Karim Baggili - Apollo You Sixteen (2016)

Apollo You Sixteen is the title of the fifth album by Belgian multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and composer Karim Baggili. His music style is deeply influenced by flamenco and Arabic music. It’s a very vibrant form of world music mixing acoustic instruments with rock style drum set and electric bass as well as dance beats.

Karim Baggili’s main instruments are the flamenco guitar and the Arabic ud. His first instrument was the guitar. He bought his first ud at 20 during a trip to Jordan.

The musical pieces switch back and forth from high energy, high speed flamenco to Arabic rooted sounds plus some delightful laid back pieces with Spanish classical and jazz influences as contrast. There is one song “Exitimuse” that strays away from the rest, venturing into what I would define as Europop. Maybe they had commercial radio in mind.

The lineup on Apollo You Sixteen includes Karim Baggili on guitars, ud, vocals and bass; Youri Nanai on bass; Vivian Ladrière on percussion and drums; and Mohammed Al Mokhlis on violin. Guests featured: Karoline de la Serna on vocals; Silvano Macaluso on piano, keyboards and programming; Houssem Ben El Kadhi on kawala (cane flute); and Ahmed Khaili on darbuka.

Karim Baggili was born in Belgium in 1976 and has Jordanian and Yugoslav ancestry. He’s a self-taught guitarist. He started with the electric guitar at the age of 16. At 20, he learned flamenco guitar techniques and acquired his first ud. In 2000, Karim won the first prize at the “Open String Festival” in Osnabruck, Germany.

Karim works on numerous projects as a composer or arranger for albums, documentaries and short films.

His previous albums include Douar, Cuatro con Cuatro, Lea & Kash, and Kali City.

TRACKLIST:

01. Karim Baggili - Bella Fi's Love
02. Karim Baggili - Exitimuse
03. Karim Baggili - Missing U
04. Karim Baggili - Apollo You Sixteen
05. Karim Baggili - Bak 2 in the Bus
06. Karim Baggili - Kiss from Lion
07. Karim Baggili - Apollo Recall
08. Karim Baggili - Balka Bike
09. Karim Baggili - Al
10. Karim Baggili - Bee Red
11. Karim Baggili - About Intuition
12. Karim Baggili - Deep Trio