If you’ve encountered 78 rpm records from across North Africa including Egypt, you’ve probably run across the phenomena of the spoken introduction. A voice – not the voice of the performer, generally – states the name of the record company and the artist, and then the music begins. The announcement always begins with the Arabic word for Gramophone record, or disc, which I have seen transliterated in CDs as “istwanat” (or “astwanat,” and also “estwanat” depending on the accent), which is then followed by the name of the record company. These brief, sonically beautiful little announcements appear on many – but not all – 78s from the region, and even on mid-century Arab-American 78 recordings on labels such as Alamphon.
Why? Most likely because of the strong oral tradition in North African and Arab culture. I’ve edited a very brief collage of them for download, where you’ll hear announcements for Pathé, Polyphon, Pacific, and others. Loop this, and listen to it repeatedly before sleeping, like The Conet Project. Like voices from outer space, they have traveled long distances especially for your ears.
Excavated Shellac 
These Arabian spoken introductions recall those early Cuban records where they say the song title, the artist, and then the record company. “Danzon La Patti Negra! Por La Orquesta de Pablo Valenzuela! Cilindro Edison!”
thanks a ton! i’ve got a number of records that start ‘istwanat’ columbia and i friggin love it, but i had no idea what they were saying… now i love it more…! how about an hour of different voices… oh you’ve got my mind reeling here…!!!
shukran
Very nice little comp of these. Great label scan too! Beautiful.
Terrific and thanks! I already knew what “istwanat” meant because whenever I’d say something more than once, my mother would tell me I was a “stwaneh meksura”…a broken record. (Of course, now nobody even knows what a “record” is.)
Thank you all for your great comments. Perhaps someday I’ll do a longer version…
Brings to mind those old cylinder records “Come Take A Trip in My Airship sung by Billy Murray, Edison Records”