Osama Abdulrasol
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Osama Abdulrasol

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"Melike - Macar"

‘Osama Abdulrasol blends the metallic jangle of the saz lute and traditional fiddle with Western strings, touches of flamenco and Brazilian rhythm in a series of vignettes telling the story of a peasant boy enlisting in the First World War. The effect is evocative rather than didactic, and an arrangement of WB Yeats’s Sally Gardens is by no means the most surprising element in this unusual andausterely beautiful album’. MH
- Telegraph


"Melike - Macar"

‘Osama Abdulrasol blends the metallic jangle of the saz lute and traditional fiddle with Western strings, touches of flamenco and Brazilian rhythm in a series of vignettes telling the story of a peasant boy enlisting in the First World War. The effect is evocative rather than didactic, and an arrangement of WB Yeats’s Sally Gardens is by no means the most surprising element in this unusual andausterely beautiful album’. MH
- Telegraph


"Macar"

As chamber music in a strongly folkloristic style, Macar paints an aural picture of Turkey just as Fahir Atako¬glu achieved on the large symphonic scale with First of All [Koch 333362]. While the lyrics tell the story, the vocals here are simply another instrument. This recalls Johannes Brahms’ use of his strings in the famous Clarinet Quintet. They aren’t mere accompaniment for the ostensible wind soloist but full equals. Macar’s instrumentalists -- including the phenomenal violinist Nedim Nalbantoglu in guest appearances -- all are soloists on the same footing as the plaintive female vocalist.
Macar thus isn’t a booklet of individual songs but a quasi-symphonic programmatic tone poem with voice. It makes it all the more evocative, a very colorful soundtrack to an imaginary film with constantly shifting moods as the listener wanders his memory palace and obtains glimpses of wildly varying scenery and emo¬tional messages. This is fully immersive music that needs to be listened to beginning to end to fully draw us into its world. As we expect from Harmoniamundi, audiophile concerns are fully realized and the musician¬ship of each participant is of a very high calibre. Entering Macar isn’t simply about entertainment or fetch¬ing vocals. It’s a highly emotional journey from sunlight into darkness and back again. From the listener, it requires attentiveness and a willingness to travel uncharted terrain but nothing more - the musical language here is so powerful as to do the rest all by itself.

by Srajan Ebaen
- Sixmoons


"World soundtrack award 2007"

for the concert of Osama with the Flemesh radio orchestra. World Soundtrack award 2007
‘The score is a very special mix of traditional western music with authentic eastern element. As violinist she takes the important place in the orchestra and next to her Osama Abdulrasol the qanun player. This Iraqi mu¬sician lives since short time in Ghent. Beside that he is a soloist, he is a composer. They brought together the musical backed up by the Flemish radio orchestra. Its suite started and ended with goose skin feel. The way they together brought the performance is the greatest beauty and lust for ear and eye’
Coen Haver
- Filmmuziek.be


"Folk"

This Artical about the Project Melike, Album Macar, concept, big part of the compostions, arrangments, playing the Qanun, ud, and Guitar
This is a very special kind of folkopera with certain grandeur, musically led by Iraqui born acoustic guitar (studied in UK) and kanun player (studied in Iraq), and composer Osama Abdulrasol. It is one of the
tprojects by Osama, because he also has his own ensemble and played with many more Belgian folk groups and singers (Olla vogalla, Wannes Vande Velde, Luc de Vos, Oblomow, Djamel,..), as well as with the Brussels based groups Nahdha (Arabic Renaissances music), Les Mesopotamian (Iraqi classical music), as a duo with Lula Pena (Portuguese fado singer), with the Ghent based fusion band Elftwelv trio (jazz music with Arabic music) Jahede Wehbe (Lebanon, Arabic classical music) and with the theatre company Woestijn 93.
Lead singer is Melike Tarhan. She grew up while listening to Turkish classical music, and later Turkish folk music. She has a university degree in German languages. She also studied Indian and classical singing
techniques. Further on she worked as a lead singer with Belgium based world fusion groups bigband Olla
Vogala, TriOttoman, Tri a Tolia, Ushak trio & Hüzam trio. She also sings Arabic songs with IndiAra, an Indian-Arabic music- and dance project and songs in the Old Portuguese language with Pandora² (A project based upon the performance of the popular Cantigas de Santa Maria), besides a few other projects.
Other participators are from Belgian (Wouter Vandenabeele, project leader from Olla Vogala, and Stefaan Smagghe: violin and Lode Vercampt : cello) Dutch (Henk De Laet : double bass & backing vocals), Turkish (Bekir Gürbüz : baglama, cura, backing vocals) and Moroccan (Azdine Jazzouli : percussion) origin.
The story is about a boy who dies at war during the Canakkale War in 1917, leaving his mother with pain.
The story ends with a cry of why wars still occur as means to rule over life. The story works on a different level as an association with what happens in Iraq. Most texts are traditionals, but there is also adapted a part of the lyrics from “Down by the Sally Gardens” by Yeats. It is the only English part, on a track sung in a Turkish flavoured song style.
The style is a mixture of Turkish folk singing with European classical chamber music mixed with an “Arab” flavour. There’s a calm melancholy and always present beauty, developing in a rather silent way with a certain dignity of a keeping things at a safe distance with full perspective. The orchestra (Wouter for instance I
remember well as a remarkable independent-folk violinist) succeeds well in bringing a fresh approach tof
arrangements based upon certain melodic traditions without going outside a calm temper, as if all is
presented as a kind of funeral tribute, losing the idea to celebrate and dance, with dignity and respect for life. “Bülbülüm Altin Kafeste” has surprisingly a Latin flavour mixed in it (acoustic guitars, rhythm) without
losing its convincing original core. Only “Icimde Bir Kösede” is arranged more simply, led by voice and guitar mostly, making a more personalized moment of contemplation. Very nice is to hear a nez improvisation that introduces the concluding track, a song which represents the concluding cry, which, like flamenco builds up some tensions, but still finds a certain inner peace, because its voice will be heard at least by some. A very
succesful release.
- Gerlad Maes


"World soundtrack award 2007"

for the concert of Osama with the Flemesh radio orchestra. World Soundtrack award 2007
‘The score is a very special mix of traditional western music with authentic eastern element. As violinist she takes the important place in the orchestra and next to her Osama Abdulrasol the qanun player. This Iraqi mu¬sician lives since short time in Ghent. Beside that he is a soloist, he is a composer. They brought together the musical backed up by the Flemish radio orchestra. Its suite started and ended with goose skin feel. The way they together brought the performance is the greatest beauty and lust for ear and eye’
Coen Haver
- Filmmuziek.be


Discography

Name-Album-Label
Melike – Macar- Longdistance/harmoniamundi
Oblomow - Sporen -Wild Boar Music
Djamel- N’tia N’tia -Wild Boar Music
Wouter Vandenabeele- sans paroles –Homerecords
Moakley- Mask
Djamel- Hamza Wild Boar Music
Les Mesopotamiennes- Berg- Centre cultural Arab
Tranpiradansa- Tranpiradansa- Wild Boar Music,
Brod Ludaka-Short movie

Coming soon,
Osama Abdulrasol- Gipsy in Baghdad - Home records
Melike -Sky -Home records
Tri a Tolia -Ask ili -Home records

Photos

Bio

0sama is a composer, producer and Qanun & Guitar player. He was born in Babylon (Iraq) 1968 and he studied western music (classical guitar) in the UK and eastern music (oud – lute – and qanun – an Arabic lapharp) in Iraq.
He performed and toured all over the world with different groups like Osama Abdulrasol & Ensemble, the symphonic orchestra of Antwerpen ( de filharmonie) with Dirk brosse, Olla vogalla, Melike, Wenes vande velde, Luc de Vos, Oblomow, Djamel, Nahdha, Mesopotamia, Weshm, Lula Pena, Elftwelvtrio, Jahida Wehbe, Woestijn 93, Les ballets and several other groups and theatre productions.
In his own project Osama is trying to open a new approach by mixing original ideas and classical- traditional music to put it a spiritual flavours by playing them in a very old form of harp around 3500 B.C. the Qanun
He participated in several Arab and international
festivals including in Belgium, Holland, Germany,
France, Portugal, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq.
He also performs with other groups of different musical styles such as Jazz, Flamenco, Indian, Turkish and Greek music.