Halim El-Dabh – The Wondrous Reverberations LP (Color Black with Gold Splatter Vinyl)

Considered to be one of the earliest composers of electronic music, Halim El-Dabh (1921-2017) was an
Egyptian-American musician, ethnomusicologist, and educator. The works in this compilation span his
astounding six decade career, moving across Halim El-Dabh’s eclectic, undefinable, and groundbreaking
oeuvre – including field recordings, concertos, electronic music compositions, and improvised
instrumentals.

Made available here for the first time in the vinyl record format, this compilation was lovingly curated by El-
Dabh researcher Joe Namy and Benjamin Gaydos, under the guidance of Halim El-Dabh’s estate.
“It was a drive really, to hear something beyond what I was hearing.
So I had to use all the electronic means to reach that sound that I
was hearing and it’s not there. And the means to do it was right there
around me.”
–Halim El-Dabh speaking about his process in creating Taabir El Zaar
(aka The Wire Recorder Piece) in 1944.

This drive was the beginning of an 8 decade journey into sound transformation. The works in this
compilation span the years 1949–2005, moving across Halim El-Dabh’s eclectic undefinable and
groundbreaking oeuvre – including field recordings, concertos, electronic music compositions and
improvised instrumentals – made available here for the first time on the vinyl record format. Curating this
compilation proved to be an exercise in the limits of recorded music history, a history El-Dabh indelibly left
his mark on and transcended, we’re still catching up to his sound. These selections are by no means a
comprehensive overview of El-Dabh’s musical universe, we need to be diligently mindful for what isn’t
included, or as El-Dabh reminds us, to hear beyond what we are hearing. These selections, rather, can be
seen as a collection of some of his more autobiographical works, fragments from the inner starlight of El-
Dabh’s cosmology.

—Joe Namy
credits
released June 10, 2023
All tracks courtesy of Halim El-Dabh LLC and Deborah El-Dabh (p) 2022. Used by permission.
Mastered by Warren Defever.
Track by track liner notes by Joe Namy.
Artwork by Hatem Imam.
Design by Studio Safar for Flint Magazine.
Pressed in Detroit at Third Man Records.
Limited edition of 750.
This album is a collaborative release by Flint Magazine, Studio Safar, and Annihaya Records.
FM003 / END021