Syrian Cassette Archives
The Syrian Cassette Archives (أرشيف الشرائط السورية) is an audio library of digitized cassette tapes recorded during the 1970s until the early 2000s all around Syria. Mark Gergis, the man who collected the tapes, is an Iraqi-American musician and producer who began visiting Syria in 1997. He noticed people selling cassettes everywhere he went and, being a musical guy, he was intrigued. Gergis began buying various tapes from sellers on the street and from record shops each time he visited Syria, eventually amassing hundreds of cassettes.
The era of the cassette has now passed and many of those recordings never migrated to a digital format. The ongoing war has displaced millions of people in Syria, destroyed archives of all kinds, and interrupted all aspects of life and society, including the music scene. Gergis didn’t start his collection with plans to create a public archive but, in 2018, he decided to preserve and share the slice he has of this unique time in music history. Thus, the Syrian Cassette Archives were created.
The Syrian Cassette Archives is an ongoing project “to preserve, share and research sounds and stories from Syria’s cassette era.” The project has grown to include a co-founder, Yamen Mekdad, two writer/researchers, and an archival assistant. Many tapes (and their album art) have been digitized and are available to listen to in-full on the Syrian Cassette Archives website and many more will be added in the future. The cassettes include music from a variety of communities within Syria, including Arabs, Assyrians, Kurds, Armenians, and Iraqis who were displaced to Syria due to wars and other disruptions in the later part of the 20th century. The music is primarily in Arabic - though not exclusively - and site text and navigation is available in both English and Arabic.
Of the tracks I’ve listened to so far, the song Masa’ Al Hob (مساء الحب) on the A side of Mona Al Abdullah’s 2001 cassette has been my favorite. It’s a cozy soundtrack to this rainy, spring day.
