Syria about 1 year (2008), I was recording with my wife a documentary film about music in Syria.
We worked with great musicians like Hussain Sabsaby, Mohammad Qadri al Dalal, Safwan Bahlawan,Moslem Rahal, Jamal Al Saqqa, Amer Ammoury...
Syria is a very very rich musical country, with a lot of kinds of music, but sadly we cant recorded everything...also we cant use all the recordings
in the film,its dificult to decide wich musicians or wich music include in 85 minutes of film, we recorded about 70 hours of music!!!
I hope we will make another film with more of this material we have.
The dates we´ll show the film will be in the International Arts Festival of Castilla y Leon in the city of Salamanca (Spain) 29 of may at 22:30 pm,
the second 16 of june in the city of Bilbao (Basque Country, Spain) and we are waiting for two dates more.
After the film we will make a little concert with the band we created in Syria, mixing spanish folklore and Middle East folklore with 3 syrian
musicians and 4 spanish musicians. Issa Fayad oud and vocals, my wife riqq and duff, roy abdelnour violin, Rober Khazal qanun, Emile Aboud derbaki,
Manu Iturregi acordion and alboka (basque traditional wind instrument)and me irish buzok, citola (string instrument from the middle age,I build it one
year ago) guitar and banjo
The name of this band is "Orontes Project".
We played a concert in Damascus Opera House last January.You can see some of our music in these links
"Fog al nakhel", from the iraki folklore http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPP5ENGJdgg
"Arin arin" from the basque country folklore http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pWbNeSWjWU
"Homenaje a Ibn Guzman", the music of this piece is traditional from the city of Salamanca, and the words is poem of the andalusian poet Ibn
Guzman.
I had a problem uploading this video I dont know why, when you see the end of the piece the piece begings again, so the time is double...I will fixed
it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vH3tOtuE_s&feature=related
michoud - 5-14-2009 at 04:18 AM
these are few pictures with some of the great musicians we worked
Mohammad Qadri al Dalal, me and Sabah Fakhry
michoud - 5-14-2009 at 04:36 AM
here with Hussain Sabsaby
michoud - 5-14-2009 at 04:44 AM
Here with Safwan Bahlawan
Luttgutt - 5-14-2009 at 06:27 AM
Nice project Michou!
Was that a guitara latina you played on the 3rd file? did you build it yourself?
MatthewW - 5-14-2009 at 06:54 AM
Hi Michoud. can members of the forum buy a dvd copy of your film? I would love to have one! 
michoud - 5-14-2009 at 07:08 AM
Hi
Luttgutt, the name of this instrument is Citola, is from the european middle age, and is diferent than a guitarra latina,
Yes I build it about one year ago, I studied 4 years guitar making, ad I made some guitars and another instruments.
I designe it looking some old pictures of the "Cantigas de Alfonso X el Sabio", you can see a lot of old instruments in those pictures
My citola is no exactly like the instruments of this old pictures, I designe it for make a confortable instrument to play, not a real copy of the
pictures.
My citola is like the instrument of this picture (the left one)
I will post a pick of my citola, I havent now in my computer
michoud - 5-14-2009 at 07:20 AM
Hi Matthew!
Of course you and all the forum members can buy this film.
But the final dvd will be ready in September, know in June we will show a short film ( about 60 minutes) and in September we will have a dvd with 85
or 90 minutes in a beautiful digibox, with the dvd and cd with a lot of pieces of the film and a good booklet with great photos and all the
information about the proyect and musicians.
Also the dvd will incluide some extras with some musicians we cant incluide in the film, because we cant make a 3 hours film...
In few days I will post the movie trailer in youtube
danieletarab - 5-16-2009 at 07:02 AM
Congratulations! We really want the dvd..
Please, as soon as it's ready, let us know! 
jazzchiss - 5-18-2009 at 12:36 AM
Felicidades, Michel! Veo que no has estado perdiendo el tiempo.
A ver cuando te pasas por Madrid y hacemos una jam session.
michoud - 5-18-2009 at 06:15 AM
Thanks Danieletarab !
Gracias Jazzchiss!
Pues si, la verdad es que voy bastante a Madrid a visitar a mi amigos luthier, Jesus y Demian Reolid, en este mes no iré porque estamos con las
presentaciones y los conciertos, es una pena que no hagamos una de las presentaciones en Madrid, pero con esto de la crisis y el poco interes de las
instituciones hacia proyectos asi...y eso que este proyecto ha sido subvencionado por La Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional y Desarrollo,
perteneciente al Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores...tampoco hemos tenido suerte en el sur, ni Granada ni Cordoba ni Sevilla...pero bueno espero que
podamos hacer otra tanda de presentaciones en unos meses y podamos mostrar este trabajo en estas y otras ciudades.
michoud - 5-18-2009 at 06:17 AM
New date for the show!!!!
18 of June in the city of Vitoria (Basque Country, Spain), in the "Theater Ibañez de Matauco", 19:30 pm,
Sorry I forgot to said that this project is supported by the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation (AECID) from the Spanish Goverment
michoud - 5-18-2009 at 06:23 AM
Hi
I changed the video in youtube from the piece "Homenaje a Ibn Guzman" because the video had some problem, now everything is ok...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIddeHAffqM&feature=channel_page
Faladel - 5-18-2009 at 10:12 AM
hola Michel:
Enhorabuena por tu trabajo y por tu aprovechamiento , espero que me cuentes esta aventura en mi eterna ciudad en un mensaje privado.Tambien me
gustaria saber todo sobre las filmaciones .
Cordiales saludos
michoud - 5-19-2009 at 05:07 AM
Buenas Faladel! Cuanto tiempo!
No te preocupes te mandaré un mail contándote un montón de cosas, eso si tendrán que pasar unos días porque estamos a tope con los últimos
detalles para las presentaciones...
Un abrazo
Marina - 5-20-2009 at 04:51 AM
Maravioso!
Yo kero a ver el film an nuestra TV en Israel. Para los sephardes aqi, qen kieren la musika del nuestras visinas Arabos y la musika de nuestra vieja
kaza Spania, esto se un projecto muy interesante.
Yo pienso ke, specialmente, don Husien Sabsabi es un alto oud artista.
Tienes un film para Youtube con el?
Y tu tokas marevioso en buzuk. Esto instrumente se llama buzuk?
Ke es cítola medieval?
Komo se llama el instrumente komo un cuerno?
;-)
Hope you understand Ladino. ;-)))))
michoud - 5-20-2009 at 06:08 AM
Hola Marina!!!
Muchas gracias!
Espero que todo el mundo que le interese la música pueda ver el film. el film completo estará en Septiembre, junto con un cd.
Ahora tenemos que presentar en España una versión más pequeña
Si Sabsaby es muy muy buen oudista, podrás ver uno de sus videos muy pronto en youtube.
Si es parecido al buzuk arabe o griego, pero este es Irlandes, y se toca ritmico no melodico no como en el mundo arabe.
Citola medieval es el instrumento que yo toco en la cancion: homenaje a Ibn Guzman, es una copia de un instrumento del siglo XIII. este instrumento lo
hice yo.
Ya pondré en youtube otra canción con citola medieval.
El otro instrumento que es como un cuerno se llama "alboka" es tradicional del Pais Vasco, y su nombre se cree que viene del arabe "al buk", en otras
partes de España hay instrumentos parecidos que se llaman albogue.
michoud - 5-20-2009 at 06:13 AM
We recorded this is video with Hussain Sabsaby and Bahri, a great buzok player from Damascus...(this video is not incluided in the film)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_7wyedL5rE
The afternoon we recorded this video was great, also in Sabasby´s house wa the great barbat player and setar player from Iran, Majid Nazempour,
in this link you can see Majid with iranian setar and Bahri and his buzok
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0UEQm5O1bI&feature=channel_page
Mike - 5-20-2009 at 02:33 PM
That was awesome Michel. Really enjoyed the Sabsaby and Bahri video. You must have had a blast doing this entire project. I'm sure it was a lot of
work, and as you said, trying to make an 85 minute DVD out of tens of hours of video is not easy. Keep up the good work my friend and thanks for
sharing your experience with us all.
michoud - 5-21-2009 at 05:09 AM
Thanks a lot Mike for your kind words
I will try to share every detail with you and all the members
This video is from the city of Homs, with an incredible darbuka player
enjoy!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLy4a-swEbY
michoud - 5-22-2009 at 01:13 PM
new video: violin taqasim: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVS_3FrhWdY