Karavan Sarai

  Karavan SaraI

Middle Eastern to Indian music meets lush electronics.

Discover a timeless flow of inspiration.

Karavan Sarai is a modern-ancient bridge fusing global melodies from the Silk Road with our own unique compositions . Our soundscapes travel from Arabia to India and the Balkans to Persia. Our World Fusion renders the electronics of now with ancient artistry. Listen and you’ll hear the echoes of old world footsteps in our melodies.

We forge ahead where tracks end.

Narayan Sijan

-Composer, Producer, Instrumentalist, Vocals, Electronics-

My family lines span from a strong Balkan heritage of South-Eastern Serbia near the Romanian border. An area that sheltered many Sufi & Christian mystics from Turkey and Greece seeking freedom from dogma, prosecution and the lure of expansive nature. An area that was the edge of many great empires such as the Persian Empire, Ottoman Empire, Mongols; thus influencing our culture significantly and most likely enriching our family heritage with these bloodlines. Also in my family tree the rich heritage of Southern Spains Moorish bloodlines. Also the eclectic history of Jewish Polish culture to the beauty of Irish folk lands. An exotic multi cultural mix of just the right amount of spices to make my soup tasty. :)

Growing up in a family of artists that supported creativity and expression, I felt a calling from boyhood that drew me toward the mystical captivating music, culture, and nature of the East. I started saving every penny I could so that once I was old enough, I could go and live there, not merely visit.

The images of gypsies and Sufis playing music, whirling from the deserts of India to the Nile River and the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, enticed me and urged me on. Years later, it felt like a dream to learn their daily ways of life and live with them, when home at times was a mere fire in the sand dunes under a starry night. I spent years studying, playing music, and dancing with them with such vigor that they welcomed me with open arms.  

During my first years traveling in the mid 1990s, I survived on only $100 a month, stretching my resources so I could stay longer and experience more. After 14 years I only went back to the US for less then a year in total. I had found a new home and it was in the east. 

As my love for the music grew like wildfire, I traveled the Silk Road regions learning directly from the masters I met. I lived from my small backpack, half full of cassettes and music gear, the other half stuffed personal items and trinkets to sell so I could fund my travels just a few days more. 

I was on the hunt for special instruments and melodies that moved my heart and soul. That was the guiding light in a vast, overwhelming world, and it created magical moments my whole life. In 1998, I started taking my musical studies very seriously. Guided by various master musicians, I would lock myself in a room, spending 10-12 hours a day studying what they taught me. 

My sound came from absorbing these lands and cultures and listening very carefully to the nuances of the music, its color and flavor. I kept my creative side alive in this period of intense discipline, by exploring my own unique sound and composing songs that linked my musical impulses to age-old melodies.  Inspiration moved through me, and the blending of ancient and modern sounds gave birth to a vision. 

Along the Silk Road, I was always drawn to old karavan sarais (travellers’ inns or hubs) from India to Egypt and Turkey. Indeed, this music project was born from and on the Silk Road at a karavan sarai at night.  I would envision travellers from different regions, arriving at night after a long day on the road. I could almost hear them in the darkness around the fires, sharing their music and creating new songs that were then brought to their distant lands. The grand web of music connected the various ethnic cultures. The healing spirit of sound brought people together in love. That is the power that moved me to create the music  project Karavan Sarai.

I am forever in awe and humbled by the meditative power of music and its celebrative, healing, and mystical properties. I want to bring listeners around that same fire, to hear the web for themselves.

I've had the honor of residing in multiple countries for an extended period, which has provided me with invaluable insights into its diverse cultures.

Over the years, I've immersed myself in various cultural practices, traditions, and ways of life, allowing me to develop a deep appreciation and understanding of the rich tapestry of experiences that make up a societal fabric.

From celebrating local festivals and partaking in traditional ceremonies to forming meaningful connections with people from different ethnic backgrounds, my time has been a journey of cultural exploration and personal growth.

Through these experiences, I've gained a profound respect for the nuances and complexities of each culture, fostering a sense of empathy, adaptability, and open-mindedness that continue to shape my perspective on the world.

~ Narayan Sijan

-Co-Producer-creator-electronics-

Carmen Rizzo

-Band Members-

-various configurations for live shows with band-

Amin Shahin

Amin reigns from a prestigious Ghajr family of musicians from the Nile Delta in Egypt. Ghajr are lovingly called “gypsy” by their fans and admirers.

Amin was raised immersed in a richly lived and embodied life as a performing artist from the beginning. He is a rare master of the ancient Arghoul. This intoxicating instrument may be traced back to pharaonic times as depicted on the walls of third dynasty temples (2,500 BC).

The player uses the technique of circular breathing to produce an uninterrupted sound. Today there are not more than a handfull of skilled Arghoul players in all of Egypt.

Amin is one of the few remaining Arghoul players since the death of Arghoul master, Moustafa Abd Al Aziz in 2001.  Amin’s musicianship calls upon a deep cultural power felt in Karavan Sarai’s sound.

Abd El Rahman Blala

Blalah an awarded singer by the Egyptian Radio; singing mawwal (pinnacle of Egyptian vocal music), religious & folklore styles.

Al-Mawwal is the pinnacle of all singing forms. It is a crown worn proudly by talented artists serenely coins his various experiences both expressively and poetically.

Through Mawwal the singer paints pictures of the events ha has witnessed, characteristics of people in his life, and his position regarding life and time. it is also the showcase for oral proverbs, wisdoms and lif's lessons. throught this form the creative artist can transcend tangible realities, in favor of deeply symbolic interferaces displaying the literary genius of oral tradition.

Getting closer to understanding the characteristics of Mawwal takes us a step closer to an ultimate understanding of the characteristics of traditional, folkloric Egyptian music.

He is specialized in the performance of religious songs and folk art of all kinds. His first production was a cassette called (An evening in the praise of the Prophet) then he made various artistic albums. He has performed many concerts in different countries from the Arab world to Europe.

Fady Tawab

Fady Tawab was primary drummer for Egyptian Project for 5 years & has played many of Egypts great venues like the Cairo Opera House. A professional drummer for 17 years, he has performed with numerous bands in Egypt from Big stages to rocking the underground scene of Cairo. Inspired by Sonny Emory, Dennis Chambers.

Marshall Bodiker

David ‘ROOK’ Goldflies

-Dancers-

Schirin Chams Diba

Mustafa Sina

Mustafa Sina dances the mystical Tanoura Sufi, Egyptian folklore styles & a sagat (finger cymbals) musician.

He teaches sufi dancing and sagat (crotalos) technique as well as folklore dancing (choreography). Sina Started in the field of dancing when was nine, and was dancing in the Egyptian wedding parties to the age of seventeen, participating in bands for youth centers and culture palaces in Cairo. He also participated with one of the Egyptian Opera House bands and moved to Tanoura and Sufi dancing at the age of nineteen. He has participated in festivals and national holidays of Egypt to many international festivals in Africa, Asia and Europe such as Qatar’s Ayad Festival, Carnival of Sea (Dubai), Asian Olympics, Three Cultures Festival (Spain). He joined the Nile Music and folk singing band in 2009, a band for the Ministry of Culture (Egypt).

Sonia Ochoa

Irina Akulenko

Irina Akulenko is a New York City-based fusion artist, with a burning passion for arts of all genres. Since 2001, Irina has explored Raqs Sharqi and Transcultural Fusion Style belly dance, Classical Indian (Odissi), contemporary, Flamenco and numerous other dance styles and now enjoys fusing these art forms, creating unique theatrical experiences for audiences of all ages. Today, Irina performs on various New York stages and tours nationally and internationally as a soloist fusion dancer; offers numerous online classes in a variety of dance styles and is a featured performer of several high caliber performance projects. www.DanceIrina.com

Stories behind the songs

THE JOURNEY ( Debut album ‘Woven Landscapes’ 2015 )
I first heard this melody as I woke from my sleep on the hard cement floor of a train station in Rajasthan, India. I at times wanted to live, breath and learn as the poor locals did, both out of necessity by keeping to my 100$ a month budget and to the profound beauty of the harshness and magic that occurred from this experience. A group of gypsies had circled together playing music and dancing. The bright fabrics glistened in the warm sunrise and smiles on their face were like the sun over the horizonn, while the immense amount of jewelry clanked to the rhythm. I instantly joined them and after hours of music and dance they invited me to travel with them to somewhere. I had no idea where but the train had arrived and they were pullinng me aboard, Hey this is the magic of living the way I did, so joined them not knowing my destination!

The train was packed, trying to push innto the cabins was impossible, as people were already hanginng out the doors and anny thinng to grab. The only way left to get on this train was the the train's roof! And even this was beginning to get aggressive as people were pushing to get their spot. A nudge and squirm to get more room on top of the train was down rate dangerous as I started to worry for my life. For over 8 hours as people hung out of every open door and window for their dear life traveling at ungodly speeds, and oh I started believing in their gods and goddesses to protect me, chanting all the names i knew and singing with them their holy songs in a rather bizarre realty. We all were trying to balance on top of the fast moving trains 3 foot flat area of the roof before if curved off to the sides for our dear life, wondering how many would not make it! Once we arrived I realized there was a grand event happening and large swaths of people head quickly into the barren desert to somewhere still unknown to me. We walked 2 hours to a remote lake in the Thar desert with a temple complex on its shores. A dazzling red-orange sunset with thousands of colorful tribals and their camels around smokey fires created a living mirage. The music sang out and the dancers spun in circles. I stayed for over 2 weeks living, learning music and sleeping in the hot sand with them around this majestic lake.

A big struggle was the one meal every other day. Another challenge was how unbearably spicy the food was; even with huge hunger pains I could only eat very little cause of the burning in my mouth (I think that was the point). It was beautiful to cook with them, burning camel dung fires with a large clay vessel of lentils (spicy dal) and once the fire was mere coals the balls of wheat (bhati) were put under the coals to cook for hours. So the excitement of eating would be prolonged by 8 hours until the food was properly cooked. Sparse wood exists in the desert, so this is a common way to cook.

Another romantic tale of this time was a play with a young Gypsy girl, as I was only 21 myself. We would dance together around the fires at night, frolic in our innocence, be close to each other stealing moments to embrace in the shadows of the night and stare at each other from a distance during the day. The word got out one day of our dancing together. As the musicians summoned us to dance, the crowd pushed both of us into an open to dance, a divine play like their tales of the god Krishna dancing under the moonlight with Radha. We both tried to run out separate ways to avoid the embarrassment, but they grabbed and pushed us both back into the circle to dance. We starred at each other, Her bright green gypsy eyes met my sky blue eyes; we smiled, shrugged and decided to dance as if no one was watching! We danced like only divine lovers could and at the end of the song we both ran through the about 300 people that had gathered to watch this foreign man dance with a local gypsy gal. We ran into each others arms outside the circle laughing and giggling beyond control. We ran away quickly into the desert so no one would follow us, as we already had a mob willing to follow. This play went on for weeks watching each other swim in the lake, spying from one eye as not to be caught starring at each other in the water, which in these regions of India woman would go bare breasted as they swam, so I had to learn to breath and be respectful or I might get stoned by her mom and dad, haha. Her mom did catch us together one day sitting way to close to each other! This brought on her and her moms pleas of: ‘are you going to marry her!?’ I was to young for such a thing. My hesitation cost me after days of my gypsy girl asking me to marry her and take her on this wild road I was on. She would run away from me when I wouldn't say yes, as I’d run after her trying to console her. The absolute amazement of the people that watched our drama for weeks must have been direct from a movie that I was living in a foreign land. . All to find out one sad morning their family was just gone from their camp that was a mere 50 feet away. My desperate seeking of them was to no avail and my pain was turned to learning music again.

Days went by slowly learning songs from the musical family I was with. The sweet drummer was blind. My memories were of him smiling all day long as he would patiently teach me songs. His mother and friend that played instruments and sang were part of the core family I lived with and took me under their protective wing. When they would start the music and singing we would be joined by tribal woman dancers performing lost dance forms ( many forms of dance and entertainment have been lost since the 1990’s, once the internet and easy access of movies destroyed the life of many traveling minstrels, story tellers and performers). How honored I feel to have experienced this medieval world before it changed so quickly in the 2000’s. I would write down the songs and record them on my old cassette as I learnt the rhythms, melodies and words of the songs.

I have rearranged a melody I heard at this gathering with an original composition and then added a second rearranged melody from Kashmir, India when I visited that paradise in the Himalayas years later. (yet another tale to be told :)

– Narayan Sijan