GERGIS, MARK - Early-Century Sound Recordings

"Mark Gergis is a producer, musician and audiovisual archivist known for his radio and video productions, recordings, and performances. His work has focused on regional folk-pop music from the Middle East and Southeast Asia, including choubi and dabke from Iraq and Syria. As an archivist, Gergis is currently working on the project Syrian Cassette Archives, for which he aims to restore, preserve, catalog and share his large collection of Syrian media from what can be called Syria's "cassette era" (1970s-2010). As an artist, under his name and others (Porest) he has released music on the Sublime Frequencies, Discrepant, and Nashazphone, to name just a few. It's a wonder that amongst this hectic schedule he still finds time to present us with a new (old) collection of early century recordings (1999-2013). Locational recordings, radio, and TV intercepts, cassette excerpts, environments, and street music all expertly all expertly meshed into a vivid sound journey from places that were (and might) never be again." - Sucata Tapes .