Primal Magic was #1 on the Billboard World Music Chart for 3 months and was named Billboard’s World Music Album of the Year in 1991.
"Combine world music’s seemingly limitless vocabularies with state-of-the- art virtuosity and you get Jorge Strunz and Ardeshir Farah, the unique L.A. based acoustic duo with a global vision that extends from South America and the Caribbean to Spain and the Middle East...the group (as a whole) supply an exotic underpinning for the pair’s precise harmonized lines, melodicism, and blinding single-note displays. In the process of creating a new medium for improvisation, Strunz and Farah have distinguished themselves as two of the planet’s most gifted acoustic guitarists." (Jim Ferguson, Guitar Player 12/90)
"The acoustic guitar duo of Jorge Strunz and Ardeshir Farah has been bridging cultures and stunning audiences in their adopted home of Los Angeles and around the world for ten years now. Primal Magic is a colorful pastiche of pristine clarity, a travelogue that takes the listener to steamy rain forests and wide-open, arid climes with its taut, sinewy rhythms and exotic scales. ...Spanish-flavored melodies, fiery improvisations over pulse-quickening tempos, rigorous strumming that recalls the dance of flamenco. Strunz and Farah offer a fusion of influences that perhaps no other ensemble can boast." — Michael Gam, Jazziz Magazine 1/91
"Listening to Strunz and Farah perform on their...debut, there is no wonder why they have titled the album Primal Magic. What they have created is truly magical. From the first note played, it is apparent that this is not some fly-by-night collaboration — Ardeshir Farah and Jorge Strunz have been playing together as a duo for over a decade and this album of Worldbeat music establishes them as a leading force in this area." (by Beth Lewis, The Mac Report 9/14/90)
Charlie Bisharat (violin)
Ardeshir Farah (guitar)
Guillermo Guzman (bass)
Joe Heredia (drums)
Luis Perez Ixoneztli (precolumbian winds, percussion, vocals)
Jorge Strunz (guitar)
Paul Tchounga (drums)
Tracklist:
1. Bola ( Struntz) 5:12
2. Twilight At The Zuq (Farah) 4:48
3. Ida Y Vuelta ( Struntz) 4:08
4. Rainmaker (Strunz/Farah/Perez) 6:14
5. Huixamatali (Luna Llena) (Perez) 2:26
6. Canto Al Sol (Strunz/Perez) 5:14
7. Anochecer (Nightfall) ( Struntz) 3:56
8. Tierra Verde ( Struntz) 4:35
9. Zumba ( Struntz) 3:43
10. Amazonas ( Struntz) 6:39
ARMU 2413 (zippyshare)