A really great collection of work from the legendary Egyptian singer Oum Kalsoum – a package that includes most of her early recordings from the late
20s and early 30s – very early in the history of her career, but still already handled with a sound that's completely sublime! Even on these shorter tracks, Oum has a way of packing in the emotion and otherworldly qualities that she would later bring to album-length performances – and at some level, given the rawer production of these tracks, her presence on the records is maybe even more powerful! Instrumentation is usually relatively spare – percussion, some unusual string instruments, all recorded with a moody, echoey vibe – and although the work is from the 78rpm era, most tracks are much longer than 5 minutes, which is quite a surprise too. 3CD set features full notes in English and French, and features 35 titles that include "Ya Assia El Hay", "Tebe Ini Lehe", "Akoun Saeed", "Min Elli A'Al", "Charraf Habibal Alb", "Yailey Wedady Safalk", "El Boode Tale", "Ifrah Ya Qalbi", and "El Chakke Yehi El Gharam".