For many people, Rango is probably the first encounter with the music of the Sudanese minority in Egypt. The two million Sudanese have had their unique music culture, the zar, for more than two centuries. Main instruments are the tanbura (a type of lyre) and the rango. The latter instrument looks like a wooden xylophone, but sounds more like a kind of bass. The combination of hypnotic rhythms and
… repetitive Arabic singing delivers a hallucinatory effect at the best moments. In the prize number Holeela, the group needs less than four minutes to build an effective trance. The album gets off to a slow start, but persistence wins. Bride Of The Zar is a CD that asks to be put on over and over again. (PdK)more
