The two largest and most active World Music labels in the Middle East Forward Music and Incognito announce the consolidation of their businesses with Forward Music’s acquisition of 13 of Incognito’s CD licenses.
This purchase and regrouping of CDs under the Forward Music umbrella has produced the biggest and most comprehensive World Music CD catalogue in the Middle East with more than 40 releases and 26 artists. The acquisition counts CDs from Incognito’s New Oriental Sounds series with artists and bands such as Lena Chamamyan (Syria), Hazem Shaheen (Egypt), Basel Rajoub (Syria/Lebanon), Hewar (Syria), Twais (Syria) and from the classical Arabic series “Taqalid” with artists such as Nidaa Abou Mrad (Lebanon), Salah Yamout (Lebanon) and the Assil Ensemble (Egypt). The Forward Music catalogue now includes (in addition to the works of the above artists): Charbel Rouhana (Leb.), Soumaya Baalbaki (Leb.), Ziyad Sahhab (Leb.), Mustafa Said (Egypt), Fareeq El Atrash (Leb.), Paul Salem (Leb.), Macadi Nahhas (Jordan), Issa Ghandour (Leb.), Ghazi Abdel Baki (Leb.), Ziad El Ahmadieh (Leb.), Soap Kills (Leb.), Rayess Bek (Leb.) and Ibrahim Jaber (Leb.). Upcoming releases in 2010 include, Toufic Farroukh’s “Cinema Beirut” and Ziyad Sahhab’s “Strange Day”.
