Prague: Al-Yaman releases new album

Prague: Al-Yaman releases new album


The band Al-Yaman, meaning Yemen in Arabic, was the outcome of a meeting between two distant worlds: Czech musician and music producer Aleš Hyvnar and Ashwaq Abdulla Kulaib, a Yemeni woman who has lived in Prague since the fall of communism. This unlikely connection led to their first CD in 2004, and they have since performed at clubs and festivals in the Czech Republic and beyond. In their second album Insanyya, the pair created a more complex and elaborate fusion of the two worlds.


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Ashwaq Abdulla Kulaib came to Prague to study just in time to see the aftermath of the Velvet Revolution. She majored in journalism and political science at Prague’s Charles University but always planned to return to her homeland.


“I never thought I would stay here, that I’d be a singer, or that I’d have a family here. I thought I’d only come here to study and go back. For Yemeni women, it’s not very usual to go study abroad, particularly to Europe. For most families it’s impossible to send their daughters abroad. Maybe boys, yes, but not girls. But my mum supported me in this, it was a kind of a woman to woman thing. She knew I wanted to go. My father was against it of course, but we won, the ladies won.”


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One reason why the lead singer, flute player and lyrics writer Ashwaq Abdulla Kulaib stayed in Prague was her family. Compared with western Europe, however, the Czech Republic has very low immigration levels, and Ashwaq she says it’s sometimes been extremely difficult to cope with the Czech attitude to foreigners and Czech racism.


“For me, it’s really difficult when you meet intelligent people who think they are not racist but they are. That’s the worst thing I’ve seen in this country. They say, ‘we are not racist, but we don’t like Gypsies’. I was really shocked when I heard this for the first time.”


Do you reflect this anyhow in your music or in your lyrics?


“Of course. As you know, some of our songs are well-known Arabic songs, and we sing them a little differently. But most of the lyrics are about my experiences and feelings. Not only with racism of course, also about how I feel.”


You sing in Arabic, which is great. But the message does not reach as many people as it would if you sang in English or even Czech… Are you concerned about this at all?


“Sometimes I talk at concerts, you know, between songs I talk to people, but it depends – sometimes you could talk to people the whole night and nothing happens.”


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Mixing western and Arabic music is becoming increasingly popular with fans around the world, including some Middle Eastern countries such as Israel, Lebanon and Turkey. So is this style also popular in Yemen – and what would the Yemenis think of Al-Yaman and their music?


“You know, Yemeni people are conservative. They don’t mix music very much, they still have this really pure Yemeni music, and I love it. And my music in Yemen? I think people would say I’m crazy. Even here people think I am not normal or crazy or whatever. Why not – so I’m crazy.”

More details about the band and their albums can be found at Al-Yaman.cz. And if you are in Prague this month, don’t miss their show featured at the Febiofest film festival on March 27.


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Source: Radio Prague (English)