Page&Plant:From the horse'smouth

Yup,it's official.Page & Plant's new album has genuine and intentional
microtonal content.

In an interview I just saw on TV,in which they discussed briefly,their
middle eastern/oriental explorations,Jimmy Page said of their new
album,Walking into Clarksdale,(I quote from memory)
"The Oriental stuff was done by a guy called Tim from Transglobal
Underground (a British dance music outfit) who plays an Oriental keyboard
that plays microtones."

Could this be one of those General Music "Arabian" keyboards ?

I also find that Robert Plant's vocal intonation is constantly veering
off into non-12TET land
and it seems to be an integral part of his approach.He did mention that
he and Jimmy were fans of
Eygptian singer Umm Kalthum (1904-75) of whom the Rough Guide to World
Music says "indisputably the Arab world's greatest singer"

BTW that Rough Guide is one heck of a quick fix for gaining a wide
general knowledge of regional/ethnic music.

Later,
Drew