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Wild! Brazilian Gal Costa performs a rather progressive interpretation of Taureg music. It's strange; I hear the traditional intstrumentation and rhythm, but there's a "snake charmer's oboe" that doesn't seem quite right. And mixing in some free-jazz-like melody/harmony; it's very odd...and oddly likeable!

Its tonal system divides an octave into 24 non-equal) intervals. Each tone has its own name (not repeated in the next octave) and is defined by its position relative to other tones - rather than absolute pitch. Pitch can deviate by as much as 1/4 from named pitch. Independence in pitch is possible because Arabic music does not use harmony - no chords to sound "sour" or "off."

In 1929, when Thomas de Hartmann and his wife took leave of G. I. Gurdjieff at Gurdjieff's Institute near Paris, they left behind a steamer trunk filled with manuscript music, much of which is recorded here for the first time. The music was composed by Gurdjieff and de Hartmann in a collaboration witnessed daily by the community of Gurdjieff's pupils and documented both in de Hartmann's book Our Life with Mr Gurdjieff and in the well-preserved sequence of manuscript drafts. One thing is clear: an exceptional musical event occurred at the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man in the years 1925-27, and its enduring result is this body of music.

Med'Set is a project born from the common desire of singer-violinist Akim El Sikameya and festival director Sete Sois Sete Luas to give life, by music, to this idea of a Mediterranean culture, common to all people of the region, and stronger than any political division. "Before being Portuguese, Spanish, Algerian, Italian or Greek, we are Mediterranean." And to prove it, Akim el Sikameya, worldwide famous singer and violinist, wanted to reunite in an exceptional creation, seven