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MIKE BLOCK GUZO

1 INICHE COSEBE (FT. BALLA KOUYATE) 2 EXPRESSION OF CONCERN (FT. KINAN ADNAWI) 3 DIN KA ANTIM (FT. BROOKLYN RAGA MASSIVE) 4 TUNE FOR TUNDE (FT. TUNDE JEGEDE) 5 ARIOBARZANES AT THE GATE (FT. FARZIN DEHGHAN & EHSAN MATOORI) 6 IFRAH WEB-TISEM (FT. AMAL WAQAR) 7 GUZO (FT. DANNY MEKONNEN) 8 SWIMMING UNDER AN ORANGE SKY (FT. CHEN TAO & HU JIANBING) ALL MUSIC COMPOSED BY MIKE BLOCK (CELLO/VOCALS)

"GUZO", MEANING "JOURNEY" IN THE AMHARIC LANGUAGE, FEATURES EIGHT ORIGINAL COMPOSITIONS, EACH INSPIRED BY A DIFFERENT CULTURE AND STYLE OF MUSIC: MALIAN, LEVANTINE ARABIC, INDIAN, NIGERIAN, PERSIAN, GULF ARABIC (KHALIJI), ETHIOPIAN, AND CHINESE. INSPIRED BY THE IDEA THAT DIFFERENT PARTS OF OUR PERSONALITY MANIFEST WHEN INTERACTING WITH DIFFERENT TYPES OF PEOPLE (I.E. YOU ACT DIFFERENTLY AROUND YOUR BOSS THAN WITH YOUR FRIENDS), OR WHEN YOU ARE IN DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTS (YOU ACT DIFFERENTLY AT HOME THAN AT CHURCH), I WANTED TO SEE WHAT KIND OF COMPOSER I MIGHT BECOME WITHIN DIFFERENT MUSICAL ENVIRONMENTS AND LANGUAGES. EACH COMPOSITION WAS RECORDED COLLABORATIVELY WITH MUSICIANS NATIVE TO EACH STYLE, MANY OF WHOM ARE CLOSE FRIENDS THAT I COULD TRUST WITH MY VULNERABILITY AS I INVITED THEM INTO MY COMPOSITIONAL AND ARRANGING PROCESS. MY GOAL WAS FOR THE MUSICIANS FEATURED ON EACH PIECE TO FEEL THEY COULD PLAY NATURALLY IN THEIR NATIVE LANGUAGE, WHILE FINDING HOW MY OWN PERSONAL VOICE TRANSLATED TO THAT LANGUAGE. SOME COLLABORATORS ARE LONG-TIME COLLEAGUES IN THE SILK ROAD ENSEMBLE, SOME I ORIGINALLY MET AS STUDENTS THROUGH MY WORK DIRECTING SILKROAD'S GLOBAL MUSICIAN WORKSHOP, AND OTHERS I REACHED OUT TO SPECIFICALLY FOR THIS PROJECT.

THE JOURNEY THAT RESULTED IS BOTH PERSONAL AND

SOCIAL, INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHIC. I HOPE YOU ENJOY!

INICHE COSEBE (“THANK YOU VERY MUCH”), INSPIRED BY TRADITIONAL MUSIC FROM WEST AFRICA (MALI), WAS RECORDED WITH BALLA KOUYATE (BALAFON), SIDY MAIGA (DJEMBE), INDRISSA KONE (TALKING DRUM/KALABASH), & YACOUBA DIABATE (KORA) EXPRESSION OF CONCERN WAS INSPIRED BY LEVANTINE ARABIC MUSIC, AND RECORDED WITH KINAN ADNAWI (OUD), LAYTH SIDIQ (VIOLIN), TONY BARHOUM (QANUN), & SHANE SHANAHAN (PERCUSSION)

DIN KA ANTIM (“LAST DAY” OR “SUNSET PRAHAR”), INSPIRED BY CLASSICAL INDIAN MUSIC, WAS RECORDED WITH MUSICIANS FROM BROOKLYN RAGA MASSIVE: ARUN RAMAMURTHY (VIOLIN), JAY GANDHI (BANSURI), NEEL MURGAI (SITAR), SAMEER GUPTA (TABLA), & SAMARTH NAGARKAR (VOCALS) TUNE FOR TUNDE, INSPIRED BY MUSIC FROM WEST AFRICA (NIGERIA), WAS WRITTEN THE NIGHT BEFORE GOING INTO THE STUDIO WITH TUNDE JEGEDE (KORA)

ARIOBARZANES AT THE GATE WAS INSPIRED BY PERSIAN MUSIC, AND RECORDED WITH FARZIN DEHGHAN (KEMANCHE), EHSAN MATOORI (SANTUR), & POUYA SHABANPOUR (TOMBAK)

IFRAH WEB-TISEM (“REJOICE AND SMILE”) IS A CONTEMPORARY KHALIJI-STYLE SONG CO-WRITTEN BY MIKE BLOCK (CELLO) AND AMAL WAQAR (OUD/LEAD VOCALS), WITH TAREQ RANTISI (PERCUSSION), CEREN TURKMENOGLU (VIOLIN) GUZO (”JOURNEY”), WAS INSPIRED BY THE ÉTHIOPIQUES COMPILATION OF MUSIC FROM ETHIOPIA. THE TITLE WAS PROVIDED BY THE FATHER OF DANNY MEKONNEN (SAXOPHONE) SWIMMING UNDER AN ORANGE SKY WAS INSPIRED BY TRADITIONAL CHINESE MUSIC, AND RECORDED WITH CHEN TAO (DIZI), ZHOU YI (PIPA), XIA WENJIE (ERHU), BAO JIPAN (GUANZI), HU JIANBING (SHENG), WU TONG (VOCALS), & HUI WENG (GUZHENG) PRODUCED BY MIKE BLOCK ENGINEERED BY SEAN CAHALIN (TRACKS 1,6,8), DAN CARDINAL (TRACKS 2,7), TONY MAIMONE (TRACK 3), ALI MILLER (TRACK 4), AND MATTHEW CHAMPAGNE (TRACK 5) EDITED, MIXED, AND MASTERED BY DAN CARDINAL COVER ART & ALBUM PACKAGE DESIGN BY MARIAN C. HOLMES TRACK 1 RECORDED LIVE AT QDIVISION, SOMERVILLE, MA (MAY 4, 2017) TRACK 2 RECORDED LIVE AT DIMENSION SOUND STUDIOS, BOSTON, MA (MARCH 19, 2017) TRACK 3 RECORDED LIVE AT STUDIO G, BROOKLYN, MA (JULY 31, 2017) TRACK 4 RECORDED LIVE AT VISCONTI STUDIO, LONDON, ENGLAND (OCTOBER 30, 2017) TRACK 5 RECORDED LIVE AT DEPAUW UNIVERSITY, IN (JUNE 1, 2017) TRACK 6 RECORDED LIVE AT QDIVISION, SOMERVILLE, MA (MAY 13, 2019) TRACK 7 RECORDED LIVE AT DIMENSION SOUND STUDIOS, BOSTON, MA (MAY 7, 2019)