Hi Adam,
I think a problem lies in the very description of what you are looking for, if what you are looking for is authentic or traditional middle eastern music that paints a picture, tells a story or is conceptual. The evocative terms thunder and night are not used in a visual or conceptual way in middle eastern music, but to evoke emotion.

Middle Eastern music, traditionally, is emotional in nature. It is employed for celebration, to express ecstasy, convey loss or grief, profess longing and espouse love. There is a cathartic quality to much of it. The evocation of visual imagery is generally limited to comparisons of one's love to the moon or a flower, of perhaps one's grief to the darkness of night, or the longing for one's home land that is triggered by the smell of a sea breeze.

Additionally, the tonal qualities of many of the maqamat (Arabic system of scales only loosely translates it) may not have the same interpretation for an Arab as for a westerner. Authentic middle eastern music can be very enigmatic to the western listener.

There may be modern composers for whom this has changed, but hat would be under the influence of western thought and theory and not traditional middle eastern music per se. I afraid that I really am not very familiar with many middle eastern composers who take this approach as my heart was captured by the more traditional music. You wish to check out Omar Faruk Tekbilek, his work may hold something of what you are looking for, though maybe not intentionally on his part.

Persian music may also be a little closer to what you are looking for, too. But I really don't find much of it particularly "dark".

Best of luck in your quest.

ma'salaam

hi! well, things i like and which sound "dark " to me are:

traditional/ older styles:
1. Arabic Saidi and Gulf music
2. some / a lot of Turkish Roman music
3. old Moroccan / i guess a lot of N African
4. a lot of music which uses the instruments: zurna / mizmar and davul / tablah beladi, kemance(spike fiddle), mid east bagpipes(tulum/gaida), ney/nai(flute), or ud/oud(lute)
5. classical/popular arabic and turkish music and improvisations(taksim) which use the makam(scale) such as: Saba(h), Uşak, Hicaz, Kurdi, Nihavent, and more.... so look for pieces in these makam. many albums will list the 'scale' of the piece. also a lot of classical music such as the saz samaisi and peşrev forms are named according to what makam they are using.
6. Turkish saz / Bağlama music, some areas have really dark and groovin' stuff
7. sufi music in general

Modern:
1. Some of Karim Nagi / Turbo Tabla
2. not really my thing but turkish artist Mercan Dede might be right for you based on the Niyaz
3. a few things from Omar Faruk Tekbilek are darker

well that's off the top of my head that is easy to get in n dakota(!).... except for the turkish roman(maybe look for Selim Sesler)

enjoy,
david

I always tried to get hands on the song Habibaha, sung by Abdel Halim Hafez. I saw a recording where he sung it. There is a poem he is singing, and it has a kind of dark mood to it. It is "authentic" ME music but modern as far as its time was concerned. There are some sound effects that underline the sort of feeling of something bad going to happen soon. It is amazingly atmospheric.

Hello Adam, I do have a couple of artists that might interest you on my label, visit Eventide Music Productiuons at www.empcds.com and sample these titles:

CD's by Solace:
Nagari
The Gathering Season
Ahsas

Dark Light in the Wake of Silence by Knossos

CDS by Maduro:
Shimmer Sustain
Juno Wakes

Strange Flesh by Various artists.

Hope this helps! Contact me if you have questions, emprod100@aol.com

Best wishes and happy hunting!

Jeremiah

Hey Adam,

All the suggestions I read from the other replies sound great (especially hearing me recommended). But there are a few that I think hold that darker sound you might want.
I have an ex-girlfriend from Istanbul that got me this CD called 'HIC' by Erkan Oğur, it's very haunting. Also, there is a modern CD called Arabesque that has some cool tracks. Omar Faruk Tekbilek is good, also a group called VAS.

David