Joseph Dadoune’s sound work,Universes, sets out to form an alternative musical space attesting to his rejection of the crude classification of various musical styles as ”Oriental music.” In the local-Israeli context, the de-Arabization process applies to all the social and artistic apparati, and is also manifested in the exclusion of ”Mizrahi” music from the dominant cultural narrative in Israel as part of the overall exclusion of the Arabic language (”the enemy’s language”) in favor of the ”Westernizing” Hebrew. Dadoune challenges this tendency, incorporating in his work excerpts of classical music and polyphonic Mediterranean singing. He frequently employs vinyl records, moving the record slowly to distort the sound and generate an archaic, blurred, deep sound. The ”world music” genre indicates the globalization of the music industry in recent decades and the way in which the incorporation of ”Eastern” manifestations often serves as a mere cover for a process of appropriation. Dadoune’s work may be construed as representing a political stand, as it reflects a quasi-Western setting, albeit Universes is not necessarily such. Despite its elusive title, the work does not really fall into the category of ”world music.”
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