Sono Cairo New Release Catalogue

A repackageing of Umm Kulthum CD's

Based on the old Digital Press Hellas catalogue of the repertoire of Om Kolthoum as the company now want us to transcribe her name - previously by them spelled Om Kolthom.

Finally something has happened again to lure me back to my discographical pages of Umm Kulthum releases this is hopefully the first steps towards a revision and update that has been long overdue.

There has been a rather strongly felt vacuum since Sonodisc in France got new owners (now SONO/Next) and maybe in the process lost or didn't renegotiate their license with Sawt al Kahira in Egypt (Sono Cairo) for the repertoire of Om Kalsoum that had been one of the flagships in their catalogue

The disappearance of the Greek company Digital Press Hellas (DHP) catalogue of Om Kalsoums repertoire had already been felt for a while and Saudi Information Development Industries (SIDI) catalogue that was more or less the same content as the DPH did not really have a wide distribution in Europe.

The rather good news is that there has been a new release or at least repackageing of Umm Kulthum recordings of the Digital Press Hellas catalogue most likely this is a new licence from (Sono Cairo) under the same prefix SONO that they are using in Egypt the numbering is identical up to SONO109 and then differences start appear not only by numbering but also with different content (although I am not one hundred per cent sure of the complete catalogues yet this is what it appears like). The slightly annoying thing for any recorddealer or customer or as in my case a discographer is that these catalogues use identical or very similar prefixes and this new issue seems to follow almost exactly the same numbering and prefixes that DHP issue previously used.but even there there may be slight differences.

The material in these two catalogues are NOT identical. There are differences in what concerts that were chosen and there are differences in the editing of the material.

(Anyone that can shed more light on the situation of licenses and the differences of the Greek & Egyptian catalogues are most welcome to send me mail at umm@bolingo.org !)

I have not been in a position yet to listen and compare the quality but judging from the times given for each song it seems that apart from one addition in the high numbers (SONO157 [31:57] El Hob Kedah which is the same version as in the SIDI catalogue) that the rerelease material is identical to the contents of the previous Digital Press Hellas catalogue and in most cases identical to most of the the material that was reissued by SIDI. The SIDI catalogue has a larger repertoire that mainly is built upon the Sono Cairo cassette catalogue!

Anyhow this release may cause confusion for those familiar with the previous Sonodisc releases. This means that most earlier reference to her works reissued both on vinyl and CD by the same company would in many cases point the listner cum recordhunter in the wrong direction. The following is a quick list trying to show some of the differencies and create a little order in this new chaos. It will also to a certain degree work as a concordance between the DPH catalogue and Sonodisc numbers. I have, where I can, supplied the time of the earlier Sonodisc issue to indicate possible different versions between those catalogues or at least as an indication of differently edited material. If the times are almost identical it or close it may still be the same version but edited differently most likely in the beginning or end but sometimes in long applause.

I have adopted the form SONO000 for new numbers and kept the Sono 000 to indicate the old Sonodisc ones.

If you want to check what will possibly be issued, (and they may already have been issued, I just don't know), under the catalogue numbers below with the indication "No info?" Take look at my version of the old catalogue of Digital Press Hellas.

This quick draft will be revised as soon as I get more information on the other numbers in the catalogue and especially when I get the times, so if anyone has any of the other numbers not listed here I'd be happy to know the times of the songs.

15/3-2003 Lars Fredriksson



Media Number
CD / Total Time / Title/ LP/

SONO101 [48:26] El Atlaal -

SONO102 [58:58] Enta Omry -

SONO103 [00:00] No info!

SONO104 [45:28] Ya Mesaharni -

SONO105 [37:11] Fat el Mead -


SONO106 [58:15] Alf Leila -

SONO108 [00:00] No info!
SONO109 [00:00] No info!
SONO110 [00:00] No info!
SONO111 [00:00] No info!
SONO112 [00:00] No info!
SONO113 [00:00] No info!
SONO114 [00:00] No info!

SONO115 [59:41] Fakarouni =


SONO116 [37:00]+[35:35] Robaeyat El Khayam - Hadiz El Rouh

SONO117 [37:00]+[34:38] Amal Hayati - Arouh Le Meen ()


SONO118 [00:00] No info!

SONO119 [41:50] Hagartak

SONO120 [59:00] Enta el Hob

SONO121 [33:49]+[21:57] Hakam Alena El Hawa - Ghaneli Shewai

SONO122 [38:40] Lesabr Hedoud

SONO123 [00:00] No info!

SONO124 [00:00] No info!

SONO125 [45:41] Lesa Faker -


SONO126 [00:00] No info!
SONO127 [00:00] No info!
SONO128 [00:00] No info!
SONO129 [00:00] No info!

SONO130 [32:07] Hazihi Laylaty

SONO131 [00:00] No info!
SONO132 [00:00] No info!
SONO133 [00:00] No info!
SONO134 [00:00] No info!

SONO135 [40:05] Arouh Le Meen

SONO136 [00:00] No info!
SONO137 [00:00] No info!
SONO138 [00:00] No info!
SONO139 [00:00] No info!
SONO140 [00:00] No info!
SONO141 [00:00] No info!
SONO142 [00:00] No info!
SONO143 [00:00] No info!

SONO144 [38:30] Sahran Lewahde -

SONO145 [00:00] No info!
SONO146 [00:00] No info!
SONO147 [00:00] No info!

SONO148 [37:37] Shams El Aseel


SONO149 [00:00] No info!

SONO150 [38:25] Al Awela Fel Gharam

SONO151 [00:00] No info!
SONO152 [00:00] No info!
SONO153 [00:00] No info!
SONO154 [00:00] No info!
SONO155 [00:00] No info!
SONO156 [00:00] No info!

SONO157 [31:57] El Hob Kedah

Please send e-mail to: disco@bolingo.org if you have any supplementary information, or if you find errors in any of the above.