Otaak Band is an ensemble dedicated to preserving folkloric music and traditions and propelling them into the future with lyres, drums and voices.

Otaak Band was founded in 2009 in Egypt by American musician, linguist and educator Miguel Merino. He is the pioneer in the use of the lyre as the versatile lead instrument in a contemporary group. Wearing the various musical hats of drummer, producer and composer, Miguel created Otaak Band to feature the lyre, and for 10+ years has taken this ancient instrument far outside the folkloric tradition and used it to create new and unique sounds over 3 albums and many concerts in Egypt, Sudan, Spain and the United States.

Otaak Band is dedicated to studying, playing, researching, recording and documenting lyre-playing traditions all over East Africa and the Red Sea, and across the Arabian Peninsula to the Persian Gulf. This will entail a lifetime of travel to record and document the masters from Egypt, the Sudan and Ethiopia all the way to Kenya and Tanzania and Yemen and Bahrain, who represent the incredible variety of lyre music.  We are excited to begin this journey and want you to come with us.