Raul Midon Digs Deeper and Finds 'A World Within a World'

Raul Midon is known for creating his own unique musical world where soul, pop and latin music converge, and his “percussive guitar syncopations and supple, high-flying tenor" (NY Times) run free. On September 25, he'll reveal A World Within A World with his second album for Manhattan/EMI.

A World Within A World features ten new songs, all written or co-written by Midon. Midon announces his new intentions within the first few bars of the album opener “Pick Somebody Up," adding clipped strings, electric piano, and hip-hop breaks to his signature style. The result is his catchiest song to date. Elsewhere Midon adds electric guitar, drums, woodwinds and myriad Latin percussion instruments to the mix. He takes the opposite approach on the long-time audience favorite “Ain't Happened Yet," a winking look at the starving artist's life, which he strips down to an a capella rant.

The album's title comes from a line in the song “Tembererana," a lullingly evocative ballad, and one of the album's centerpieces. The word is one of Midon's own construction, referring to an imaginary world he conjured as a child. On the next tune “Song for Sandra," Midon takes what appears to be a bitter break-up song and turns it into something else entirely with a single word.

A World Within A World was recorded in New York City, and produced by Joe Mardin, who also co-produced Midon's acclaimed 2005 debut with his father, Arif Mardin. would mark the final production credit for the senior Mardin, who passed away in 2006 after a career that spanned five decades.