Kimmo Metsäranta. Aavikko/Wikimedia Commons
Qalam strives to explore the interpenetration of different cultures. To this end, we have decided to launch a series of playlists in which music mediates between different geographical and ideological spaces. Our first playlist is called ‘West to East: One Hundred Best Songs’. It will be updated several times a week, and its curation will focus on how Western pop culture has reflected the realities of the East, whether they are musical, geographical, religious, or political. (The terms ‘West’ and ‘East’ should be taken as broadly and arbitrarily as possible.)
Aavikko, the Finnish electronic trio from the second half of the 1990s, was the product of a time when vintage synthesizers, diverse melodic simplicity, and bizarre music styles were in vogue. Their dance composition ‘Oriental Baby’ is a quintessential product of that era—a wild fusion of Near Eastern harmony with Finnish electronic quirks. Nobody makes this kind of music anymore, which is, quite possibly, all for the better.