The Watering Hole

Ok, here's the thing that's driving me crazy...
I'm really into oriental and Egyptian/Indian scales and songs.
Anything that sounds like a pyramid or something featuring oriental/exotic styles. (No Bollywood stuff though, can't stand that thing!)

In particular, I'm looking for a very specific instrumental.
I heard it on TV a couple of years ago, but later forgot about it. It was just a background piece that they put on during a show on TV but it was really beautiful!
I remember that it had a "BIG" orchestral score and that I immediately pictured pyramids, pharaos, deserts and the likes in my mind.
Unfortunately I forgot the melody over time but I know I'll be able to recognize it immediately if I hear it again.
It could have been a movie score but it also could just be some "Yanni" or "Enya" or similar corny stuff.
It had no lyrics.

Now it's definitely not the "Lawrence of Arabia" soundtrack and neither anything out of the "Mummy" soundtrack.

Anything you can think of - just post it here, either the title of a track or maybe even a soundfile. Or just let me know the name of a movie which had an Egyptian soundtrack or whatever... Lemme know any piece/movie/soundtrack you can think of.

And while we're at it, you can post anything other (Rock, Metal, Pop) that also has Indian/Egyptian/Oriental styles etc. to keep me busy while I'm searching for that other specific piece.

Wow, way to nail don't the specifics there!  ;)

No idea what the show was?

Perhaps this is your type of stuff?  :D http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLpROhIg9eA

Ok, since asking for both Egyptian AND Oriental songs is a large and contrasting order, I've made a zip file with a few songs in it.  It has stuff from Yanni, Symphony X, Kataro and Deva Premal.  I resisted the urge to put Walk Like An Egyptian, Fire in Cairo or Nightboat to Cairo in there.  ;D

Enya wouldn't have anything like Egyptian or Oriental music, however you might have heard one of the Yanni songs which have been used in these types of programs before.

My favorite piano music is by Keiko Matsui which have a definite Oriental feel to some of her songs.  I also happen to have a spreadsheet with all possible scales in it (except 1/4 tones) that includes names for many of them.  It wouldn't be hard to pick out some that are Asian/Indian sounding.

The scale spreadsheet is here:  http://www.n2-o.com/download/All%20possible%20scales.xls

Here's the zip file:  http://www.n2-o.com/download/songtemp.zip

Schneidas — Aug 26, 2008Ok, here's the thing that's driving me crazy...
I'm really into oriental and Egyptian/Indian scales and songs.
Anything that sounds like a pyramid or something featuring oriental/exotic styles. (No Bollywood stuff though, can't stand that thing!)

In particular, I'm looking for a very specific instrumental.
I heard it on TV a couple of years ago, but later forgot about it. It was just a background piece that they put on during a show on TV but it was really beautiful!
I remember that it had a "BIG" orchestral score and that I immediately pictured pyramids, pharaos, deserts and the likes in my mind.
Unfortunately I forgot the melody over time but I know I'll be able to recognize it immediately if I hear it again.
It could have been a movie score but it also could just be some "Yanni" or "Enya" or similar corny stuff.
It had no lyrics.

Now it's definitely not the "Lawrence of Arabia" soundtrack and neither anything out of the "Mummy" soundtrack.

Anything you can think of - just post it here, either the title of a track or maybe even a soundfile. Or just let me know the name of a movie which had an Egyptian soundtrack or whatever... Lemme know any piece/movie/soundtrack you can think of.

And while we're at it, you can post anything other (Rock, Metal, Pop) that also has Indian/Egyptian/Oriental styles etc. to keep me busy while I'm searching for that other specific piece.

ignore previous comment... I'm looking now...

Yeah, I know - I couldn't be more vague  ;D

I figured it's hopeless but I'm trying anyways, just in case I get lucky...

The show it was on was just a New Years Eve show on Greek TV. They played it when some hot Greek models walked on stage - yeah, the models were great, but the music really caught my attention.

Anyway, the songs you posted are great - and some of them are exactly what I'm talking about.
Thanks a million for those. I particularly enjoyed the Symphony X song the most, although it's a totally different musical genre than the one I'm looking for. In my memory the piece I'm searching for definitely has a bit of the "Yanni"-vibe - same instruments I guess, but it wasn't in the ones you posted.
I remember it being more like a big movie soundtrack...

Anyways, all those mp3's are great and exactly what I'm talking about. If more pieces come into your mind, please let me know about them. Artists, specific songs, movie-tracks, whatever...

Also, thanks for the scale thing - I'll check it out.

Walk like an Egyptian, Fire in Cairo - YUCK!!!!  ;D

Of course, anybody else with ideas is very welcome to share a few titles...

charger — Aug 26, 2008ignore previous comment... I'm looking now...

Great! I was hoping you to chime in aswell, Charger. Thanks.

I thought of Peter Gabriel's The Feeling Begins. Here's a live cover of it I found
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aZT3WST6hE
It's a popular traditional melody I've heard others do.
Here's Gabriel's version put to some guy's slideshow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNioVO4hfTo

I'll post up Gabriel's version if you like(audio file).

That's a great track!!
It's not the one I'm looking for, but it has a great vibe - REALLY COOL!
Thanks a lot for the the links.

I didn't know Peter Gabriel wrote this kind of music.
I'd love you to post it if it's not too much trouble...
Thanks LN!

I was going to mention Peter Gabriel's "Passion".  That's a fantastic soundtrack, and it has a lot of that vibe, though it's less orchestral, and more earthy.

The Feeling Begins

This is the first track from Gabriel's movie soundtrack Passion: Music For The Last Temptation Of Christ

I think I have all of Gabriel's CD's...  Let me go through them and see what I can find.  I'll make another zip then.

Try this!

Here's another zip:  http://www.n2-o.com/download/songtemp2.zip

(Note: I did not include anything from Japan, or off of Japanese Whispers, or the songs Turning Japanese or My Woman From Tokyo. :D )

Oh yeah, let me know which ones you liked and, if you don't figure out by yourself, I'll tell you the artist and other info.  :)

LN & Deano, thanks a lot for those tracks.

Craig, these are all great!
I'm loving the "another dimension" prog instrumental!! Who's that?
Those Peter Gabriel tracks were great too. I'll have to check out all of the Passion soundtrack.
"Magellan" is nice aswell.

The "Adiemus" track I've heard before but can't quite place it. Was it a movie soundtrack?
"Desert Wind" sounds a bit like Enigma although I'm sure it isn't.
Very cool tracks! Thanks  :)

Desert Wind is actually from an artist named Banco de Gaia.  It was one of the tunes on a compilation called "Excursions in Ambience" that I had.

The Adiemus track I've heard several times before, but I can't remember where either!  Here's an interesting write-up on their songs as well as a reference to the compilation "Pure Moods" which is what I took it from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adiemus

Magellan is from Richard Burmer who happens to be a new age artist that was involved with a place called the "Whole Brain Institute."  His tracks became the backing for some of their subliminal CD's and I ended up with the CD the music came from (as well as all the subliminal CD's - I was doing lots of accelerated learning type activities back then).

Another Dimension comes from a band that's mostly an offshoot of Dream Theater called Liquid Tension Experiment (originally formed by Portnoy).  Here are the band members including one of my favorite bass players (who is also Peter Gabriel's bass player):

John Petrucci
Jordan Rudess
Mike Portnoy
Tony Levin

Since I pretty much have everything put out by Enya, Enigma and Keiko Matsui, I can say that nothing they have really fits into the Egyptian/Oriental themes (except that Keiko is a nice little Harro  ;) ).   I also resisted the urge to include works by the Beatles and George Harrison - lol!

I actually met Deva Premal (who sang the Indian music in the first zip and shown in the pic below) and found that she does all her music using a Korg N5 (the same keyboard I have).  I thought that was cool since it told me it could do more than I had originally thought!  She's very cute in person.  Her partner plays the guitar.



BTW - I was cracking up tonight while doing some reading when my iPod chose to play Fire in Cairo as part of its song shuffle! :D