The contrast between appearance and content is strikingly great for some artists. Take Natacha Atlas. Under the thick layer of make-up with which she carefully smears away every wrinkle, the voice of a singer who does not play hide and seek can be heard. On her previous album Ana Hina she opted for an intimate, acoustic approach for the first time and she continues that line with Mounqaliba. One
… difference is that Natacha Atlas mainly sings her own songs for this album. The sound echoes the influence of the Lebanese brothers Rahbani, who wrote mainly for Fairuz in the 1960s. It is a romantic sound that evokes memories of an Arab world that now seems to exist only in fairy tale books. Mounqaliba is a beautiful listening album by an artist who knows how to do justice to her Egyptian and English roots with each album in equal measure. (PdK)more
