Some of the selections on Sarah Aroeste’s epic Monastir album are songs in Ladino, the Judeo-Spanish language that the Jewish community spoke about after their expulsion from Spain scattered them across the Eastern Mediterranean. Ladino was the mother tongue of the Monastir Jewish population, and the song selections on this album contain a unique Monastirli dialect.
Where Aroeste has used text or translations from older sources, she has retained the exact spelling and accents from those sources. Aroeste’s features Israeli flamenco star Yehuda (Shuki) Shveiky and tells the epic tale of Espinelo, whose mother threw him into the ocean to avoid the scandal of having had twins (superstition held that a mother who birthed twins was an adulteress, having slept with two men). Fishermen rescued him and presented him to the child-less King who took him in and raised him to the highest ranks. In his new royal station, Espinelo was fawned over by the ladies of Turkey, an allegory for the Jews who were kicked out of Spain and found their salvation in the Turkish Empire. Much like Aroeste’s own family.
With a haunting and powerful disposition, Sarah Aroste and company bring a fiery and culturally significant piece of art to our ears on the new single, “Espinelo“. A flamenco pulse weaves through the track as Yehuda Shveiky absolute shines, painting an epic world of tint and color. “Espinelo” is expressive and beautiful, a courageous and important utterance.
